Souled Out

by E J Dionne

Liberal commentator Dionne foresees different relations between faith and politics now that the religious Right is declining. He doesn’t, however, think that a religious Left will arise, although he does point out that the connection between progressive politics, on the one hand, and mainstream Protestantism and modern Catholic social thought, on the other, is longstanding and deep in American history. From a close parsing of the entire Christian vote in recent federal elections, he argues that Christianity in politics is properly thought of not as either conservative or progressive but as both, that the conceptions of “culture war” and “values” promulgated by the religious Right are too restrictive and partisan, and that the religious Right has short-changed Christianity by focusing exclusively on abortion, gay marriage, and end-of-life issues (e.g., the Terry Schiavo brouhaha). He turns to recent developments in Catholicism since Vatican II and among liberal Catholics as a springboard to his concluding injunction that Christians continue to participate in politics, out of Christian hope rather than self-righteousness. (But is the religious Right really shrinking?) –Ray Olson