Carl Remick wrote:
>Some call the election a warning. "You can't have everybody who goes
>to church vote Republican; you just can't," Al From, founder of the
>Democratic Leadership Council, said last week at a forum on the
>election.
-Everybody who goes to church doesn't vote Republican. It's mostly -white evangelical/born-again protestants who vote Republican, over -the "moral" issues. You're not going to win them over just by saying -"God" more often. So does From think the Dems should embrace their -moral agenda?
Absolutely we should embrace their moral agenda as it coincides with progressive values.
A large part of that moral agenda includes economic justice issues. Since one of the areas where Kerry did worse than Gore was among Catholics, especially latino Catholics, the following from the Catholic Bishops Pastoral letter on economic justice might be worth being repeated by various politicians:
"Employers are obligated to treat their employees as persons, paying them fair wages in exchange for the work done and establishing conditions and patterns of work that are truly human...Where the effects of past discrimination persist, society has an obligation to take positive steps to overcome the legacy of injustice. Judiciously administered affirmative action programs in education and employment can be important expressions of the drive for solidarity and participation that is at the heart of true justice...
For example, a system of taxation based on assessment according to ability to pay is a prime necessity for the fulfillment of these social obligations...A number of human rights also concern human welfare and are of a specifically economic nature. First among these are the rights to life, food, clothing, shelter, rest, medical care, and basic education. These are indispensable to the protection of human dignity...All persons also have a right to security in the event of sickness, unemployment, and old age...
The Church fully supports the right of workers to form unions or other associations to secure their rights to fair wages and working conditions...No one may deny the right to organize without attacking human dignity itself. Therefore, we firmly oppose organized efforts, such as those regrettably now seen in this country, to break existing unions and prevent workers from organizing. Migrant agricultural workers today are particularly in need of the protection, including the right to organize and bargain collectively. U.S. labor law reform is needed to meet these problems as well as to provide more timely and effective remedies for unfair labor practices."
Or more recently and surprisingly, the National Association of Evangelicals, the main umbrella group for many "religious right" churches, issues a recent manifesto on civic involvement that stated:
"God identifies with the poor (Ps. 146:5-9), and says that those who "are kind to the poor lend to the Lord" (Prov. 19:17), while those who oppress the poor "show contempt for their Maker" (Prov. 14:31). Jesus said that those who do not care for the needy and the imprisoned will depart eternally from the living God (Matt. 25:31-46). The vulnerable may include not only the poor, but women, children, the aged, persons with disabilities, immigrants, refugees, minorities, the persecuted, and prisoners. God measures societies by how they treat the people at the bottom. . . .
We further believe that care for the vulnerable should extend beyond our national borders. American foreign policy and trade policies often have an impact on the poor. We should try to persuade our leaders to change patterns of trade that harm the poor and to make the reduction of global poverty a central concern of American foreign policy. We must support policies that encourage honesty in government, correct unfair socioeconomic structures, generously support effective programs that empower the poor, and foster economic development and prosperity. Christians should also encourage continued government support of international aid agencies, including those that are faith based."
So what's wrong with getting sympathetic clergy and laypeople to highlight these principles and engage religious voters on these principles?
Nathan Newman