Needed: A progressive Christianity to restore the nation’s civic virtues (COMMENTARY)

[hrmjustin]

Tom Ehrich

(RNS) Election 2014: Something important has just happened.

Big money bought an election. Fear prevailed over confidence and loathing over reason. The majority chose not to vote, allowing a passionate minority — older, whiter — to change the balance of power. Attack ads drowned out issues. A broken political system tolerated cheating and bullying.

Most worrisome is the absence of the virtues that enable a democracy to function in a challenging world. Civic-mindedness gave way to clever voter-suppression tactics. Freedom of the press got lost in attack ads and deliberate distortions of reality. Respect for opponents is gone. So too is the search for common ground, competing ideas, confidence in the nation, confidence in government, confidence in the future. Gone, gone, gone.

http://www.religionnews.com/2014/11/11/needed-progressive-christianity-restore-nations-civic-virtues-commentary/

[rug]

1. I'm as leery of using religion to instill progressive civic values as I am of using it to instill

regressive civic values.

If a progressive political argument cannot be made without reference to religion, it's not much of an argument.