Can A Gay Millennial Midwestern Mayor Help Break The Right's 'monopoly On Faith'?

A wonderful irony is occurring in American politics — even in the early presidential campaign — and I wanted to make sure you all are aware of it.

For decades now, the traditional and media political wisdom is that Republicans control religion in American politics, and, with the exception of African Americans, the Democrats don’t like to talk much about faith. This assumption is embraced by Republicans, with white evangelicals in many churches telling their fellow congregants that they can’t possibly vote for Democrats. Part of the reason for this misconception is media illiteracy about religion and the personal secular bias of many journalists.

In an article in USA Today, Kirsten Powers spoke of a resurgent “progressive” faith movement as perhaps being just what the country needs right now, adding, “But nonconservative Christians generally do not receive the same level of news media attention as the religious right, despite their deep understanding of Scripture and thriving faith traditions. Because most journalists are secular, they can be gullible in looking to the religious right as arbiters of biblical interpretation, especially as it relates to hot-button cultural and political issues. Because of this, many Americans aren’t even aware of the rich tradition of progressive Christianity.”

I would even add to that that there is a bias against religion per se among some secular journalists; they want all religion to look like the religious right does — closed, exclusive, and hardline conservative — because it fits an easy narrative. In fact, I’ve observed that the religious right and the secular left have one thing in common: They both want the world to think that all religion is right-wing.

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