Religion and Progressive Politics in 2008

Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life
Religion and Progressive Politics in 2008
May 20, 2008

The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life invited Laura Olson, author of the forthcoming book with the working title, Generals Without an Army: The Protestant Left in American Politics; Jennifer Butler, author of Born Again: The Christian Right Globalized; and Chris Korzen, co-author of the forthcoming book, A Nation for All: How the Catholic Vision of the Common Good Can Save America from the Politics of Division, to discuss a growing movement of liberal religious activists, focused on justice and the common good, and how it might influence this year's election.

Moderator:

John Green, Senior Fellow in Religion and American Politics, Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life

In the following excerpt ellipses have been omitted to improve readability.

JOHN GREEN: I'd like to begin with an issue of nomenclature. The phenomenon that we're talking about has different terms that have been used. Some people talk about the "religious left," some people have talked about "spiritual progressives," and there are other terms as well. Chris, what do you think the best terminology is to describe this group of activists?

Chris Korzen, Jennifer Butler, Laura Olson and John Green

CHRIS KORZEN: You know, we tend to have a number of labels that are put on us as an organization by the media. Sometimes it is the religious left, or we're called a progressive organization; we've been called conservative and orthodox and traditional. I think it speaks to a sense of where people are in America right now: that they're desperately tired of the kind of politics of division that we've seen in our country. They're seeking a more robust debate about religion and politics -- and really to tackle the fundamental issues of our time like war, poverty and the climate crisis.

To your question of nomenclature, it's not really easy to put that kind of label on our movement; but if folks want to call it the progressive religious movement, that's fine. Really, we're united by a sense of a need for change in our country right now.

GREEN: Laura, what do you think about terminology?

LAURA OLSON: Religious left, it seems to me, is kind of a reactionary term; it poses this movement in opposition to the religious right. And that, in a sense, is a defensive way of projecting one's image into the political world. I think that talking about a progressive Christian movement, as Chris suggested, might be a little bit more productive way of thinking about it.

I would also argue that this is, broadly speaking, a social movement. It suggests that there are lots of people out there who are interested in this movement, many of whom have been silent for a good long time, actually. There are many organizations out there that may or may not be aware of one another. And so in a sense it's a loosely organized sort of constellation of people and organizations, and I think that would allow us to call it a movement, I think, pretty productively.

GREEN: Jennifer, what's your perspective?

JENNIFER BUTLER: Well, one of the terms that has resonated a lot, I think, across these kinds of groups that we're talking about is common good: that people want to work together for the most vulnerable in society. They want to work together to make sure that everybody's needs in society are met, and that is often counter to the sort of rampant greed and individualism that we see in society today.

The other thing that we see, too, is that people resist any sort of political label being imposed on them. They want the label, or their name, to come from their particular faith community.

GREEN: Are we talking about primarily politics here, or are we talking about theology? Or are we talking about both? Jennifer?

BUTLER: I think we're talking about both. People want to be [relevant] to what's happening in the political realm; but they want to come from a place that's spiritual, that's biblical, and that holds to the church teachings or the teachings of their faith community. They want to bridge the divisions that we've seen in American culture in recent years. We're seeing a constant broadening of coalitions to include, for example, moderate white evangelicals. And people are looking for ways to unite around issues that draw them together so that they can be more unified for justice and the common good.

OLSON: I might add that Bob Edgar, in his book a few years ago, referred to a religious middle -- moving away a bit from that term "left" because that can be off-putting, as I suggested before. People are not putting political labels on and coming at it from both a spiritual and from a political perspective. And I think too that there's this sense, which many people of faith have had for a while now, that in order to be religious you have to also be conservative -- this whole God-gap thesis that's been pervading the media. And I think there's a sense that that doesn't capture the whole of American religion and how it might interface with politics.

KORZEN: If I could add to that. I think in addition to this being political, it's profoundly a cultural movement. In recent years, perhaps in the past few decades, that's a space that I think the progressive secular movement has been unwilling to step into. And because of that, we've seen the rise of the religious right (because it did start off primarily as a cultural movement). This isn't just about policy; it's not just about how we spend our taxes and the kind of economy that we're going to have. It's really about how people live their lives, too. And we're hearing from the folks that we speak with a real need to get away from this culture of greed and materialism -- to start to address that as a society. It's something that we need to challenge our leaders to do more as well. So it is a cultural movement.

GREEN: If my memory serves me correctly, this isn't entirely new. It seems to me that there have been counterparts to this type of politics in the past. Laura, could you help us understand a little bit of the history of liberal or progressive politics by religious people?

OLSON: Absolutely. Before the 1980s, I think a lot of times people assumed that if religious voices were speaking on politics, that it was almost always going to be coming from a left direction rather than a right direction, and that was true. And if we go back 100 years ago, we find a couple of very important currents that are going on historically, for the U.S. and perhaps even for the rest of the world, when we think about how religion and politics intersect.

First, in Protestantism, of course, there was this movement called the social gospel; it was this revolutionary way of thinking about how people of faith ought to be in touch with this world. Not only should people of faith be involved in this world, but they also ought, in many very important ways, to go out into this world and help the poor, the disadvantaged and the forgotten. They should do this by modeling Christ as an example of someone who himself didn't forget about the poor and the disadvantaged and the forgotten. One of the leaders, theologically, of that was a fellow by the name of Walter Rauschenbusch, who ended up having a lot of influence on a lot of mainline Protestants, in particular.

Meanwhile, right around the same time, the whole kind of impetus within Catholic social teaching is coming from the Vatican, from Pope Leo in Rerum Novarum. He ends up saying it's very important for us as Catholics to be concerned about life -- to be concerned about affirming life in all of its various forms.

And so these two kinds of currents come together right around 100 years ago to really give a lot of energy to the idea that religion in the United States should, perhaps, be connected to politics in ways that are designed to help the poor and the disadvantaged.

And what we end up seeing historically is that Protestants and Catholics, and Jews as well, end up coming together in the middle to the late part of the 20th century in all sorts of social movements. These were designed, again, to help the poor and the disadvantaged and the forgotten -- from the civil rights movement to the nuclear freeze movement, from the worker justice movement to the sanctuary movement that sheltered people who had fled Latin America in the 1980s. There were all kinds of movements that were very interfaith and perhaps ecumenical in nature. But they were all informed by this idea that people of faith are compelled to go out into the world in order to be acting in consistency with their faith; they should be helping the poor, the disadvantaged and the forgotten.

GREEN: That brings us right up to the present. And Jennifer, could you tell us a little bit about some of the recent developments here in the 21st century and particularly about Faith in Public Life?

BUTLER: Sure. There are a lot of new developments. For one thing, a couple of new organizations were founded in the wake of 2004; it was a real wakeup call for this particular group of religious people. There's this idea that the values voter had swung the election in the direction of George W. Bush, and people on the progressive side of things felt like this does not describe American values. It doesn't describe our values, and we can't let this happen again. So there's been some new infrastructure put in place for this movement to be better organized and to make itself heard better in the media1.

GREEN: Laura, what kinds of things do these organizations do? You've described a vast array of different groups that are organized in different ways with different issue focus, but what do they actually do on the ground?

OLSON: The thing that most of these groups are interested in doing in one way or another is advocacy: whether it's lobbying members of Congress, whether it's lobbying state legislatures or whether it's trying to get grassroots lobbying going among members. They do it via e-mail campaigns and via letter-writing campaigns. Clearly the goal of most of these organizations, although not necessarily all of them, is to shape public policy and to influence policymakers in some meaningful way. And of course the justification for that would be, again, to help the poor, the disadvantaged, and the forgotten -- around justice issues, around peace issues, around racism and around matters such as that.

But these groups do other things as well. While advocacy would be the most common thing that groups such as this would do, there's also quite a few groups that are interested in education: providing information to the media, to members of Congress, to other elite, as well as to churches, to congregations and to just ordinary people out there. Some groups work on creating Sunday school study materials. They work on other ways of suggesting to congregations: If you want to talk about X issue, here might be a packet of information that you could use to talk about it -- whatever that issue might be, some justice issue probably.

And then there's also what I suggested, and what both Chris and Jennifer have been talking about as well earlier. It is just this effort to bring folks together to get away from this idea that I think many progressive people of faith seem to have had, over the past two and half decades or so, of feeling as though I'm a lone wolf crying in the wilderness -- to overcome that. The effort is to network people together to give them the sense that yes, in fact, there are other people out there who share your views and who share your approach to faith and politics.

GREEN: Chris and Jennifer, are your organizations primarily involved in advocacy, or are you involved in campaign politics? Are you involved in litigation? What's the focus of your activities? Jennifer?

BUTLER: We're a 501(c)(3), so we stay on the right side of that. But we've done a number of things. One is just providing media strategies to faith groups to make sure that their campaign is heard about. The other is that we've done a lot of polling recently. We noticed that the exit pollsters were not asking Democrats the same questions about their faith as they were asking the Republican primary voters. And so we did some polls to find out in particular what white evangelicals were doing in terms of the primaries. And we found that there was a significant number of evangelicals that were voting in the Democratic primaries that were going uncounted. And that number seems to be increasing, and this constituency is shifting -- and it's not being paid attention to. So we do a lot of media advocacy: trying to make sure that people understand some of these new trends, and give them an ear.

KORZEN: Catholics United is a 501(c)(4), which means that we can do unlimited lobbying, and we take advantage of that part of our tax status -- like explain the SCHIP ads that we did back in the fall. We plan more of that for this year. And we're also going to be doing some voting guides; I think this is a big step forward for members of the progressive and moderate religious community. We're used to seeing those from the religious right, and we intend to help educate voters specifically about the issues -- how those issues relate to the campaigns in the fall.

GREEN: Is campaign activity very common across these groups, or is it mostly in the area of education and lobbying?

BUTLER: I would say that until recently, many of these groups were very cautious about getting too overtly involved in the campaign season. And some of what we've tried to help them do and what they've actually been eager to do since 2004, is to weigh in -- and in a way that's appropriate if they're a 501 (c)(3). But they want to do that in a bi-partisan way and to also be fiercely non-partisan. Many of the folks we talk to are concerned that religion has been adulterated by politics and that their congregations and the health of their community, the religious community, is threatened by that -- but also that there's been too much compromise of separation of church and state. And so they want to navigate a third way in between that of enriching the public discourse and being more engaged in the political timetables and the media timetables. And by doing so, they are setting a whole new tone for the conversation.

GREEN: Laura, what do you see going on? Do you see a move into campaign politics in this election year?

OLSON: You know, the first thing that comes to mind in this context is Jim Wallis' very visible campaign from a few years ago of God is not a Republican or a Democrat. And I think that reflects what you're saying. The word Republican was in big letters; the word Democrat was in smaller letters. But the point remains that God is not a Republican or a Democrat. I think what Jennifer is saying is 100 percent spot on, that up until very recently, and by very recently I mean probably right now, there really hasn't been a whole lot of movement into the electoral forum. I think part of that is because being involved in electioneering can be a very difficult thing. Of course it can compromise tax-exempt status; and if you haven't got a foothold in policy-based advocacy, I don't know that you're going to have a whole lot of influence when it comes to electioneering either.

And I think, too, there's probably at least some sense among moderate to progressive groups, faith groups, that we don't want to just be the opposite of the religious right. And so maybe groups like Chris' group and like Jennifer's group might want to try and find a different way of doing religion in politics rather than just saying: Here's what the religious right does; let's do what they do only do it from the left kind of perspective.

GREEN: I noticed, Chris, that you and Jennifer are both agreeing with the point that Laura just made. But let me pose to you a question that's often posed to me by journalists, which is: Well, advocacy is fine, but at the end of the day it's elections that matter. And if this phenomenon [the religious left progressive activist] can't mobilize voters, then it's not going to have that much impact. How would you respond to that, Chris?

KORZEN: Elections do matter, but they're not the be-all and end-all. And I think that when we came together four years ago to decide how we could have a better debate on religion in politics in this country, it really was about finding ways to change the narrative and change the way that we think about religion and politics.

GREEN: You know, it is interesting that you mention the word bipartisan -- which is of course a good word in this context. But most people, when they look at the kinds of groups that we are talking about and the kinds of issues that they are pursuing, would immediately think of the Democratic Party because historically there has been that kind of link. But it does occur to me, if this is really going to be bipartisan -- is there any purchase in the Republican Party for these types of issues?

OLSON: You know, I think that both parties always -- if they are being strategic, if they are being smart - need to see potential in all Americans, in all various constituencies. I think, however, up until very recently and perhaps up until the current day, the Republican Party has been perceived correctly or incorrectly as the party that cares more about people of faith. And so the Democrats, in a sense, have a longer way to go than the Republicans do in attracting people of faith.

Whether or not, however, Republicans can take the standard pro-family agenda that has been emphasized by Republican candidates for the past 25 years or so and extend that to include other issues like climate change and poverty and things of that nature, remains to be seen. It seems to me certainly that if the Republicans could speak to some of those issues in a meaningful and a compelling way, then that would be something that would be appealing to people of faith - people who perhaps are attracted to the Republican Party around the abortion issue, but maybe aren't happy with the Republican Party around some of these other issues.

GREEN: Chris, what do you think?

KORZEN: Yeah, I would have to agree with that in general. You know, I think that to the extent that the Democratic Party is representing progressive values in its own platform, it is encouraging to see that the two front-running candidates for the Democratic nomination right now have put considerable resources into outreach to religious communities. We haven't seen that in the past, and I think the Democrats have suffered at the voting booth because of that. The goal for them moving forward is going to be to be able to present the vision to voters that their agenda really does line up with an authentic representation of faith in the public sphere. And again, I believe that that is most succinctly represented as the common good.

It is the same question for Republicans, too. And I think it is interesting to how there is evidence of some disillusionment among evangelical and conservative voters with the Republican Party. It is especially so because Republicans haven't been able to deliver on some really important, crucial concerns to those voters (abortion being one of them); but they also haven't addressed war and the environment as essential concerns as well.

So we are seeing a realignment, if you will, about just how these values are represented on both sides of the aisle.

BUTLER: Yeah, it was interesting to see the Huckabee campaign, actually, because Huckabee is this Republican candidate who has a bit of a broader agenda as an evangelical. And then recently, he weighed in on the Jeremiah Wright controversy in the Obama campaign. He said, "You know, sometimes people have chips on their shoulder. They get angry about things. If I had seen what Jeremiah Wright had seen, I might have the chip on my shoulder as well. In fact, I would have a bigger chip on my shoulder."

Recently two Christian Right figures, Harry Jackson and Tony Perkins, came out with a book about how evangelicals need to broaden their agenda. And I find that very interesting, both of those examples, because I think it says something about the ability of people of faith also to broaden even a conservative agenda and a Republican agenda. So I think we are going to see some shifting terrain in the coming year. And it will be interesting to see how those dynamics play out.

GREEN: Laura, but isn't there some kind of basic tension between some of the secular groups and some of the religious groups, whether they are on the progressive side or not?

OLSON: There is something I neglected to mention earlier, going back to the common ground theme - or common good rather. Common Good Strategies is a consulting firm now for Democratic candidates who want to try and reach out to people of faith. And I think that is all to the good because lots of Americans are people of faith. And if the Democrats want to try and do well, then they need to find ways of reaching out to that constituency.

At the same time, secular Americans tend, as we know from many, many, many surveys that we have looked at, tend to be pretty Democratic. And so the tension there is how do you bring a faith-based discourse into the Democrats' approach to the American electorate while not alienating people who are secular - not alienating people who really don't want much marriage between church and state at all?

GREEN: This being an election year, we can't let you all go without asking you what impact you think that this phenomenon will have in the 2008 election, which will occur in just a few months.

BUTLER: I think this will be the year of the common good voter instead of the year of the values voter. And following that election you'll see that broader coalition I've been talking about presenting some demands to whoever's in leadership on these common ground issues that unite these communities. And they will be taking things forward in a more prophetic way than has happened in the past.

KORZEN: I think we're going to see a redefinition of this values narrative that came to the surface in 2004. Life and family aren't going away as essential and important concerns, but the way we think about them is going to change. And we can't have strong families in this country if people don't have jobs and healthcare. That's the message that's going to define this election cycle, in terms of those kind of values.

OLSON: It seems to me that the Democrats, as I suggested before, are very much aware that they need to do a better job of trying to reach out to people of faith. And both of the frontrunner candidates right now, on the Democratic side, have people on their campaign staffs who are working very, very hard to accomplish just that.

And it seems like the time is very much right for the Democrats to undo some of this God gap, to close some of that ground. And I certainly do think that people of faith are going to be mobilized by a variety of different issues. Perhaps there will be a wider variety of issues than what we've seen in the past several elections, in particular the two last presidential elections, just through a reframing of what values means and of what life and family might imply in the public square. But who is going to win in November? I'm going to hold out on that one.

Read the full transcript -- or view video of the discussion -- at pewforum.org.