Compassionate Progressivism

By Eric Sapp - The Guardian, Opinion
Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - Web Link
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April 14, 2008

Ten years from now, political historians will mark Sunday night's Compassion Forum as a watershed moment in modern American political history. It wasn't the answers from the politicians that made the event such an historic experience - truth be told, there weren't any earth-shattering revelations or memorable one-liners. It was questions that were asked, who was asking them and who was answering.

The head of the Southern Baptists Convention, the spokesman for the National Association of Evangelicals (the largest evangelical group in the nation), the head of the evangelical Council of Christian Colleges, the head of International Justice Mission, the founder of Redeem The Vote (the group that registered most of the evangelicals that handed George Bush his 2004 victory) and the former president-elect of the Christian Coalition were there. The fact that such a "who's who" of conservative white evangelical leaders had gathered at a conservative evangelical college to talk about their religious policy priorities was nothing new. The rise in power of the Republican party in the 1990s and Bush's victories in 2000 and especially 2004 were largely the result of similar gatherings, where politicians spoke openly about their faith and the policy priorities of the "faithful", and (as was the case with the Compassion Forum) had their statements beamed directly into thousands of evangelical megachurch sanctuaries and fellowship halls by the conservative Christian Communication Network. So in one sense, much of this had happened before.

What made the Compassion Forum unique was that these evangelical leaders weren't talking to Republicans - John McCain inexplicably declined to attend - they were speaking with and applauding Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, the two potential Democratic nominees for president. And although abortion did come up, the main focus was on the "new" (from a political sense but "old" from a Biblical one) set of issue priorities for evangelical and Catholic voters, such as creation care (faith-based environmentalism), torture, genocide in Darfur, domestic and international poverty, HIV/Aids and healthcare.

Whereas the wedge issues that had previously defined the faith and politics debate were generated for explicitly partisan purposes and created a simplistic narrative meant to pit the "faithful Christian" against the secular world, the compassion issues are more deeply rooted in the teachings of Christ and reflect that fact by their ability to speak a universal and unifying truth to Christians and non-Christians alike. These issues focus on a message of hope instead of fear, on "neighbour" instead of "other". And they are the priorities of the new generation of evangelical and Catholic leaders who are coming into their own throughout the country.