2 ms·
Well said. Re leftiest members of Congress - for one thing, they won't be very lefty as long as having a religion is a virtual requirement: "The only open athe
by yesenadam 8y ago
Well said. Re leftiest members of Congress - for one thing, they won't be very lefty as long as having a religion is a virtual requirement:
"The only open atheist in congressional history was California Democrat Pete Stark, who spent three decades in Congress before admitting to his lack of faith"
https://bigthink.com/21st-century-spirituality/how-many-openly-atheist-politicians-are-there-in-america https://bigthink.com/21st-century-spirituality/how-many-open...
- dragonwriter 8y ago> for one thing, they won't be very lefty as long as being a christian is a virtual requirement The idea that there aren't any very lefty Christians is...well, not entirely surprising given the logb-standing “left v religion” media narrative the US right spent so many decades fostering, but also not at all consistent with reality. Consider, e.g., Liberation Theology.
- yesenadam 8y agoYes, you're right. Or the radical priests of Latin America. MLK etc. Well, there doesn't seem much of that in the US these days. Jim Jones may have had an effect - he was a model left christian most of his career apparently.
- specialist 8y agoI have no idea what you're talking about. Us liberal Christians outnumber the others, we're more concerned about the teachings of Christ (cite The Beatitudes) over accumulating power or fighting culture wars, we consider it distasteful to push our beliefs onto others, and we're not organized politically and never will be.
- yesenadam 8y agoHi there! (Ah sorry, I don't know what I'm talking about either.) Well, nice to meet/hear from you. [Anecdata] Actually..I'm in rather atheist Australia, hardly met any christians here my whole life. But the last 10 years have made a lot of friends online - who are almost all christians - mostly catholic, but not all - in Latin America, the Philippines, Africa. At least, they live in very christian worlds, and are I suppose closer to what you describe than the right-wing uh....than the christianity mostly seen in the mainstream media. They're just lovely people. :-)
- dragonwriter 8y ago> Or the radical priests of Latin America. That (largely) was Liberation Theology. > Well, there doesn't seem much of that in the US these days. There's plenty; see, e.g., Cornel West. It's perhaps less visible than right-wing Christianity because left Christianity tends not to be theocratic in its political activism, which can make it easier to overlook the Christian part and see only the left part.
- loseyourslinky 8y agoThat’s silly you can be a leftist and follow a religion especially one that isn’t very organized. Perhaps you can’t be a completely orthodox Marxist Leninist but you can certainly be a communist , perhaps even an explicitly Christian communist. The us congress doesn’t have any communist in it but the criteria of being a communist is the end of most/all private capital, the whole religion being the opiate of the masses is one line by Marx and may be one of the defining features of 20th century communist regimes, but is hardly the defining feature of who is and isn’t a leftist.
- mikeash 8y agoThe vast majority of Democrats are Christians, roughly 3/4ths as of 2014. http://www.pewforum.org/2015/11/03/u-s-public-becoming-less-religious/ http://www.pewforum.org/2015/11/03/u-s-public-becoming-less-...
- dragonwriter 8y agoTo be fair, the vast majority of Democrats aren't leftists, so that doesn't actually say much about the compatibility of Christianity and leftism.