By Mark Tooley, Juicy Ecumenism.
There will always be religious voices on the political and theological left of course. But its main institutions are all in sharp decline and many are fading away, such that American religion is dominated by voices on the right.
The latest near demise is Faith and Public Life, which is reducing its staff from 19 to two, with a budget that’s quickly declined from $6 million to $223,802. Founded in 2006 by a Presbyterian Church (USA) minister to advocate for progressive causes, it was closely aligned with Mainline Protestantism, as has been most of the Religious Left. As Mainline Protestantism recedes, so too does the institutional Religious Left. The same article in Sojourners, a Religious Left outlet, also admitted that Sojourners, which was founded in the 1970s by activist Jim Wallis, is itself cutting back.
It’s hard to name a single Religious Left institution today that retains major influence in America. Of course, some MAGA evangelicals call non-MAGA religious evangelicals “Religious Left,” since they themselves have no memory or awareness of the real Religious Left. More on that later.
The Religious Left, unlike the modern Religious Right, emerged from the institutional church, mostly Mainline Protestantism but also including some leftwing Roman Catholic orders that also have lost influence. The Mainline Protestant denominations, chiefly the United Methodist Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church, Presbyterian Church (USA), Episcopal Church, United Church of Christ, American Baptist Church and Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), including their predecessor bodies, institutionally embraced progressive politics and theology in the early 20th century. They further radicalized in the 1960s, which is when their 60-year membership decline began. Although the church membership remained more conservative, if passive, the prelates, and agencies became the Religious Left. Most of these denominations had and still have, although highly diminished, lobby offices on Capitol Hill. Their missions boards, publishing houses, and other national ministries, once but no longer influential, also aligned this way.