The religious left

[GOP732]

If you go to South Carolina, you see a church on every block. If you go to Newark, you see two churches on every block. What makes the religious left different from the religious right, and why does it seem like no one ever talks about the religious left? They appear to be strikingly similar, the right has Pat Robertson and the left has Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I suspect that the point could be made that the religious right is greater in volume. For some time, more Americans have self-identified as conservative than as liberal. Furthermore, I expect that the American left is much more secular than the American right, though that may not show somewhere like Newark.

[hcallega]

The reason is pretty simple: The Religous Right has money, the left not so much.

Also, the left is far more divided on social issues. There are a lot of pro-life Catholic priests who are extremely progressive on other issues. This leads to a lack of unity in terms of political support and message.

[rebeltarian]

Left-wing politics are growing in the religious community.  As the Robertsons and Falwells pass on, they are being replaced by more social justice-minded figures like Shane Claiborne, Jim Wallis and Rick Warren.  I know a lot of 20-something Christians who are sick of the hypocrisy of the religious right, are against the wars and are really into egalitarian ideas like care for the poor and preserving the environment.  So long as the abortion issue remains a wedge between the two parties, we probably won't see a sudden overwhelming shift of religious folks to the Democrats, but I do predict them to become swing voters within the next few elections. 

As a man of faith myself, I wish religion didn't play such a big role in politics.  What scares me is that, as badly as the religious right has abused God, a militant religious left in the Democratic Party would seriously piss off alot of secular tax payers.  Imagine Christian Communists enacting mandatory volunteerism and pouring our tax dollars down the drain to corrupt 3rd-world governments all in the name of "justice", ughh! 

[HAnnA MArin County]

The Religious Left? That's a new one. Funny how you only mention Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Name me another leader of this "Religious Left" who isn't black and I'll try to answer the question seriously.

As for why no one ever talks about them, it's because they either don't exist (or they do, just really small in numbers) or because they don't create controversy. The Religious Left, I'm going to assume, isn't out there picketing and bombing abortion clinics or protesting at military funerals shouting GOD HATES FAGS or blaming every problem in America on homosexuality. The Religious Left, I think, is more concerned with other social issues like ending poverty and promoting environmentalism and caring for the common man, as someone said above. The Religious Right gets more attention because they have an agenda of using wedge issues like abortion, gay marriage and guns to scare up voters and this gets them more attention, so to answer your question, I think it's because the Religious Right is bigger in numbers and because they're so divisive and controversial, the media decides to talk about them more and they get more coverage. Just my opinion.

[GOP732]

The Religious Left? That's a new one. Funny how you only mention Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Name me another leader of this "Religious Left" who isn't black and I'll try to answer the question seriously.

I only  mentioned two black guys because most of the religious left is African American. However, there are several catholic leaders who fit the description. I was just asking why people on the left who are deeply religious seem to be overlooked in political discussions.

[Bo]

Name me another leader of this "Religious Left" who isn't black and I'll try to answer the question seriously.

James Garfield and JFK back in the day.