This is an issue which is no stranger to this blog. Taking forward a progressive political agenda on the basis of a Christian faith is not always easy - especially when there are strong currents within Christian thought which place our political agenda on the right. But then there are some issues which are on "the right" but I know that many people on "the left" have a sympathetic view. Sometimes I think trying to push people into a corner and tell them that if they believe x that makes them a left or right.
I remember a supporter of Esperanto issuing a press release denouncing me as being at one with Hitler and Stalin and having views that led to concentration camps simply because I wouldn't sign a European Parliament resolution calling for Esperanto to become the official language of the EU. Up until then I was actually interested in the idea of Esperanto, seeing if it could go some way to repairing the damage of Genesis 11:1-11. I'd even been reading a "teach yourself book". But after my public dressing down that was one Progressive idea I took no further.
Similarly I'm never happy to hear the countryside lobbying using Hitlers vegetarianism and banning of foxhunting as a reason to continue the sport.
Mike raises the issue of abortion in the US election campaign. I don't think that abortion is simply a left-right issue. Nor do I believe that support for the right of the State of Israel to defend itself is an issue for the right. When I was a child in Hackney the word "Zionism" conjured up a prototype socialist state underpinned by an agricultural system based on the communitarian values of the kibbutz movement. I suspect that in times to come abortion will come to be seen as representing a certain type of extreme liberalism which will not sit easily with the left.
Anyway, Mike has made an interesting case and concludes:
This, then, is the challenge for those in Britain (and elsewhere) who describe themselves as progressive politicians. They too must become more “fair-minded”—more willing to engage with people of faith, so that they might recognise the overlapping values shared by both religious and secular people when it comes to the moral and material direction of modern Britain.Mike
Mike is keen for comments and you can make them on the Prospect item itself, on his own blog, or on twitter.
