Kerry-Edwards bumper stickers on a couple of cars in the parking lot notwithstanding, the church is a no-politics zone this morning. The sermon is about money, but there's no mention of tax policies or military spending. Instead, the focus is on personal spending habits. We stand and pray for those who have family in the path of Hurricane Ivan but do not mention those whose loved ones are in the battle zones of Iraq. The Rev. Ray Christenson mentions Community Lutheran's Progressive Dinner next weekend, but it's not what it might be; ie., a discussion of progressive politics, of a need for the liberal-leaning side of the Christian faith to speak up, to get involved in this election. Instead, "it's progressive," explains the woman registering people for the event, "you start at one house and have appetizers, and then you go to the next house for the main course, and then ..."
President Bush employs religious terminology almost as frequently as he drops made-up words. In public forums, he's been swift to say his favorite philosopher is Christ, that "there is a higher father I have to appeal to," that God guided him in his decision to run for president and to attack Iraq. He speaks in biblical terms of "evildoers" and says freedom is "the Almighty's gift" to everyone and regularly reiterates how warm it makes him feel that people pray for him and his foreign policy.
Simultaneously, he's given plenty of winks and nods to anti-abortion and anti-gay and anti-stem-cell-research activists, handouts to the fattest in the military-industrial complex and free rides to the highest income earners.
So it's fair to say he's done his share to keep up the common misunderstanding that devout Christianity is synonymous with right-wing politics. In this great smear, many Christians say, Christianity is falsely equated with tax cuts for the rich, hatred for multiculturalism, death to thousands of innocent people and less government support for the poor, unhealthy and elderly.
"Personally, when I watch George Bush intone religion, I start to feel like I want to throw up," the Rev. David Krueger-Duncan of Northwest Community Church in Las Vegas said. "It's obscene. If the Christian Right thinks they're Christianity, then that's horrific."
Politically, churches have provided a handy grass-roots base for both Republicans and Democrats for years. For Democrats particularly, churches have been a doorway through which politicians reach minority populations, and religious liberals have had stretches of intense political activity, such as in opposing Vietnam. But nowhere is the mix of politics and religion more high-profile right now in America than on calculated issues of sexuality and nationalism/war—areas where the Right has used religion, either overtly or through the use of Christian buzzwords ("evildoers," etc.) to couch issues, as a foundation for public policy.
For example, earlier this week, the Republican National Committee sent a mass mailing in West Virginia warning voters that the Bible will be banned and men will marry men should the Democrats lead the country.
Theologically, more than a few Christians who disagree with the right-wing platform and propaganda are grumbling about the way politics is associated with their religion. Never mind the atrocities of conservative politics, what's Bush doing to the image of Christianity?
"Many of us feel that our faith has been stolen, and it's time to take it back," Jim Wallis, executive director of Sojourners, a socially liberal Christian organization said in an op-ed published in the Boston Globe this summer.
"A misrepresentation of Christianity has taken place ... How did the faith of Jesus come to be known as pro-rich, pro-war and pro-American?"
(This seems especially noteworthy considering former President Clinton's Christian positioning.) "Strident voices claim to represent Christians when they clearly don't speak for most of us. We hear politicians who love to say how religious they are but fail to apply the values of faith to their leadership and policies ...
"Faith hates violence and exerts a fundamental presumption against war instead of justifying it in God's name ... Faith creates community from racial, class, and gender division (and) prefers international community over nationalist religion," Wallis said.
But while many devout Christians can agree that they disagree with the right-wing interpretation of their faith, they lack a united front to express their opposition. Where Bush-Cheney tapped more than a thousand Pennsylvania pastors to form Bush-Cheney clubs in June, Kerry seemed overwhelmed by the prospect of handling his own faith politically—his abortion stand left him in a personal fight with the Catholic Church. Although Kerry has certainly made church appearances, he doesn't seem to have brought his whole game to the issue—perhaps underestimating its significance until recently. And Christian liberals are divided about how—and whether they even should—express their religious beliefs politically, while Christian conservatives translate religious beliefs into votes masterfully.
Christian liberals also differ on whether they should be more concerned about the integrity of their faith or the success of their politics. It's an ends-justifies-the-means question: Should they keep the faith clean by staying out of the mud of politics, or keep their ideals alive by diving in? This doesn't seem to bother the religious Right: They're in.
So, for the Christian Left, there's a leadership problem, a directional problem and a unity problem. It's not unlike the trouble the Democrats and Kerry have had with staying on message all summer.
Call it wishy-washiness or intellectual intensity, it makes for painstakingly little action.
Last year in Kentucky, though, a few pastors decided it was time to forego the high ground, get into the political muck and speak up for the Christian Left.
"We got very concerned with the politics of this administration, and felt outrage at the religious claims made by the administration that were directly counter to our religion—things like favoritism for the rich over the poor—that just won't do," the Rev. Albert Pennybacker of the Disciples of Christ Church, said.
"So we called together six or eight of us to talk about this, and we met with people in Washington who are in the loop, and out of that we concluded that, yeah, there was a need for a clergy network that said to the Christian Right, 'We are bigger than one perspective.'"
So was born the Clergy Network for National Leadership Change, a 527 of which Pennybacker is CEO. The group has some 1,500 clergy members around the country today and has raised more than $100,000 on $25 memberships and donations. There is no state coordinator in Nevada yet.
"We've been far too timid on the left," Pennybacker said. "The attacks from the Christian right have been pretty vigorous, and the moderate community has been caught off guard.
"The truth is, people who are moderately liberal and progressive are the majority of Christians," Pennybacker said. "We get fascinated by the extreme, by the far right, but most people fall into a moderately liberal category."
An August 24, 2004, nationwide survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life and the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press showed that 52 percent of Americans think the Republican party is "friendly" toward religion. But 40 percent also saw the Democratic party as friendly toward religion, and another 34 percent cast Dems as "neutral" toward religion. Thirteen percent viewed Democrats as "unfriendly" toward religion.
Of those polled, 72 percent want a president with "strong religious beliefs," but 65 percent oppose the endorsing of political candidates by houses of worship, and 69 percent oppose church involvement in nominally neutral "get out the vote" efforts.
Pennybacker says it's necessary to balance out the religious Right with a vocal religious Left in order to slide the middle back leftward a bit. "We want to affirm that America has always had a level religious playing field, that's the First Amendment," Pennybacker said.
As a 527, the group can evaluate candidates:
"Every social-justice issue we care about will be seriously set back if this administration continues—from health care to services for the poor, " said Pennybacker, former director of public policy for the National Council of Churches.
"I think we're facing a campaign that's rooted in fear and greed. But it should be about hope and caring, the cornerstones of liberal religion," Pennybacker said.
"Mean religion is bad stuff. They've co-opted God, and that's suspect religion. If your God is mad at only the people that you're mad at, then you've created Him in your image."
The Clergy Network has a several-tiered plan of action, including mobilizing clergy in the swing states such as Nevada.
"Between now and the election, we're concentrating on public statements that say you can be religious without being conservative—we need to give a public voice to a progressive public point of view, in the form of ads, letters to editors, op-ed pieces, radio and talk-show appearances.
"Second, voter mobilization. We want to get everybody to vote. Third, we want to plant pastors at the polls. We're inviting them to take Tuesday, November 2, off and be a presence at the polls that says to people, 'This election is very important.'"
The Clergy Network isn't the only somewhat aggressive, new liberal Christian political organization to dive into the campaign this year. In June, there was a conference in Washington, D.C., called "Faith and Progressive Policy: Proud Past, Promising Future," attended by clergy from the United Methodist, Presbyterian and Episcopal churches, among others. It was organized by the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank funded by anti-Bush billionaire George Soros in its mission to encourage "the religious community to build coalitions in support of progressive policy goals." The Center is headed by John Podesta, Clinton's former chief of staff.
But how is that morally any different than what the religious Right is doing—invoking religion to sway the vote? Some pastors who oppose Bush's policies and see the religious Right as harmful to the popular image of Christianity say that the church still shouldn't get involved in campaigning for president on either side.
"The fundamental problem is most of my side of the street regards what the religious Right does as immoral, so to combat them would be similarly immoral," Krueger-Duncan said.
"We do talk about being politically active in church, but the idea for me to put a voter guide in the church pews doesn't even enter my mind," said Krueger-Duncan. "It's immoral to distribute those things in church. It's associating the will of God with a specific individual or policy. I'm more interested in being on God's side than having God be on my side." And, of course, he's interested in keeping the IRS at bay—being a nonprofit [501c3] prohibits a church from directly supporting a candidate.
"Let's say I realize that by not being an advocate for the political left I'm going to weaken the resolve of those who will become prey to the Christian Right. That's bad. But we're a bunch of idealists, and sometimes it's a good thing to be on the right side of a losing cause. It's not that we're masochists, but if I distributed a voter guide, then they would win because I would have become them," Krueger-Duncan said.
Similarly, Wallis said, it's not that Christians need to form a left-wing political action committee. Instead, he says, "the best public contribution of religion is precisely not to be ideologically predictable or a loyal partisan, [but] to always raise the issue of human rights."
"In an election year, the particular religiosity of a candidate, or even how devout he might be, is less important than how his religious and/or moral commitments and values shape political vision and policy commitments."
But even when liberal Christian leaders do decide to get involved, the free-will and all-welcoming nature of their religious organizations may interfere with their effectiveness. The very fact that they tolerate multiple viewpoints makes acting on a single political agenda more difficult. "There's no question that the Christian Left is not organized, for various reasons," said Chris Soper, author of Evangelical Christianity in the U.S. and Britain: Religious Beliefs, Political Choices, and a professor at Pepperdine University in California.
"At an institutional level, there's nothing on the Christian Left that will be as successful at mobilizing people in the pews to go door to door. Part of the frustration is simply that the people in the Christian Left are not as involved. It's easier to mobilize people who are in church twice a week. Progressive churches haven't been as successful in thinking about politics in specifically religious terms. Church members are not trained to think about politics religiously."
Back at Christ Lutheran in Las Vegas, the loosely coalesced voices of congregation and choir fill the sanctuary with a 100-year-old hymn. The church bulletin in the hands of most of the 200 or more in here gives some indication of what church is about to this moderately liberal congregation: "We need baby food, juices, lotions & wipettes" to donate to those in need, it says. "Want to Be a Better Parent?" "How to Forgive Ourselves and Others." "We Welcome All people." "Do You Want to Connect with Other Moms in All Stages of Life?"
"I don't know of many liberal churches that are active in the election specifically, because they're worried about their 501c3 status," said Paul Brown of the Progressive Leadership Alliance in Nevada. "For example, the IRS is watching PLAN's every move, and they just informed us they're going to audit us again this year. We've been doing nonpartisan work. So I can tell you that all the liberal churches I'm familiar with are being more careful than last time around.
"There's an implied threat from the IRS. As a nonprofit, I feel we're being harassed. It smacks of the Nixon era." Of course, in theory, that would be an equal-opportunity threat applied to churches both red and blue.
That's not to say that there are no liberal Christian activists in Nevada. The Christian Peace and Justice Commission, headed by a Catholic priest, protested Bush and Cheney when they made appearances here. And other religious organizations that don't entirely buy into the right-wing political agenda have lobbying groups here, for example, the Religious Alliance in Nevada, or RAIN.
"Generally, we look at substance issues; for example, we are opposed to the death penalty," Bob Payant, RAIN president, said. "We favor welfare reform and we work to have welfare benefits increased. On the other hand, we have five denominations, and if even one does not agree, we do not take a stand on that issue." Thus, the group—Presbyterians, United Methodists, Evangelical Lutherans, Episcopalians and Catholics—did not take a stand on the gay-marriage issue, for example. "There was quite a split on that one," Payant, a Catholic, said.
And for every Christian disagreement about party politics, there are Democrats who disagree about religion. Christianity has something of a negative brand association among educated liberals.
"It's like being in Germany in the 1960s. Nobody wanted to be known as German because to be German was to be a Nazi," said Krueger-Duncan.
"We're almost to the point where the Right has so distorted Christianity that a great number of us would rename it," Krueger -Duncan said. When his liberal church members went out to work at a nonpolitical event recently, they had an internal dispute about the matching T-shirts they chose to wear because they had "Jesus Christ" on them as a part of a biblical verse.
"It was seriously debated whether to drop the Jesus Christ mention—the 'J word.' I said, 'You can drop it, but then you'll drop me too.' It was a serious suggestion on the part of some of our members to market our belief system better, and I understand where they're coming from. But I say we should double the font size. We exist in Jesus Christ."
Ditto, says Pennybacker. "A good religion isn't going to be hijacked by anyone."