The Religious Center and Left

Republican right wingers would like other Americans to think they own the religious issue. That's hardly the case. I could be wrong but it seems right wingers, even when they mean well, sometimes get caught up in judging others too much; other Christians and religious people (in the middle and left) may have strong religious feeling but they may not feel that they have all the answers and so they're inclined to be more sympathetic to people in general, even if the other person doesn't share their beliefs. Here's a story from CBS News:

At a church in Washington, hundreds of committed Christians met recently and tried to map out a strategy to get their values into the political debate.

But these are not the conservative Christian values which have been so influential lately. This is the religious left.

"Jesus called us to love our neighbor, love our enemy, care for the poor, care for the outcast, and that's really the moral core of where we think the nation ought to go," Dr. Bob Edgar, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches told CBS News correspondent Russ Mitchell.

(snip)

The Christian left is focusing on:
Fighting poverty
Protecting the environment
Ending the war in Iraq

"Right now the war in Iraq costs us $1 billion per week," said Rev. Jim Wallis, a Christian activist. "And we can't get $5 billion over ten years for child care in this country?"

The religious right has about 25% of the vote. Their leaders have been very effective in the last twenty-five years in increasing their influence and they haven't been particularly honest in how they do it. Whatever sells seems to be their main focus. It seems millions of Americans ought to be taking a closer look at their religious leaders and perhaps asking how much money they're raking in for their personal use.