As Pesach starts this Friday night, many of us will be asking four questions, but I actually have ten questions about contemporary politics.
- Why isn’t the Religious Left as powerful as the Religious Right, given that 92% of Americans believe in G-d? We know they are not all Republicans.
- Why are there so many candidates on the far Right, but only a handful on the far Left? This is especially puzzling given how much support we know there is for the issues raised by the Occupy movement.
- Why do people who are not part of the 1% continue to vote Republican against their own economic interests?
- Why does anyone still believe that Obama was not born in the U.S., that he is hostile to Christianity, or that he is secretly Muslim (not that the latter should matter)?
- Why do a growing number of people think that all the pollution human beings are spewing into the atmosphere is not contributing to climate change, even though 99% of all scientists say it is? That just defies reason.
- Why do people think that it is OK to put our water supply at risk to create a few jobs? It is crazy to support the XL Pipeline after the BP Gulf spill.
- Why are Republican governors defending “pink slime”? Ammonia in our hamburger cannot be a positive thing.
- Why are people who oppose abortion, coming out against contraception?
- Why are some conservatives siding with George Zimmerman against Trayvon Martin?
- Why are Christian Right groups totally opposed to the Affordable Care Act, especially when the individual mandate was a Heritage Foundation policy originally? This is especially puzzling since Christianity requires people to care for the downtrodden.
What has happened to commonsense?
How do you define ‘religious left’ and ‘religious right? Does believing in god make someone religious? 90% may believe in god, but how many identify with a religion? I think it’s around 50%. (give or take)
If I believe in a literal reading of the bible am I the religious right?
Just trying to figure out how these terms have come to define church/ synagogue/temple goers.
Hey Joanne,
Thanks for the thoughtful questions. This is how I see it. Basic religious values include protecting Creation, caring for the needy, treating people with dignity, working to repair the world, non-violence, a loving and forgiving attitude, and subordinating the ego. All of these values lead to progressive politics.
When I use the term Religious Right, I mean the organized political movement of the Christian Right and its supporters.
As far as the number of people who say they believe in G-d … first of all, if that were really true, the world would not be the way it is. And you are right that believing in G-d might not correlate with church/synagogue membership or even a claim to the label “religious.” Some say they are spiritual, not religious, I think to disassociate from organized religion.
I agree: these are tough questions and everyone should wonder. Perhaps you should do a followup piece in which you propose solutions to the questions you ask. That would make you most unusual because too many opinion writers never propose solutions.
Most of what you ask is a matter of how you define things. And whether you are willing to rely upon government folks who cannot be dismissed to do those things the synagogues and churches used to do to try to help people get a step up. Healthy skepticism is a good thing.
I agree that the questions about the President should be asked. I would follow it up by asking why a succession of Presidents promised to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and then didn’t do it. Why? I would ask how a constitutional law professor could have forgotten Marbury versus Madison and Marshall’s judicial review decision. And how since 1803 the Supreme Court would from time to time strike down Acts of Congress because they violated the Constitution.
You judge without asking the right questions. Perhaps the grand jury in Florida will dig deeply enough into the Zimmerman/Martin tragedy. NBC, please remember, doctored the audio tapes between Zimmerman and the law enforcement/911 operator so that we don’t have any idea what led to what.
So you are right: you have lots of questions.
But what has religion got to do with these values? They’re my values and I’m not religious. I consider them human values. So I guess I still don’t get the term “religious value”.
Basic religious values include protecting Creation, caring for the needy, treating people with dignity, working to repair the world, non-violence, a loving and forgiving attitude, and subordinating the ego. All of these values lead to progressive politics.
I am not arguing that you have to be religious to have those values. I am saying that for people who are religious already, those are some of the basic values. Given that, there should be a lot of people who see progressive politics coming out of their religious values, which they and I do. So why aren’t we a force to be reckoned with like the Christian Right?
We have a situation right now where a lot of people think that if you are religious then you must be politically conservative. That is not the case. Plenty of religious people are progressive, but you don’t see them coalescing into a movement. Tikkun is a religious left movement (interfaith and open to non-believers as well), but I just don’t see it having as much impact as I wish it did.
I understand that you’re not saying you have to be religious to have these values. I’m just saying having them doesn’t define you as religious. It seems to me it defines you as politically left or right. If I have the same values as you yet I have no connection to a religion, so what makes you religious left and me just plain left. It can’t be those values. They don’t differentiate us.
Interesting point. Of course the question could be where is the left?
Hmm. I guess the difference is how you ground the claims you are making. If you are working off a shared tradition, you can speak to others in that tradition, who will have to acknowledge certain arguments. So if a Christian or a Jew is supporting policies that immiserate the poor, you could ask how they reconcile that with either the teachings of Jesus or the Torah. If they take Scripture seriously, they can’t just dismiss the question. So it’s a way to form common ground — and potentially with 92% of the population who concede the existence of G-d.
I also like to lay claim to the American founding for similar reasons.
Well, they could just dismiss it, but they would be wrong to do so!!!
Well, that doesn’t make much sense to me, but I always did have trouble with doing something because a god told me to do it or do it because we are all children of this god or because Jesus told us we are all his brothers and sister or because it’s written in a book. Seems to diminish the intrinsic worth that I and all of us have as human beings.
The common ground is that we are humans sharing this planet. I think defining us as Jews, Christians, Muslims or believers and non believers makes it harder to find that common ground. Where is this common ground even within religions when there are orthodox,conservative and liberal jews, hundreds of christian sects,sunni and shiite muslims….not to mention buddhisst, hindi and mormons.
Religious differences definitely can create divisions instead of common ground. However, we are not going to do away with religion because people are religious for a number of reasons such as because they like to have an active spiritual life or a larger sense of purpose or a set of values they believe come from G-d. The question is where are progressive religious folks in many of our political debates? Or perhaps it’s just that there is not a lot of media coverage because nothing sells like controversy and hate.
At the risk of sounding as simplistic as the right, if there were no corporate media and no private political donations (public financing of elections), I believe all ten of the problems you question would be significantly diminished. Americans aren’t born stupid, but propaganda is highly effective on people taught to fear and hate. The religious left is ignored for the same reason ALL of the left is ignored. It contradicts the message that the 1% want us to hear.
I don’t think you sound simplistic at all, Jim. Corporate media is another institution — as is religion. But it has the power to manipulate and promulgate any message it chooses thru fundamental churches. The left tries to do the same thing (Sojourners, for example) but does’t have the $$$ that the other side has.
I think it would be much more effective and accurate if we stop using the terms “religious right and left.” Guess I should have said that at the start, huh? To me, these aren’t religious values and it confuses and diminished the issues if we tag them as religious.
It may be a cliche but “The devil can quote the bible for his own purposes.” I think people develop (or inherit) a set of values and then find a religion that fits. Not the other way round.
I agree Jim. And I agree with your point, Joanne, that a lot of people choose a religion that stands for what they believe in, although it is often the other way around as well. Indeed, there is a reason I converted to Judaism. 🙂