Faith and the Left

[scribblet]

Hmm, looks like the left wing is feeling the heat, and looking for some religion - I did wonder at the left and are they all really secularists, apparantly not. Tommy Douglas was a babtist minister, of course. Is the left now trying to reach out to those on the left who do attend church?

Generally speaking these days hostility towareds religious MP's seems to be directed at the conservatives but there are many religious left wing folks out there.

read more here:

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentSe...ol=991929131147

Faith and the left

New Democrats pushing for a faith caucus say their spiritual life underpins their commitment to social action

OTTAWA—Sitting in a fair trade coffee shop a few blocks from Parliament Hill, Christopher Duncanson-Hales does something few on the left have dared.

He speaks openly about how his faith brought him to both social activism and politics.

"It's the idea that you are there for something bigger than yourself," he says.

Duncanson-Hales, president of the Carlton-Mississippi Mills New Democratic Party riding association in Ottawa, is a leader in a movement to bring faith more into the party's mainstream.

He knows there are others like him — in his riding association, across the party and sitting in Parliament. To accommodate them, Duncanson-Hales' riding association is sponsoring a resolution to the New Democrats' policy meeting next month to set up a faith and social justice caucus.

The move has sparked a heated debate within the NDP and highlighted some strong divisions between those who come to activism through their faith and those who count religions among the problems they are trying to address.

Long-time party activist Tarek Fatah has gone so far as to say he might quit if the NDP goes too far in formalizing ties to religion, particularly groups with conservative views on homosexuality or the role of women.

"If my theology isn't coming out in my involvement in the community, it loses something for me."

[Renegade]

Funny, I always thought most religious philisophies were more aligned with left-wing groups like the NDP than with the right. I have always been curious how the alliances seem to have been made in the opposite direction.

[August1991]

I feel that political correctness shares similarities with Protestant temperance movements. Many in the NDP have a holier-than-thou righteousness.