The Religious Left, Born Again
Progressive activists are finding inspiration in
churches, synagogues and mosques.
By Theo Anderson
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."
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