progressive politics & religion: some historical perspective

From Can Democrats Marry Progressive Politics with Religion? (They Have in the Past) by Ron Briley, at History News Network:

With the construction of the Erie Canal in the early nineteenth-century linking the Great Lakes with Hudson River and New York harbor, western New York boomed economically. This prosperity, however, proved to be short-lived for with the competition of new technology such as railroads, business was less dependent upon the canal, and the region suffered a devastating depression or “panic” as it was called in those days. Jobless workers who were terrified about how to feed their families assumed that the Biblical last days were near. Surely, God would be not let such an economic disaster befall his people. As western New York suffered economically in the 1820s and 1830s, the region was swept by a religious revival movement in which many workers sought solace believing that the “second coming” of Jesus was nigh. This religious fervor produced what some historians have labeled the “burned over district” as people of the region were exhausted by the emotionalism of preparing for the new millennium. Out of this ferment came the Second Great Awakening, Shakers, Millerites, and Mormonism. While the Shakers who advocated celibacy as a way to purify oneself for the millennium died out and William Millers’s calculations for the exact day of Jesus’ return proved to be erroneous, the Mormon faith continues to grow in converts. But the reaction to the economic plight of the region also produced more secular responses which mingled with the religious fervor. Utopian communities such as Oneida were formed to address the crushing economic burdens suffered by families and provide more communal solutions to the materialism of Jacksonian society. A working class alliance between laborers and farmers formed the backbone of the Democratic Party in New York State during the Jacksonian period.

This legacy of combining religion and progressive politics was also apparent in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the Populist Party, Social Gospel of progressive America, and grass-roots socialism which garnered popular political support in such prairie states as Kansas and Oklahoma. During the Great Depression, such populist radicals as folk singer Woody Guthrie combined images of Christianity and progressive working class politics. After all, Jesus was a working class carpenter.

However, this progressive strain in evangelical Christianity has been largely ignored in recent years. Democrats must address issues of war, health care, education, housing, and security in a populist fashion which is never condescending and respectful of more traditional values. In recent years, our increasingly conservative and corporate media have succeeded in selling fear to Americans with depictions of terrorism and crime. What progressive Democrats must do is convince working class Americans that the real danger is not the gay or lesbian couple living next door, but rather the increasing power of a corporate America which has no sense of values. While the Fox News channel embraces the politics of George W. Bush, the Fox Network of Rupport Murdoch produces reprehensible programming which is unsuitable for our children. Progressives must hold corporate America responsible for the lack of compassion and concern for values beyond the profit motive. And this must be done in a fashion which is respectful of families. Appearing with celebrities who spout four letter words we do not want our children to hear is not going to endear working and middle class families to the banner of progressive Democrats. The election of 2004 should not produce despair on the left. The working people of this country in places like Youngstown, Ohio deserve more than to be abandoned to the manipulations of Karl Rove and his corporate allies. From the Burned Over District to the social gospel to Woody Guthrie there is a progressive religious tradition which should and must be tapped beyond the fears and narrow faith-based initiatives of the current administration.