The Religious Left, Born Again

     Progressive activists are finding inspiration in
     churches, synagogues and mosques.

By Theo Anderson

In These Times
July 4, 2011
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/11474/the_religious_left_born_again

Religious leaders pray for workers during a 2004 San
Francisco hotel lockout. (Photo Courtesy Of Interfaith
Worker Justice )

For three decades, the religious right has monopolized media
coverage of religion in American life. But the big story of
the next few decades, spiritually speaking, might be the re-
emergence of the religious left as a powerful political
force.

What's going on in Illinois offers solid evidence for that
theory. This past spring, the state's General Assembly
considered two controversial bills. One proposed to give
courts the authority to seal the criminal records of people
who were arrested and then released because the charges were
dropped or the defendant was acquitted. As it stood, the
records could not be sealed if the person had a prior
conviction. Employers almost never hire job seekers with a
recent arrest on their record, so the law left large numbers
of people unemployable. The other bill proposed the
legalization of medical marijuana.

Until recently, both bills were politically toxic because
voting for them would leave politicians vulnerable to the
charge of being soft on crime or pro- drugs. Yet the General
Assembly passed the bill on May 23, allowing court records
to be sealed. The medical marijuana bill fell short by only
a few votes, but the Assembly will likely vote on it again
this fall.

Both bills became politically viable in part because they
were high priorities with Protestants for the Common Good
(PCG), a lobbying organization that focuses on Illinois
politics. Its executive director, Rev. Alexander Sharp, said
that a small investment of time and energy can have a big
impact on policy. "Legislators look at probably 2,000 bills
in any given session," Sharp says. "There's extraordinary
value in simply taking the time to sit down with them and
talk about a piece of legislation. They're almost uniformly
receptive to that if you give them good, clear information."

PCG distributes educational materials to about 400 churches,
but its primary focus is legislative lobbying. It is
organizing a network of about 100 people across Illinois who
will pressure legislators on short notice when progressive
voices might sway a vote in the Assembly. "That's not a huge
number, but it can make a major difference," says Sharp, who
earned a Masters of Divinity from the University of Chicago
in 1996, the same year he became PCG's founding executive
director. "It's strategic involvement that makes a big
difference. An awful lot of what we've accomplished has been
because we were a distinctive voice at the margin that
tipped the opinion."

Another faith-based organization, Interfaith Worker Justice,
has been pivotal in putting wage theft on national and local
legislative agendas. Kim Bobo, who founded the organization
in the mid-'90s and is IWJ's executive director, said that
its single-minded focus on economic justice has helped it
cooperate with congregations across the theological and
denominational spectrum. It is especially active among
Catholic churches that serve primarily Latino populations.
"There is a set of social issues that are very divisive
within the religious community," she says. "But when you
come to economic matters, the divisions are not as clear."

IWJ, a national organization based in Chicago, consists of a
loose network of local organizations nationwide. About 40 of
its affiliated groups foster cooperation between religious
institutions and labor unions. IWJ also supports 26 "worker
centers"-places where victims of wage theft can turn to for
information and legal support.

Bobo says there has been a noticeable uptick in activism
among religious people in the wake of recent anti-union
activity in Wisconsin, Indiana and other states. "We're
seeing a lot of religious leaders.saying, `You can't balance
your budget on the backs of workers,' " she says. "[I]t's an
opportunity to engage more people."

IWJ has supported federal-level legislation aimed at curbing
wage theft, with little success. But it has made progress at
the city and county levels. Florida's Dade County, for
example, passed the country's first countywide wage-theft
ordinance in 2010. The South Florida Interfaith Worker
Justice chapter was key to making that happen. A similar
ordinance is being discussed in San Francisco.

These recent victories by PCG and IWJ suggest a promising
strategy for the progressive movement's future: partnering
with religious people and institutions to generate reform at
the grassroots levels. That strategy was at the heart of the
civil- rights movement in the 1960s. Where it could lead
today, and the impact it might have on national politics,
God only knows.

"A majority of the people in the U.S. consider themselves
spiritual or religious," Bobo says. "So we believe that the
moral language and the core principles [of religion]
resonate with a lot of people in this country."

[Theo Anderson, a former In These Times editorial intern,
has a Ph.D. in American history from Yale University and
teaches seminars at Chicago's Newberry Library.]

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