Culture War Truce

Submitted by Executive Direc... on October 11, 2007 - 12:39am.

Today in Washington, D.C., our friends at Faith in Public Life held a press conference with a group of evangelical leaders to announce the publication of a study about ways that progressives and evangelicals (two labels that often describe warriors locked in mortal combat on litmus-test issues such as abortion, gay marriage and stem cell research) can work together for the common good.

Not surprisingly, bloggers on the progressive side are taking pot-shots at "Come Let us Reason Together" for a variety of reasons:
1.the issues aren't the "real" issues (i.e. the war or poverty);
2.the news of consensus on something like the environment isn't really news (i.e. we already know this);
3. the conclusions, e.g.religion plays an appropriate public, not only private, role in American life, are bland (i.e. we already know this).

The study may not be wildly groundbreaking, but the very fact that progressive people of faith are working and talking with significant evangelical Christian leaders like Rev. Dr. Joel C. Hunter, one-time President-Elect of the Christian Coalition or Tony Campolo or emergent gurus Tony Jones and Brian McClaren is worth celebrating.

And the issues on the table are the ones we usually skirt when communicating across the expected divide: abortion, gay marriage, stem cell research, pornography.
I'd say that's progress.

As McClaren said "bipolar politics isn't working."

The labels of yesterday aren't working either so I'd say it's time for some new conversations.

I figure this document could be educational for all the progressives who see evangelicals as monolithic, for all the secular folks who figure that Christians are Visigoths on social issues, and for all who believe that religion plays NO role in public life.

Whatever the impact of this study, it might bring new voices to the table, and I welcome that. Or better yet, new EARS to the table, so that us hyper-critical progressives can learn something about evangelical Christians.

I'm just so tired of progressives out-progressing one another. It's that crabs in a barrel thing again.

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