Nicholas Kristof writes
that liberals don't give conservative evangelicals enough
credit for their efforts to end poverty, stop genocide, fight HIV/AIDS,
and further a host of other causes conventionally seen as progressive.
It's a valid point: There's plenty of disdain for Christian evangelicals in
some urban Democratic bastions, not to mention in large swaths of
academia and media, and yet even in big cities like New York the
numbers of evangelicals are strong and growing, especially among
immigrant communities.
In the nation as a whole about one in three Americans, or 100 million, can be described as evangelical, though that number is debated
and includes substantial numbers of African Americans, who tend to be
more liberal, as well as numerous other moderate and progressive
evangelicals who don't fit into the Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson
mold.
In any case, Kristof notes that a recent CBS poll shows
that the top issue that white evangelicals believe they should be
involved in is fighting poverty. Restricting abortion was a distant
second. Without question, evangelicals have been on the forefront of
this crucial issue of poverty, both here and abroad, and more recently
a number of courageous pastors have also been challenging the
Republican Party's orthodoxy denying climate change.
It seems
that secular liberals could find common cause and also inspiration from
these evangelical activists, if they're willing to overcome their own
prejudices. (Incidentally, I'm saying this as someone who isn't
religious.) When the lions lie down the lambs, we might see something
done about the billion people who live on less than $1 a day, or the 37
million Americans who live under the poverty line.
On a somewhat related note, it's interesting that all of
the five remaining major candidates, Democratic and Republican, seem to be
bring something new to the table, diversity-wise. Obviously, Clinton
and Obama would be breaking down gender and racial barriers, but Romney
would be the first Mormon president. McCain would be the first
president entering the office at the age of 72 — breaking down a glass
ceiling for the growing ranks of seniors in this country.
And
Huckabee, the Southern Baptist minister, would be representing a kind
of evangelicism that has been given short shrift during the Bush years,
in spite of the younger Bush's God talk: born-again Christians who care
about social issues but also worry about growing economic inequality
and factories and jobs moving overseas. We haven't seen that kind of
evangelical president since — dare I say it — Jimmy Carter.
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