The Religious Left in Contemporary American Politics

Abstract

The religious right's prominence and clout in American politics are by now well known, but is there any semblance of a religious left to counterbalance it? This article presents an investigation of whether the elite-level building blocks of a religious left are in place in the contemporary United States. Using social movement theory as a point of departure, I analyze the extent to which existing religious left organizations might make use of cultural, material, and opportunity-structure resources. I present a typology of the range of organizations in existence and consider whether these organizations have sufficient capability to marshal the resources it would take for the religious left to reassert itself on the American political stage.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Lucian Leustean and an anonymous reviewer for extremely valuable comments on earlier drafts of this article.

Notes

¹See Clyde Wilcox and Carin Robinson, Onward Christian Soldiers? The Religious Right in American Politics, 4th edn (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2010).

²See David Domke and Kevin Coe, The God Strategy: How Religion Became a Political Weapon in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008) for a penetrating analysis of the strategic use of religion in American politics.

³Corwin E. Smidt, Kevin R. den Dulk, Bryan Froehle, James M. Penning, Stephen V. Monsma and Douglas L. Koopman, The Disappearing God Gap? Religion in the 2008 Presidential Election (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010).

⁴The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, ‘The Tea Party and Religion’, http://pewforum.org/Politics-and-Elections/Tea-Party-and-Religion.aspx (accessed 23 February 2011).

⁵See, e.g., Jon Meacham, American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation (New York: Random House, 2006).

⁶Allen D. Hertzke, Representing God in Washington: The Role of Religious Lobbies in the American Polity (Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press, 1988).

⁷Christopher H. Evans, The Kingdom is Always but Coming: A Life of Walter Rauschenbusch (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2004); David S. Gutterman, Prophetic Politics: Christian Social Movements and American Democracy (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2005); Robert Wuthnow and John H. Evans (eds), The Quiet Hand of God: Faith-based Activism and the Public Role of Mainline Protestantism (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2002).

⁸Timothy A. Byrnes, Catholic Bishops in American Politics (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993); Clarke E. Cochran and David Carroll Cochran, Catholics, Politics, and Public Policy: Beyond Left and Right (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2003); L. Sandy Maisel and Ira N. Forman (eds), Jews in American Politics (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2000); Robert Wuthnow, The Restructuring of American Religion: Society and Faith since World War II (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1988).

⁹James F. Findlay, Church People in the Struggle: The National Council of Churches and the Black Freedom Movement, 1950–1970 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993); Michael B. Friedland, Lift Up Your Voice Like a Trumpet: White Clergy and the Civil Rights and Antiwar Movements, 1954–1973 (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1998); Fredrick C. Harris, Something Within: Religion in African-American Political Activism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999); Aldon D. Morris, The Origins of the Civil Rights Movement (New York: Free Press, 1984).

¹⁰Mitchell K. Hall, Because of Their Faith: CALCAV and Religious Opposition to the Vietnam War (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990).

¹¹Christian Smith, Resisting Reagan: The U.S. Central America Peace Movement (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1996).

¹²Gail Russell Chaddock, ‘Democrats Strike Back on Faith Issue’, The Christian Science Monitor, 9 June 2004; Alan Cooperman, ‘Liberal Christians Challenge “Values Vote”’, The Washington Post, 10 November 2004); David D. Kirkpatrick, ‘Some Democrats Believe the Party Should Get Religion’, The New York Times, 17 November 2004); Amy Sullivan, The Party Faithful: How and Why Democrats Are Closing the God Gap (New York: Scribner, 2008).

¹³But see Rebecca T. Alpert (ed.), Voices of the Religious Left: A Contemporary Sourcebook (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2000); Lyman A. Kellstedt, Corwin E. Smidt, John C. Green and James L. Guth, ‘A Gentle Creek or a “River Glorious”? The Religious Left in the 2004 Election’, in David E. Campbell (ed.) A Matter of Faith? Religion in the 2004 Presidential Election (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 2007); Laura R. Olson, ‘Whither the Religious Left? Religiopolitical Progressivism in Twenty-first Century America’, in J. Matthew Wilson (ed.) From Pews to Polling Places: Faith and Politics in the American Religious Mosaic (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2007).

¹⁴Alpert, op. cit., p. 2.

¹⁵Jim Burklo, Open Christianity: Home by Another Road (Scotts Valley, CA: Rising Star, 2000); Frederick Clarkson (ed.), Dispatches from the Religious Left: The Future of Faith and Politics in America (Brooklyn, NY: Ig Publishing, 2008); John B. Cobb (ed.), Progressive Christians Speak: A Different Voice on Faith and Politics (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2000); Peter Laarman (ed.), Getting on Message: Challenging the Christian Right from the Heart of the Gospel (Boston, MA: Beacon, 2006); Michael Lerner, The Left Hand of God: Taking Back Our Country from the Religious Right (San Francisco, CA: Harper, 2006); Robin Meyers, Why the Christian Right Is Wrong: A Minister's Manifesto for Taking Back Your Faith, Your Flag, Your Future (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2006); James Rudin, The Baptizing of America: The Religious Right's Plans for the Rest of Us (New York: Thunder's Mouth, 2006); Daniel Schultz, Changing the Script: An Authentically Faithful and Authentically Progressive Political Theology for the 21 ^st Century (Brooklyn, NY: Ig Publishing, 2010); Stephen Swecker (ed.), Hard Ball on Holy Ground: The Religious Right vs. the Mainline for the Church's Soul (Boston, MA: Boston Wesleyan Press, 2005); Mark Lewis Taylor, Religion, Politics, and the Christian Right: Post-9/11 Powers and American Empire (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 2005); Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Failing America's Faithful: How Today's Churches Are Mixing God with Politics and Losing Their Way (New York: Warner, 2007).

¹⁶Randall Balmer, Thy Kingdom Come: An Evangelical's Lament: How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America (New York: Basic Books, 2006); Jimmy Carter, Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2005); John Danforth, Faith and Politics: How the ‘Moral Values’ Debate Divides America and How To Move Forward Together (New York: Viking, 2006); Bob Edgar, Middle Church: Reclaiming the Moral Values of the Faithful Majority from the Religious Right (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2006); George G. Hunter III, Christian Evangelical & … Democrat? (Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 2006); Jim Wallis, The Soul of Politics: Beyond ‘Religious Right’ and ‘Secular Left’ (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1994); Jim Wallis, God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It (San Francisco, CA: Harper, 2005).

¹⁷See James K. Wellman, Jr, Evangelical vs. Liberal: The Clash of Christian Cultures in the Pacific Northwest (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008).

¹⁸Ronald R. Aminzade and Elizabeth J. Perry, ‘The Sacred, Religious, and Secular in Contentious Politics: Blurring Boundaries’, in Ronald R. Aminzade, Jack A. Goldstone, Doug McAdam, Elizabeth J. Perry, William H. Sewell, Sidney Tarrow and Charles Tilly (eds) Silence and Voice in the Study of Contentious Politics (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001); Jose Casanova, Public Religions in the Modern World (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1994); Rory McVeigh and David Sikkink, ‘God, Politics, and Protest: Religious Beliefs and the Legitimation of Contentious Tactics’, Social Forces, 79:4 (2001), pp. 1425–1458; Maryjane Osa, ‘Pastoral Mobilization and Contention: The Religious Foundations of the Solidarity Movement in Poland’, in Christian Smith (ed.) Disruptive Religion: The Force of Faith in Social Movement Activism (New York: Routledge, 1996); Darren Sherkat, ‘Counterculture or Continuity? Competing Influences on Baby Boomers’ Religious Orientations and Participation', Social Forces, 76:3 (1998), pp. 1087–1115; Christian Smith, ‘Correcting a Curious Neglect, or Bringing Religion Back In’, in Christian Smith (ed.) Disruptive Religion: The Force of Faith in Social Movement Activism (New York: Routledge, 1996); Christian Smith (ed.), Disruptive Religion: The Force of Faith in Social-Movement Activism (New York: Routledge, 1996); Kenneth D. Wald, Adam L. Silverman and Kevin Fridy, ‘Making Sense of Religion in Political Life’, Annual Review of Political Science, 8:1 (2005), pp. 121–143.

¹⁹See David C. Leege, Kenneth D. Wald, Brian S. Krueger and Paul D. Mueller, The Politics of Cultural Differences (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002); Wald et al., op. cit.

²⁰Bert Klandermans, The Social Psychology of Protest (Boston, MA: Blackwell, 1997), p. 2; McVeigh and Sikkink, op. cit., p. 1426.

²¹Sidney Tarrow, Power in Movement: Social Movements and Contentious Politics, 2nd edn (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998), p. 2.

²²Smith, ‘Correcting a Curious Neglect’, op. cit., p. 11.

²³David A. Snow, E. Burke Rochford, Steven K. Worden and Robert D. Benford, ‘Frame Alignment Processes, Micromobilization, and Movement Participation’, American Sociological Review, 51:4 (1986), p. 477.

²⁴Smith, ‘Correcting a Curious Neglect’, op. cit.

²⁵Roger Finke and Rodney Stark, The Churching of America, 1776–2005: Winners and Losers in our Religious Economy (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2005); Wuthnow, op. cit.

²⁶Sidney Tarrow, Power in Movement: Social Movements, Collective Action, and Politics, 1st edn (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994); Tarrow, Power in Movement, 2nd edn, op. cit.

²⁷This typology is proposed by Wald et al., op. cit., pp. 124–125.

²⁸Ronald R. Aminzade, Jack A. Goldstone, Doug McAdam, Elizabeth J. Perry, William H. Sewell, Sidney Tarrow and Charles Tilly (eds), Silence and Voice in the Study of Contentious Politics (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001); Klandermans, op. cit.; Doug McAdam, John McCarthy and Mayer Zald (eds), Comparative Perspectives on Social Movements: Political Opportunities, Mobilizing Structures, and Cultural Framings (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996); McVeigh and Sikkink, op. cit.; Aldon D. Morris and Carol McClurg Mueller (eds), Frontiers in Social Movement Theory (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1992).

²⁹For an illustration of this process at work throughout American history, see David Hackett Fischer, Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989). Key sources in the broader literature on the role of culture in social movements include Hank Johnston and Bert Klandermans (eds), Social Movements and Culture (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1995); Smith, ‘Correcting a Curious Neglect’, op. cit.; Ann Swidler, ‘Culture in Action: Symbols and Strategies’, American Sociological Review, 51:2 (1986), pp. 273–286; Charles Tilly, From Mobilization to Revolution (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1978); Aaron Wildavsky, ‘Choosing Preferences by Constructing Institutions: A Cultural Theory of Preference Formation’, American Political Science Review, 81:1 (1987), pp. 3–21.

³⁰Wildavsky, op. cit., p. 5.

³¹Tilly, op. cit.; see also Wildavsky, op. cit.

³²Swidler, op. cit.; see also Tilly, op. cit.; Mayer N. Zald, ‘Culture, Ideology, and Strategic Framing’, in Comparative Perspectives on Social Movements: Political Opportunities, Mobilizing Structures, and Cultural Framings, ed. Doug McAdam, John D. McCarthy and Mayer N. Zald (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996).

³³Wald et al., op. cit., p. 128.

³⁴Smith, ‘Correcting a Curious Neglect’, op. cit., p. 5.

³⁵Brian Steensland, ‘The Hydra and the Swords: Social Welfare and Mainline Advocacy, 1964–2000’, in The Quiet Hand of God: Faith-Based Activism and the Public Role of Mainline Protestantism, ed. Robert Wuthnow and John H. Evans (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2002).

³⁶Byrnes, op. cit.; Cochran and Cochran, op. cit.; Maisel and Forman, op. cit.; Martin E. Marty, Righteous Empire: The Protestant Experience in America (New York: Dial Press, 1970); Wuthnow, op. cit.; Wuthnow and Evans, op. cit.

³⁷John D. McCarthy and Mayer N. Zald, ‘Resource Mobilization and Social Movements: A Partial Theory’, American Journal of Sociology 82:6 (1977), pp. 1212–1241; see also Mayer N. Zald and John D. McCarthy, ‘Religious Groups as Crucibles of Social Movements’, in Social Movements in an Organizational Society, ed. Mayer N. Zald and John D. McCarthy (Somerset, NJ: Transaction, 1987).

³⁸Aminzade and Perry, op. cit.; Findlay, op. cit.; Morris, op. cit.; Smith, ‘Correcting a Curious Neglect’, op. cit.; Smith, Disruptive Religion, op. cit.; Smith, Resisting Reagan, op. cit.; Wald et al., op. cit.

³⁹Wald et al., op. cit.

⁴⁰James C. Cavendish, ‘To March or Not to March: Clergy Mobilization Strategies and Grassroots Antidrug Activism’, in Christian Clergy in American Politics, ed. Sue E.S. Crawford and Laura R. Olson (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001); Paul A. Djupe and Christopher P. Gilbert, The Prophetic Pulpit: Clergy, Churches, and Communities in American Politics (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2003); Paul A. Djupe and Laura R. Olson, ‘A Meditation on and Meta-Analysis of the Public Presence of Religious Interests’, in Religious Interests in Community Conflict: Beyond the Culture Wars, ed. Paul A. Djupe and Laura R. Olson (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2007).

⁴¹See Morris, op. cit.

⁴²Smith, ‘Correcting a Curious Neglect’, op. cit.

⁴³Wald et al., op. cit., p. 135.

⁴⁴Smith, ‘Correcting a Curious Neglect’, op. cit.

⁴⁵Djupe and Gilbert, op. cit.; Paul A. Djupe and Christopher P. Gilbert, ‘The Resourceful Believer: Generating Civic Skills in Church’, Journal of Politics, 68:1 (2006), pp. 116–127; Paul A. Djupe and Christopher P. Gilbert, The Political Influence of Churches (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009); Paul A. Djupe and J. Tobin Grant, ‘Religious Institutions and Political Participation in America’, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 40:2 (2001), pp. 303–314; Christopher P. Gilbert, The Impact of Churches on Political Behavior: An Empirical Study (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1993); Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2000); Robert D. Putnam and David E. Campbell, American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2010); Sidney Verba, Kay Lehman Schlozman and Henry E. Brady, Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995); Richard L. Wood, Faith in Action: Religion, Race, and Democratic Organizing in America (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2002).

⁴⁶See Cavendish, op. cit., for a clear illustration of this concept at work.

⁴⁷Doug McAdam, John McCarthy and Mayer Zald (eds), Comparative Perspectives on Social Movements: Political Opportunities, Mobilizing Structures, and Cultural Framings (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996); David A. Snow, Louis A. Zurcher and Sheldon Ekland-Olson, ‘Social Networks and Social Movements: A Microstructural Approach to Differential Recruitment’, American Sociological Review, 45:5 (1980), pp. 787–801.

⁴⁸John D. McCarthy, ‘Pro-Life and Pro-Choice Mobilization: Infrastructure Deficits and New Technologies’, in Social Movements in an Organizational Society, ed. Mayer N. Zald and John D. McCarthy (Somerset, NJ: Transaction, 1987); Morris, op. cit.; Franklyn C. Niles, ‘Unity in the Face of the Faceless: Clergy Opposition to the Ku Klux Klan in Northwest Arkansas’, in Religious Interests in Community Conflict: Beyond the Culture Wars, ed. Paul A. Djupe and Laura R. Olson (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2007); Smith, Disruptive Religion, op. cit.; Zald and McCarthy, op. cit.

⁴⁹McCarthy and Zald, op. cit., p. 1218.

⁵⁰Findlay, op. cit.; Friedland, op. cit.

⁵¹Findlay, op. cit.; Morris, op. cit.

⁵²Harris, op. cit.; Doug McAdam, Freedom Summer (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988); Morris, op. cit.

⁵³David S. Meyer and Debra C. Minkoff, ‘Conceptualizing Political Opportunity’, Social Forces, 82:4 (2004), pp. 1457–1492; Timothy J. Steigenga and Kenneth M. Coleman, ‘Protestant Political Orientations and the Structure of Political Opportunity: Chile, 1972–1991’, Polity, 27:3 (1995), pp. 465–482; Tarrow, 2nd ed, op. cit.; Wald et al., op. cit.

⁵⁴Doug McAdam, Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1982); Tarrow, 2nd ed, op. cit.

⁵⁵Ernest Q. Campbell and Thomas F. Pettigrew, Christians in Racial Crisis (Washington, DC: Public Affairs Press, 1959); David L. Chappell, A Stone of Hope: Prophetic Religion and the Death of Jim Crow (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2004); Findlay, op. cit.; Friedland, op. cit.

⁵⁶Hall, op. cit.; Harold E. Quinley, The Prophetic Clergy: Social Activism among Protestant Ministers (New York: Wiley, 1974).

⁵⁷Smith, Resisting Reagan, op. cit.

⁵⁸See, e.g., Finke and Stark, op. cit.; Jeffrey K. Hadden, The Gathering Storm in the Churches (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1969).

⁵⁹Tarrow, Power in Movement, 2nd edn, op. cit., p. 7.

⁶⁰Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, ‘Many Americans Uneasy with Mix of Religion and Politics’, http://pewforum.org/publications/surveys/religion-politics-06.pdf (2006).

⁶¹Jeffrey M. Berry, The New Liberalism: The Rising Power of Citizen Groups (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 2000).

⁶²Lynn D. Robinson, ‘Doing Good and Doing Well: Shareholder Activism, Responsible Investment, and Mainline Protestantism’, in The Quiet Hand of God: Faith-Based Activism and the Public Role of Mainline Protestantism, ed. Robert Wuthnow and John H. Evans (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2002).

⁶³See, e.g., John R. Wright, Interest Groups and Congress: Lobbying, Contributions, and Influence (Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 1996).

⁶⁴Hertzke, Representing God, op. cit.; Hofrenning, op. cit.

⁶⁵Matthew C. Moen, The Christian Right and Congress (Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press, 1989).

⁶⁶Wilcox and Robinson, op. cit.

⁶⁷Wellman, op. cit.

⁶⁸James L. Adams, The Growing Church Lobby in Washington (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1970); Luke Eugene Ebersole, Church Lobbying in the Nation's Capitol (New York: Macmillan, 1951); Hertzke, Representing God, op. cit.; Daniel J. B. Hofrenning, In Washington but Not Of It (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1995); Laura R. Olson, ‘Mainline Protestant Washington Offices and the Political Lives of Clergy’, in The Quiet Hand of God: Faith Based Activism and the Public Role of Mainline Protestantism, ed. Robert Wuthnow and John H. Evans (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2002).

⁶⁹Allen D. Hertzke, Freeing God's Children: The Unlikely Alliance for Global Human Rights (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2006).

⁷⁰Paul A. Djupe, Laura R. Olson and Christopher P. Gilbert, ‘Sources of Clergy Support for Denominational Lobbying in Washington’, Review of Religious Research, 47:1 (2005), pp. 86–99; Olson, ‘Mainline Protestant’, op. cit.

⁷¹Cochran and Cochran, op. cit.

⁷²Byrnes, op. cit.

⁷³Saul D. Alinsky, Reveille for Radicals (New York: Random House, 1946); Stephen Hart, Cultural Dilemmas of Progressive Politics: Styles of Engagement among Grassroots Activists (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2001); Laura R. Olson, Filled with Spirit and Power: Protestant Clergy in Politics (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2000); Jim Rooney, Organizing the South Bronx (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1995); Mark R. Warren, Dry Bones Rattling: Community Building to Revitalize American Democracy (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001); Wood, op. cit.

⁷⁴Jill Lawrence, ‘“Community Organizer” Slams Attract Support for Obama’, USA Today, 4 September 2008.

⁷⁵Sara Rimer, ‘Community Organizing Never Looked So Good’, The New York Times, 10 April 2009.

⁷⁶See Hertzke, Freeing God's Children, op. cit.

⁷⁷Scott H. Ainsworth, Analyzing Interest Groups: Group Influences on People and Policies (New York: W.W. Norton, 2002), pp. 79–82; Albert O. Hirschmann, Exit, Voice, Loyalty: Responses to Declines in Firms, Organizations, and States (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1970); Paul E. Johnson, ‘Foresight and Myopia in Organizational Membership’, Journal of Politics, 49:3 (1987), pp. 678–703.

⁷⁸Olson, ‘Whither the Religious Left’, op. cit.

⁷⁹Gary T. Marx and Douglas McAdam, Collective Behavior and Social Movements: Process and Structure (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1994); Arthur H. Miller, Patricia Gurin, Gerald Gurin and Oksana Malanchuk, ‘Group Consciousness and Political Participation’, American Journal of Political Science, 25:3 (1981), pp. 494–511.

⁸⁰See Hertzke, Representing God, op. cit.

⁸¹Snow et al., ‘Frame Alignment’, op. cit.

⁸²Olson 2007, ‘Whither the Religious Left’, op. cit.; Pew Forum, ‘Many Americans Uneasy’, op. cit.

⁸³Finke and Stark, op. cit.; Dean R. Hoge, Benton Johnson and Donald R. Luidens, Vanishing Boundaries: The Religion of Mainline Protestant Baby Boomers (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 1994); Dean Kelley, Why Conservative Churches are Growing (San Francisco, CA: Harper and Row, 1972); but see Wuthnow and Evans, op. cit.

⁸⁴Sue E. S. Crawford and Laura R. Olson (eds), Christian Clergy in American Politics (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001).

⁸⁵Leege et al., op. cit., pp. 201–251.

⁸⁶See Olson, ‘Whither the Religious Left’, op. cit.

⁸⁷Hart, op. cit.; Olson, Filled with Spirit and Power, op. cit.; Olson, ‘Mainline Protestant’, op. cit.