Kevin Drum posts a guest editorial by former Clinton policy wonk Bruce Reed, complaining about the lack of religion at the march for choice.
This matches the current talking point among moderate Democrats, which is that us darned leftists are too anti-religion and don’t include religious progressives in our movements. Since it fits in with the current talking point, lots of folks will read it and nod along and say “how true.” And heck, probably it is true on some larger level. But it’s completely false regarding this Sunday’s march. As “J from VJ,” writing in the comments to the post, put it:
I was actually impressed at how much religious representation there was (on stage and off).
Could it be that you were seeing what you wanted to see?
I agree with Reed that there’s way too much religion-bashing among liberals and leftists. But part of undoing that has to be promoting visibility among religious progressives. Reed (and Kevin Drum) have relatively big megaphones, and it’s a shame they’ve skipped this opportunity to do some good on this front.
Why is it that religious progressives are invisible? One reason is that “everyone knows” that leftists are anti-religion and rightists are Godly folk, and so evidence that supports that narrative tends to be reported more and discussed more, while counter-evidence is ignored. Rather than writing a post or article that pumps up the religious presence at the March, and talks about the ministers and rabbis and church groups and so on, Reed writes a post that serves right-wing purpopses by claiming there were no religous pro-choicers there at all. Reed’s being part of the problem, not part of the solution.
Body and Soul is on this, too.
UPDATE: Via Body & Soul, here’s the post from “V from VJ” herself..
Thanks for the link, amp — but small nit: J from VJ is a different poster than V from VJ — we’re co-bloggers. :-)
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