Worthwhile information. However, the following article leaves out
of consideration a number of important matters:
Who are the recognized leaders of these various populations? So far, nobody
has risen to anything like a position of wide influence, no-one at all,
Left, Right,
Center, or whatever.This means that there is a vacuum which needs to be
filled.
OK, by whom? Hence, so it seems to me, the rise of the Dalai Lama to
prominence since he is a proven leader despite his flaws, and the high
respect
that the Pope receives these days among Protestants; take my word,
it wasn't always so.
Evangelical leadership might have devolved on Pastor Warren, but basically
he blew it by his compromises with "progressivism." Not because some of
the causes he favored are "bad" but because some are highly dubious and
even when he is right there is no theology in support of what he is doing
except that of the Left. And by "theology" what is meant is actual
theology,
not assorted position statements even when a Bible verse of two is cited
in the process. Where's the theology ?
The situation on the Left is just as bad, or worse. Bishop Spong is
sometimes
cast in a leadership role but he is basically the Pat Robertson of the
Left,
someone you can't take seriously except now and then.
There also are factors like new religious philosophies; Harvey Cox was
trying
to create some new kind of Left-Right synthesis (unfortunately mostly based
on
Left morality) which has only had limited success, but you might say he at
least
set the stage for something more meaningful.
Then there is use of media. The Right clearly was far ahead as recently as
the
1990s, and still is competitive, but the Religious Left seems to be doing
most of
the creative stuff these days, with all kinds of blogs and sites that do
serious
"content marketing." There is some of that on the Right, and some is very
good,
but it does seem that the Religious Left has moved ahead.
Will things stay this way ?
And what about ideological surrogates for religion, like various
non-religious philosophies ? What impact do they have ?
Solid article, in other words, but it only provides one data set when
several
are necessary to understand what is gong on.
Billy
------------------------------------------------
The rise of the religious left
Katie McDonough ("Salon," July 19, 2013)
While politicians like Rick Perry and pundits like Bill O’Reilly may clog
up a lot of media airtime, the proportion of religious conservatives in the
United States is shrinking with each successive generation, and close to 20
percent of Americans today are religious progressives, according to a new
survey conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute and the
Brookings Institution.
Religious conservatives account for 28 percent of the total population (38
percent are religious moderates and 15 percent are nonreligious), but
religious progressives already outnumber them in the millennial generation:
Religious progressives are significantly younger and more diverse than
their conservative counterparts. The mean age of the religious progressive
population is 44 – just under the mean age in the general population of 47 –
while the mean age of religious conservatives is 53. Twenty-three percent of
Millennials (ages 18-33) are religious progressives, while 17 percent are
religious conservatives. Among Millennials, there are also nearly as many
nonreligious (22 percent) as religious progressives.
Religious progressives are also significantly more diverse than religious
conservatives:
Catholics (29 percent) constitute the largest single group among religious
progressives, followed by white mainline Protestants (19 percent), those
who are not formally affiliated with a religious tradition but who
nevertheless say religion is at least somewhat important in their lives (18
percent),
and non-Christian religious Americans such as Jews, Buddhists, Hindus and
Muslims (13 percent). Notably, white evangelical Protestants constitute
only four percent of religious progressives. By contrast, white evangelical
Protestants constitute more than 4-in-10 (43 percent) religious
conservatives, followed by Catholics (17 percent) and white mainline
Protestants (15
percent). Black Protestants comprise about 1-in-10 of both the religious
progressive (9 percent) and religious conservative (8 percent) coalitions.
They also tend to value different things in their faith:
Nearly 8-in-10 (79 percent) religious progressives say that being a
religious person is mostly about doing the right thing, compared to 16 percent
who
say it is about holding the right beliefs. A majority of religious
conservatives (54 percent), on the other hand, say being a religious person is
primarily about having the right beliefs, while 38 percent say it is mostly
about doing the right thing.
While it’s probably too early to declare victory over the Pat Robertson
types, the survey definitely suggests a new political future — with religious
progressives wielding growing influence — is possible: “Religious
conservatives are a known quantity and they play an important role in our
politics,”
said E.J. Dionne, Brookings senior fellow. “But this survey also shows
that religious progressives are a more significant group than is usually
assumed, and that there is a strong social justice constituency among
religious
Americans that cuts across labels.”
____________________________________
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