Frances and Yoshie,
I'll repeat what I said several posts back, that if the political left (or secular, if you prefer) focuses on seeking dialog with the religious left (whoever they are), they can have a very lively debate over any number of issues. But all of them together wouldn't fill any good-sized auditorium. What's the point of that. Rather than talking to itself (something the left has pretty much perfected), it needs to learn how to talk to people who do not identify with the left but whose life circumstances, class, race, and gender positions, and other social factors bring them face to face with the realities of capitalist exploitation. If we can't develop a dialog with them, what's the point of claiming to be part of the left in the first place? Like the rest of U.S. society, the religious sector is quite varied, complex, and often contradictory. Not all can fit neatly into stereotypes as bible-waving Christian fundamentalists, bleeding heart Unitarian liberals, or radical liberation theologists. We need to do better than that if we hope to create a movement capable of fundamentally transforming this rotten system into one that serves society rather than feeds off it.
In solidarity, Michael