Monday May 5th,USA Today carried an article entitled, ” The Resilient Religious Right.” The article was basically an expose’ of the media’s false perception that the religious right is in it’s last throes of death. This coincided with a recent article in Forbes Magazine entitled, “The return of the Religious left.“ I personally believe the answer lies somewhere beyond the Media’s inaccurate obituary for the right and Fortune Magazine’s declaration of the resurrection of a religious left.
What we are experiencing is a return of the religious “right.” A more biblical “religious right.” Not just the right defined in webster as “A grouping or political party favoring conservative views and supporting capitalist economic principles.”
Now, before you begin to heat the tar and pluck the feathers, know that I count myself as part of that group.
But the “new right” I see emerging goes beyond that definition. It is defined by Webster as “That which is morally correct, just, and honorable.” It is a “right” that embraces the compassion and social concern emphasized by Jesus.
A conservative world view that includes intelligent social activism like Jesus demonstrated is not the same as some of the craziness I know as the extreme left. Instead, this is the Quakers and Underground Railroad believers of old. This is the “right” who fight for the poor and underprivileged. This is today’s Compassion International and National Association of Street Schools. This is the “Jesus kind” of social and spiritual activism that shook up the first century political system and should shake up ours.
It’s happening. Its not the “emerging of the religious left. It’s just plain right.