In the end, the Democrats weren’t even trying. Their well-hyped outreach to religious conservatives dribbled away in a thin soup of solutions that have long failed to solve social problems.
The title of Tuesday’s Faith Forum at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Denver asked the question: “How can progressives and conservatives find common ground?” The answer: Apparently they can't.
Moderator Jim Wallis of Sojourners cautioned his audience that God is neither Republican nor Democrat, but from that point on you’d have thought God had endorsed the entire social agenda of the political Left.
Education? Stop teaching to the tests and emphasize critical thinking skills, said Rabbi Jack Moline, a panelist. He also prescribed affordable child care and early childhood education.
President Bush’s faith-based initiatives? “Bad for the poor, bad for religion, bad for the country and unconstitutional," Rabbi David Saperstein said.
One of the speakers actually carved a new road leftward, well away from that elusive common ground. The Rev. Jennifer Kottler of the Let Justice Roll Living Wage Coalition spoke glowingly of what she called a tradition in Celtic Christianity — the redistribution of property. She said God has made His gift of grace abundant to everyone, and His gift of nature should be no less available to everyone.
When the topic turned to the pesky issue of abortion, former U.S. Rep. Tim Roemer praised Sen. Barack Obama’s desire to see abortions reduced 95 percent in 10 years, adding the caveat “fully within the law” –— meaning, apparently, “keep your hands off Roe v. Wade.” Wallis barely mentioned abortion, but sliced the Republicans when he did, saying they lacked a “consistent ethic” of life — again, meaning “don’t talk to us about abortion until you oppose the death penalty.”
This cheap shot, of course, erases the distinction between the innocent and the guilty, and therein lies the larger point in the abortion debate, a point totally ignored by these panelists. There can be only one reason Obama wants to see 95 percent fewer abortions — it is the unjustified taking of innocent life. And for that reason alone, it should not just be reduced, but eliminated. This is the huge gap in logic that pro-abortionists refuse to address.
Tuesday’s dip by the DNC into the liberal realms of religion is a strange and barren landscape for religious conservatives. There is nothing of sin, redemption, salvation, and very little of personal responsibility and self-discipline. Based on the presentations by the nine panelists at this two-hour forum, there is, in this world, mostly government-given rights and government grants.
This heavy realization sank in upon one member of the audience who, during the question-and-answer time, said: “God didn’t send us a check, He sent us Jesus.”
Perhaps, but in the world of the Religious Left, Jesus cooperates fully with the government.
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