Bridging the Religious Divide

Deseret News:

Reid said Ezra Taft Benson, active in very conservative politics before he became a president of the LDS Church, and Ernest L. Wilkinson, the president of BYU from 1951–71, were among past church leaders "who were very right-wing people politically."

"Members of the church are obedient," Reid said, "they are followers in the truest sense of the word, and I think they've taken members of the church down a path that is the wrong path. Look at Joseph Smith. Here's a man who was progressive, to say the least. He broke from the pack. He did things differently than they'd been done. He was against slavery. He wanted to start a national bank.

"I think people in the church have to understand there are issues more important than abortion and gay marriage."

Also see coverage in the Tribune.

Congratulations to the BYU College Democrats for holding an energized and effective protest rally on Wednesday. The YDems wisely chose to follow one of Maha's Rules of Protesting: Rule #5, which, paraphrased, is, "You don't win support by being jerks. You win support by showing the world that your opponents are jerks."

Chris at the YDems blog says:

The Cheney protest was a HUGE success. There were about 300 people at the BYU Democrats' sit-in, and only about 35–50 at the Republican "Thank-you Cheney Party."

Members of the press were everywhere and I overheard several of them saying how amazed they were that we were being so civil. [...]

Several people came up to us and asked questions, like "What's waterboarding?" or "What does Dick Cheney have to do with Habeas Corpus?" Others sat down next to us and tried to understand why we are protesting. Overall, I think the protest was a great success and the one on Apr. 26 should be even better.

More coverage:

• Quiet rallies at BYU (Daily Herald)
• Y. rally quite tame (Deseret News)
• Hundreds gather on campus to protest or support Cheney's BYU visit (Salt Lake Tribune)

USAToday:

Many Democrats talked openly during the fall campaign about their faith and how it influenced their policy positions in an overt attempt to counter the power of the religious right.

Now that they have won control of Congress, people can expect next year to see a new set of issues being presented with a religious spin.

Restricting gay marriage and promoting prayer in schools as "values" issues are likely to be replaced by helping the poor and protecting the environment. [...]

[Rep. Lincoln] Davis [Tenn.], who is anti-abortion, is proposing a package of social programs to support pregnant women, particularly poor women, as a way to cut the number of abortions. He also believes issues such as the minimum wage should be viewed in religious or moral terms and used by anti-abortion groups to judge a member's commitment to reducing abortions.

An interesting article, but I couldn't help but notice that the author studiously avoids calling these religious folks "liberals", even though they're concerned about the environment and social justice (Tribune):

Perhaps the most significant change is coming from the rank and file, which until recently has been the most reliable constituency in the GOP coalition. In a farewell interview with Christianity Today, former White House speechwriter Michael Gerson, an evangelical Christian, emphasized this point: "I think there are lots and lots of young people, in their 20s to 40s, who are very impatient with older models of social engagement like those used by the religious right. They understand the importance of life issues and the family issues, but they know the concern for justice has to be broader and global. At least a good portion of the evangelical movement is looking for leaders who have a broader conception of social justice." [...]

"Do you know that evangelical leaders are telling us that global warming will produce even more devastating floods and disasters and disease on Earth?" Hunter asks viewers in the 30-second spot. "As Christians, our faith in Jesus Christ compels us to love our neighbors and to be stewards of God's creation. The good news is that with God's help, we can stop global warming, for our kids, for our world and for our Lord."

CBS News:

"Jesus called us to love our neighbor, love our enemy, care for the poor, care for the outcast, and that's really the moral core of where we think the nation ought to go," Dr. Bob Edgar, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches told CBS News correspondent Russ Mitchell.

The National Council of Churches represents about 50 million Christians in America — the majority of them mainline Protestants.

"Jesus never said one word about homosexuality, never said one word about civil marriage or abortion," Edgar said.

He calls this movement the "center-left" — and it's seeking the same political muscle as the conservative Christians, a group with a strong power base in the huge Evangelical churches of the South.

The Hill:

The Senate Democratic leadership says it has found a wedge issue to strengthen the party's position on abortion rights, which top strategists think has become a liability in recent years.

The wedge is legislation expanding access to contraceptives and sex education, which polls show a majority of Americans support but which Democrats are betting will be difficult for social conservatives in the Republican base to accept. [...]

Celinda Lake, a pollster with Lake Snell Perry Mermin and Associates, working for NARAL, has tested voter support for Reid's Prevention First Act.

"It's 3-to-1 in favor of it. Even pro-life voters support it," Lake said. "It has the potential to be both a wedge and a turnout issue post-Alito. It shows how extreme a faction the Republican Party is."