When Red Is Red

In October 2007 I wrote a column entitled "When Red Is Blue." In it I took Jim Wallis, Tony Campolo, Sojourners, and other assorted Christians to task for claiming the political and theological middle ground while actually being in the hip pocket of the Democrats:

Of course, while Christians should not be beholden to any political party, our politics must be informed by our faith. Unfortunately, the platform of Red-Letter Christians always seems to come out of the wash blue, just as some other "nonpartisan" Christian groups consistently align with the Republicans.

If you believe ending poverty requires more government spending and a higher minimum wage; if you believe in a manmade global warming crisis; if you oppose school vouchers; if homosexual marriage is no big deal (and in fact a civil right); and if you are tired of talking about the 50 million unborn human beings lost to abortion since 1973, then you know which lever to pull.

The Red-Letter Christians vigorously protested. CT allowed Rev. Campolo to post a reply at the end of my column, in which he said:

You got us RLCs right again when you suggested we were anti-war, pro-environment, and deeply committed to ending poverty primarily because we believe Jesus is anti-war, pro-environment, and deeply committed to ending poverty. The only mistake you made was to imply that thinking this way—or trying to influence our government according to these values—makes us the Religious Left.

Well, now that a political liberal occupies the White House, the polite fiction of nonpartisanship has been dispensed with. Sojourners is coming into the open to say what many have long suspected, that it is a religious tool of the Left. Jason Gedeik, deputy press secretary of Sojourners, yesterday notified my colleague Ted Olsen and other members of the religious media:

I wanted to gauge your interest in the first big mobilization of the Religious Left in the Obama era — a signal of the shift in power dynamics. Sojourners is mobilizing over a thousand Christian activists and 70 religious and anti-poverty groups at a conference next week in DC to prepare a new poverty coalition for legislative battle this year. This is the Religious Left filling the hole created by the decline of the Religious Right but now we have the political power and ear of the White House — definitely a new trend and a “first” within this new political era.

As Ted correctly notes, "For decades, Sojourners founder Jim Wallis has repeatedly argued that neither he nor Sojourners are part of the Religious Left."

Actually, the only thing that has changed with this open political mobilization is the Religious Left's willingness to admit where it really stands. I wonder if the Red-Letter Christians will sell themselves out as much as the Religious Right, at times, has, in their lust for political power. If so, then it will be likely true that red is not only blue. It will also be red-with embarrassment.