The Rise of the Christian Left in America

[xchrom]

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/07/the-rise-of-the-christian-left-in-america/278086/


Led by Jerry Falwell (right), the Moral Majority helped elect Ronald Reagan in 1980 and began decades of religious conservative dominance in politics. (Associated Press)

In June 1979, a coalition of conservative religious leaders led by a Jewish Howard Phillips, Catholic Paul Weyrich, and evangelical televangelist Jerry Falwell banded together to wage a political "holy war" against the liberal establishment. They called their organization the "Moral Majority" to signify the large number of social conservatives they believed were being ignored across American culture.

Forming a political action committee, the organization registered 4 million voters in 1980 and purchased $10 million in radio and television ads questioning President Carter's patriotism and Christianity. Its message struck a chord with a large swath of Americans, and their efforts are credited with helping to elect Ronald Reagan. More importantly, the birth of the coalition began of a period of political dominance for the religious conservatives that would span at least three decades.

But according to a new survey by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) in partnership with the Brookings Institution, the religious balance of power is shifting in ways that could make the religious left the new "Moral Majority," figuratively speaking. If current trends persist, religious progressives will soon outnumber religious conservatives, a group that is shrinking with each successive generation, the data show.

PRRI reports that 23 percent of 18- to 33-year-olds are religious progressives, 17 percent are religious conservatives, and 22 percent are nonreligious. By contrast, only 12 percent of 66- to 88-year-olds are religious progressives, while about half are religious conservatives. The survey used a religious-orientation scale that "combines theological, economic, and social outlooks."

[d_r]

1. I don't want to be a naysayer

and there is probably some "truth" to this, but I can't help but think that this is using cross-sectional data to look at a longitudinal question. The folk wisdom is that people get more "conservative" as they grow older - and I know that there are tons of exceptions to that - but, if there is any truth to that proposition, then it wouldn't be surprising that younger generations are more progressive than older, and a cross sectional snapshot wouldn't necessarily reflect change over time.

[earthside]

3. Aging baby boomers.

The conventional wisdom about people getting more conservative as they get older may be in for a major revision.

Especially on the economic front.

The truth is that middle to late baby boomers are woefully unprepared for retirement and are going to have to rely upon government assistance for their day-to-day survival and for 100 percent of health care expenses.

Knowing that the three alternatives you face when you are 65-plus and have no savings or pension are: living off your kids; living in utter, abject poverty; or demanding that Social Security and Medicare be funded to provide you with a somewhat quality life style --- one might look more favorably on 'liberal' entitlement programs, and less favorably on Repuglicans and the religious right-wingers that only chide you for being a bum.

So for their own self interest, I suspect you are going to see older folks in the U.S. in coming years get more liberal and find them rejecting the parsimonious conservative religious right and the 'Tea Party'.

Perhaps I am too optimistic, but as more liberals and progressives finally comprehend that Pres. Obama is center-right (except on a few social issues), I think that the demand for genuinely progressive leadership in this country is going to rise.

I just hope we can make it until we can get some progressive representation and leadership -- the standard of living for working and middle class folks gets worse by the day and it seems to me that another economic collapse could happen at any time.

[marmar]

2. k/r.

Wow. My generation - X - is very nonreligious.