The collapse of the religious left [View all]

Many of the great leftist movements in our country were explicitly religious in nature. The American Experience series is showing the Abolitionists for the next couple of Tuesdays. Episode 1 was last Tuesday. It is clear that those abolitionists were exceptionally religious bordering on fanatical. The entire purpose of the movement was to cleanse the US of the original sin of slavery. A hundred years later the Civil Rights movement was every bit as religiously motivated. It was from the inside of temples, mosques, and churches that the foot soldiers of the Civil Rights movement arose. In the 1980's the nuclear freeze movement was another religiously driven movement as was the anti death penalty movement. Now, here we are at the second Inaguration in a row where we can't seem to find even one famous pastor of the religious left to lead a closing prayer. Maybe one of the nuns on the bus.