Progressive people of faith are all called to serve social justice not just in our daily lives, but to work for upholding the basic dignity of human beings in public policies of social uplift especially for the most vulnerable and disenfranchised. Groups deserving particular attention include the economically as well as developmentally disadvantaged children from all backgrounds. Additional care needs to extend to the caregivers whether they be family, Special Education service providers or the more all encompassing Women Infants and Children (WIC) program, just to name one target under the axe in the Republican's new and improved vision for America on Ayn Rand steroids.
This just will NOT do.
It's enough to make me just want to scream...
Endorsed by all but four House Republicans, the Paul Ryan "Road to Prosperity" budget proposal would cut $758 million from WIC while actually increasing Defense spending by 8 billion dollars. That amounts to over ten times as much more for our military than the cuts recommended for this essential social program for so many.
It's as if we are being asked to dispose of our most problematic, unwanted, ugly little children here in a cash strapped America that can still afford to wage two (or three) wars at a time under the grand design of eventually eliminating our deficit (and why is this even an issue over, say, creating more JOBS in the meanwhile?) all on the backs of those who probably have had the very least to do with the implosion of our financial system by its own hand and the subsequent Great Recession.
The GOP's Paul Ry-Ayn Rand Paul deficit reduction / 2012 fiscal budget proposal has troubling implications for the social justice crowd. Ayn Rand's philosophic underpinnings, which reject fundamental religious values and the common good, is the starting point for a budget that helps the rich get richer while leaving the most vulnerable abandoned and alone. As if to underscore the inhumanity of Republican posturing, prominent conservative Christian leader Chuck Colson has cracked back on Rand's "anti-Christian" philosophy underlying their budget as having no place in Conservative politics:
It shouldn't surprise you to learn that her worldview, called Objectivism, which rejects love of God, has even less regard for love of neighbor. Jennifer Rubin, who wrote the definitive biography of Rand, says that "whereas traditional conservatism emphasized duties, responsibilities, and social interconnectedness, at the core" of Rand's ideology "was a rejection of moral obligations to others."
Well, hoo-rah for someone on the Religious Right finally (Google it yourself as I have no interest in providing a link to boost their traffic). The most significant point here is that even on the Right the contradiction between the Ryan Plan and Christian teachings around social justice is being confronted. Meanwhile Jim Wallis, the most prominent voice for Progressives on the Religious Left at the head of Sojourners, the nation’s premier Progressive Christian organization, is busy proving what an asshat HE is by slapping around the LGBT community in rejecting their "Welcome" video ad after handing out What Would Jesus Cut bracelets to House representatives in a triflingly tame and hypocritical response to the GOP's design on Medicare and other social programs.
The hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church in Americas' Bishops' seeming obsession with sexually-related issues typically give too little attention, or none at all, to matters of social justice and the teachings of the Church. Recently the Archbishop Timothy Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops went so far as to congratulate Boehner and Paul Ryan (both Catholics) on passage of the Ryan proposal through the House responding to criticism by Catholic Universities academic professors in labeling his House approved Budget proposal as "Anti-Life" and "particularly cruel" in confronting the moral indifference to cutting programs that support the most needy and vulnerable. You might suspect their open letter to Boehner and the Catholic Archbishop's was followed up by some Progressive religious leaders tipping the scales even more forcefully in criticizing the Republican's "new" economic policy followed next. Sadly I've not heard of any. I suppose we can sit back and allow Democratic lawmakers to reference social conservatives in on-going floor debates but surely we on the Left need to do more.
Still, Democrats offering a religious rationale for policy goals in countering Republican arguments threatens what for many has become the cherished principle of secular rationalism in public life and even though the principles of social justice underlies all major faith traditions, with the Christian demographic set by Pew Research in their U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, as being 78.4% of Americans, framing this principled objection to the GOP in terms of "Dems for Jesus" might not only be a problem for secularist progressives (much) but for progressive Christians who want to maintain the separation of church and state in public policy debate at all costs.
I have been a staunch supporter of maintaining separation principles taking on more of a Guerrilla Christian approach in the public square, like a guy in a bunny costume selling Tullips for the March of Dimes only more like sneaking into an evangelical pep rally only to confuse the crap out of them by actually quoting Jesus on social policy concerns. Personally though, I'm at a point where I could care less about those political ideals any longer at this stage where I see little being done to address these assaults on the social gospel and Jesus' ministry to the poor and wretched on the Left. How was the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s fight for Civil Rights legislation anything other than a reminder to Americans of their own Christian heritage paired with the promise made by our Constitution ensuring our inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? If the Democrats won't pick up the cross in fighting back on this one, where the hell is the Religious Left (again)? Spout off. Really. I'd love to know.
The Religious Left pretty well sputtered out following the Viet Nam war in 1975 and the incarceration of Catholic Fathers Daniel and Philip Berigan as any kind of dramatically effective force in American politics. At that same moment in time the center stage and focus on religion in politics shifted to the influence of socially conservative Christian evangelicals who have merged their identity with Republicans so thoroughly that in many cases the terms became synonymous and have maintained that spotlight on center stage for over 35 years now. The Religious Left meanwhile has seemed pathetically absent from the debate in any significant manner. It would be nice to be able to say finally again that the Religious Left has indeed got a pair in some way that certainly doesn't reflect Jim Wallis'.
No doubt part of the perceived dilemma I'm facing as I smash my head into the wall again is that I'm cut off from my own congregations in CO and Oregon, so tell me what your church has been up to cause I really would like to know. It would give me more hope in this era of 24 hour news cycles where folks like little kids can get over-looked and forgotten in a heart beat.
Now I know I'm probably inviting a pie fight here particularly around Democrats politically affiliating openly and aggressively on issues with religious underpinnings but I would seriously appreciate a forum for discussion of different peoples impressions and ideas (including strategies) to advance knocking the crap out of Republicans instead of one another this time for a change.
Remember if you're going to aim low at anyone here, aim low enough to only hit a Republican.
I'm gonna go with Jesus on this one and stick a cross right next to my American flag lapel pin and I'M IN button. So, bring it on....
We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 2Cor. 4:8-9