The annual pre-Lenten debate over religion in the blogs unfolded this week (see here, here and here). It was hard for me to find any heroes.
Folks like Jim Wallis make the assertion that some in the secular left are hostile to religion (perhaps it would be fair to say he generalizes a bit more to suggest the entire ranks of the secular left are hostile) and the secular left predictably responds with hard and fast denials and the occasional hostile attack against religion (an ironic way of proving their point).
The secular left bemoans the influence on religion in their lives and Wallis & company act as if someone walked into a church with an assault rifle and started firing. The truth, and I say this as a committed Christian minister, is that people have a right to complain. Religion has been more often used as a wedge issue than a source for reconciliation in modern politics. Wallis ought to remember that.
But you walk away from discussions about religion on blogs like Daily Kos with the strong feeling that the secular left is happy to tolerate religious people as long as we use DNC talking points in place of the Beatitudes. We're a tool to them (Wallis became the ultimate tool himself when he gave the Democratic response to a recent weekly radio address by the president). When the Christian faith simply becomes a tool for one or another of the political parties we fail in our primary obligation as disciples: to make other disciples so that we build up in the Kingdom.
If the new progressive Christian movement is simply here to serve the Democratic Party let me out of the room quick. There may be times when I'm happy to use the democrats (or the republicans for that matter) as a tool for advancing the church's mission but I won't let it be the other way around.
