#religious left

I didn’t think this article was particularly well-written, but there’s a really key point in it that I want to pull out:

Unfortunately, some of the calls for a renewed religious left use the putative “public image” problem to construct their own version of a victim narrative, which then serves as a rallying cry for the mobilization of a countermovement... If the “religious left” is to be a vital force in the current landscape, it should resist such framing. The future of liberal Christianity and the religious left more generally won’t be found with the Gagas and Ocasio-Cortezes, but rather in the unglamorous work that often can’t be encapsulated in a catchy countermovement. For the victims found there are the real victims: the poor, the marginalized, and the oppressed.

Which is to say: I suppose -- and I’m aware that I’m writing this as an adult convert to Christianity, which gives me a particular, non-universal perspective -- that I’ve always been annoyed by attempts to center progressive Christians as the real victims here, which aside from being patently untrue, is quite against what we ought to be doing as Christians. 

Do we engage in public acts of witness because we want to defend our reputation as Christians? We aren’t called to defend our reputations as followers of Jesus; we’re called to share the Gospel. We are called to engage in good works as a thanksgiving to the God who saves us -- and good works are not the burnishing of the Church, but what our neighbor needs. 

From the article:

So, "Shut up, Religious Left"?

Guess again, extremist podcast loons. We WILL continue to live out our faiths, to spend money and make company policy in accordance with the values instilled in us by our faiths.