Good News for Progressives

Dudley’s disenchantment with the GOP isn’t unique among young, devoutly Christian voters. According to a September 2007 survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, 15 percent of white evangelicals between 18 and 29, a group traditionally a shoo-in for the GOP, say they no longer identify with the Republican Party. Older evangelicals are also questioning their traditional allegiance, but not at the same rate.

But, Howard Dean, don’t count your chickens quite yet. College-age and 20-something Christians may be leaving the GOP, but only 5 percent of young evangelicals have joined the Democrats, according to the Pew survey. The other 10 percent are wandering the political wilderness, somewhere between “independent” and “unaffiliated.”

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Claiborne has traveled around the country the past several years, speaking and preaching mostly to college-age Christians who are “both socially conservative and globally aware.” That makes them disenchanted with both major parties, he said.

“It’s not about liberal or conservative, or Democrats or Republicans,” he said. “I don’t think it’s a new evangelical left. … There’s a new evangelical stuck-in-the-middle.”

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Eugene Cho, a founder and lead pastor at Seattle’s Quest Church, which caters to a predominantly under-35 crowd, urges young Christians to look beyond the two or three issues that have allowed Christians to be “manipulated by those that know the game or use it as their sole agenda.”

“While the issue of abortion – the sanctity of life – must always be a hugely important issue, we must juxtapose that with other issues that are also very important,” Cho wrote in his blog on faith and politics.

Polls have shown that young Christians aren’t any less concerned about the “family values” issues that have traditionally driven Christians to the Republican camp. (In fact, a study by the Barna Group, an evangelical polling organization, shows young Christians are actually more conservative on abortion than their elders.) It’s just that they’re also concerned about issues such as social justice and immigration, issues traditionally associated with Democrats.

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“This could turn out to be the election where both parties realize that the evangelical vote is so hopelessly split down the middle that it’s not worth courting them at all because what parties need are blocs that can be appealed to en masse,” Crouch said. “Paradoxically, evangelicals would become less relevant than ever before.”

It is our belief that Progressives have always been a socialy conservative group, and traditional morals and values play a big part in our motivation to fight for change. This has been one of the key differences between classic Progressive philosophy and mainstream liberalism. Besides this difference in motivational forces, there is also the reality that liberal cultural values drive away many evangelicals and other religious voters.

On the flip side, younger evangelicals whose parents found a home among conservatives in the 1980′s and saw their power sky-rocket in the 1990′s, are beginning to realize that the GOP does not meet their needs either. The GOP’s failures to control spending, to address poverty and to bring the war in Iraq to conclusion are all driving away young evangelicals. We also believe that environmental concerns, which the GOP has failed us tremendously on, are alienating young evangelicals, because they see environmental change as a moral issue.

Success for a new Progressive Movement is going to come from the middle. It is going to begin with Centrists of both parties as well as passionate independents. It is going to build on those who feel they have no place in either party. If this initial effort is successful, a Progressive movement will either begin to spread out into both parties and draw them towards the middle, or it will be forced to push for viable third-party status. We hope some of these ‘stuck-in-the-middle’ evangelicals will find Centrism and Progressivism appealing.

We have welcomed what we perceive as a weaking of the power older evangelicals hold over the GOP. If the GOP is going to be saved, we feel that the stranglehold of the Religious Right must be broken. Young evangelicals, more flexible in their thinking and more willing to redefine themselves, will actually increase their voice as both sides seek their votes. We feel that by plugging them into a new Progressive Movement they could be a major force and be a block that both sides must listen to. This is in keeping with our vision of Progressivism as a bi-partisan movement.