The religious left reasserts itself?
With the election of Barack Obama, and the fact that, despite their vast political differences, faith remained as much a part of his candidacy as it did with our current president’s, some are suggesting that the “religious left” is resurging. An earlier post here by Pamela Dolan hinted at it.
Traditionally understood, we could define the “religious left” as mainline (”white bread”) and African-American Protestants, liberal Catholics, and Reform Jews. That’s an oversimplification but I think that’s how most people would have envisioned the demographic in its mid-twentieth century heyday.
Now the Pew Forum has released its findings on “how the faithful voted.”
I’m struck by the fact that, just like the general populace, this election seems to prefigure an entire shift in religious demographics. Rather than this being simply one dormant religious segment of public life reasserting itself, it is the continuation of subtle shifts in the entire public religious landscape. That might be overstating it. But the example I would point to is the generational shift we seem to be seeing among evangelicals. Younger evangelicals are much more drawn to issues of social justice and the environment (think Jim Wallis) than their older counterparts (think Jerry Falwell).
So much so that perhaps it’s no longer very helpful to think, at least in political-religious terms, of “left” and “right.” Time will tell.
Travis Scholl, 35, is managing editor of theological publications at Concordia Seminary. A graduate of Yale Divinity School (MDiv), he is an ordained Lutheran minister. Despite some time away, he and his wife are native St. Louisans, as is the child they are now raising. 
Dave, what I think is happening, is that the younger evangelicals in particular, are expanding their external focus into other areas. They are seeing and coming to understand that their faith informs their actions and their public priorities beyond abortion and gay marriage. They are reading their Bibles and finding a lot in there about their responsibilities to be good stewards of what God has given, to be concerned about the plight of the very poor, to be bothered intensely by the death penalty and how it’s administered, and so on.
That isn’t to say that they put these issues ABOVE their faith. They are putting their faith into action in these areas. They are, to put it bluntly, keeping their evangelical zeal, but removing it from the politics of their parents.