Christian right? It’s neither, say many Christians and others who
believe it unlikely that Christ would have advocated slashing taxes
for the wealthy and assistance for the poor. Yet those organizing
outrage into a Christian left counterattack are finding the effort
slow going.
The Christian left is hard-pressed to match the monied,
efficient Christian right networks, and the budding left lobby
simply lacks the ears to bend. Sojourners editor Jim Wallis,
who’s barnstorming the country with the Christian left Cry for
Renewal movement, says they’d love to ape avoter guide like the one
the Christian Coalition distributed 40 million copies of before the
1994 election. But ‘there aren’t enough politicians we could
support,’ he told Washington Monthly’s Amy Waldman.
Waldman cites other reasons for a faltering Christian left,
including a liberal tendency to downplay religious convictions and
a leftish bent for ‘radical chic over radical change’ (going on a
peace delegation to Nicaragua is more alluring than sit-ins to save
an inner-city soup kitchen). But Waldman also lauds the growing
success of the Renewal movement (see ongoing coverage in
Sojourners magazine) and other groups such as Progressive
Evangelical Network and the Jewish/Christian Interfaith
Alliance.
