New Movement in US: The Religious Left It is not known when Turkish leftists will discover this movement; nonetheless, a new movement, the Religious Left, is rising rapidly in the United States. There are predominantly black churches, moderate Protestants, liberal Catholics, religious peace activists and an increasing number of religious immigrants in this movement.

This movement does not dwell on issues such as gay marriage and debates on evolution, which are the traditional views of the Democrats. It gives prominence to issues such as the Iraq War and environmental protection. According to a university survey, 27 percent in the US define themselves as “Religious Left.” As for the Religious Right, it still ranks first with 38 percent. The survey noted that pure secularists remain at 21 percent. The leader of a newly-rising Christian lobby group, Jim Winkler, targets President [George W.] Bush because of the increase in violence. “He claims Bush waged an illegal, aggressive war on Iraq and deceived everybody with lies.” He preaches sermons like,” Honesty will be maintained in human society and in the system and the God’s order will be established. One of the major efforts of the new Religious Left is to take back religious meanings and the discourse over symbols from the hands of traditional right. Saying,” They stole Christ from us,” the Religious Left is now trying to take back Jesus from the hands of the rightists. According to the new movement, Christian fundamentalists paid too much attention to Bush; they diverted to a path that ignores the basic Christian values, such as the honesty and fairness in Bush’s personality. It is said that Hillary Clinton, who is one of the Democratic Party’s presidential candidates, is already investing in this movement. Clinton’s adviser on religious issues, Jim Wallis, is one of the leading representatives of the new Religious Left. One of his books is titled, “The Policy of God: Why does the Right Misunderstand it and Why doesn’t the Left Understand it.” Wallis says, ”The right is no longer the only voice on the issue of religion.” Another leader of the Religious Left is Rabbi Michael Lerner and his book is titled, “The left hand of God.” It stresses that the Religious Left has roots in US history and played an important role in the abolition of slavery. Martin Luther King is regarded as one of the former leaders of this movement, which fights for citizenship rights. Nevertheless, the US Democratic Party has handed over all religious issues to the Republicans in the past 30 years. This resulted in Bush becoming popular, relying on propaganda embellished with religious discourse. Lerner says,” “The left’s enmity towards religion made progressive and religious people lose their enthusiasm in leftist policies.” After the six-year tenure of the Bush administration, the Democrats have begun to understand gradually that religion cannot be erased from politics. The leading prospective candidates in the Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, gradually are raising the religious tone in their speeches. While the new bill envisaging the deportation of 12 million immigrants who sneaked into the US was being hotly debated, Clinton made a surprising statement saying,” This law will make many religious people guilty, it would even make Christ guilty. The Latin churches, in a determined way, have already taken sides with the Hispanic immigrants, who are considered ‘illegal.’” In a statement she made in 2005, Clinton stunned traditional Democrats by describing abortion as “a very saddening and even tragic event for most women.” A survey conducted in the US on climate change in the world, revealed that 63 percent of the Christians believe that this means destroying God’s order. Bush’s Republican administration, which does not care about climate change, falls on the wrong side in this regard. The Religious Left is now uniting environmental themes with religious motives more and more. Many countries, including Turkey, have experienced Islam and the unity of the left. The sad thing is to regard morals, patriotism, nationalistic spirit and fight against poverty as commodities of the rightist ideology. A society that is falling apart cannot even tell its children about sensitive issues like Canakkale (Dardanelles). Who will understand these? Who will love this country with all what it possesses by breaking the pathetic ideological patterns? June 06, 2006 Hi there! Salamo-alaikum I am new to Zaman.com.Infact today was my first day to its pages.I found some interesting articles written by you there.I had always thought of Turkey as grewup .Lot of stories in my culture …lots of words in my urdu language from turkish. Keep up good work. Regards and best wishes Dr.M.Azfar MS,FRCS(Edin.),FACS Deptt.Surgery Armed Forces Hospital Kuwait

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