Resurresction of the Religious Left

As this Salon story asks - "The religious what?"

On this Easter day, here's wishing that Americans who claim to be Christian will snap out of their anti-gay, anti-abortion, anti-death-with-dignity trance and realize that most of the Republican agenda, especially the designs of the Bush Administration, is decidedly un-Christian.

There can be such thing as a religious left; in fact there has been before, backing most of the major social progress of our country: emancipation, women's suffrage, civil rights, etc. The Salon article also gives interesting background on how the right co-opted Christianity in America:

A series of Supreme Court decisions taking prayer and Bible reading out of schools, and culminating with Roe vs. Wade -- as well as, it must be noted, some civil rights victories in the South -- angered conservative evangelicals, and convinced them that government would not remain neutral, allowing them to simply live as they wished. Similarly, many Catholics -- who had largely stayed away from politics while assimilating amid anti-Catholicism -- were outraged by the Roe decision, and they developed into a politically active force, forming pro-life groups organized not by diocese but by congressional district. Both of these groups were embraced by Republican strategists desperate to form a political majority, who recognized that they could find common ground in the belief that government should stay out of their lives. It was a match made in heaven.

There are signs that some church leaders are starting to speak up against the social injustices of our government. Earlier this month,
Five mainline Protestant leaders called the President's FY06 budget 'unjust':

"In telling this story, Jesus makes clear that perpetrating economic injustice is among the gravest of sins," the leaders said in a joint statement.

"Like many Americans, we read our daily newspaper through the lens of faith, and when we see injustice, it is our duty to say so," they added. "The 2006 Federal Budget that President Bush has sent to Capitol Hill is unjust. It has much for the rich man and little for Lazarus."