Rick Warren's Efforts to Realign Religion May Realign Politics

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Interesting piece by Alan Wolfe over at The New Republic about Rick Warren’s efforts for his church to welcome both parties. Warren wants to be seen as the “anti-Falwell”, and move towards a place where churches are no longer seen as connected to any one political party. Wolfe clearly sees how this benefits Obama in the short term, and Warren and America’s churches in long term.

But as I read Wolfe’s argument it became clear to me that if he is right, and I think he is, this movement spells disaster for the Republican party long term. The religious right fueled the rise of the Republican majority from Reagan to Gingrich and beyond. If Warren succeeds in moving America’s churches towards non-partisanship the Republican party loses any chance of becoming a majority party over the long haul. It may turn out that Warren is as big a threat to the Republican party in future election cycles as the progressive netroots are today.

From Wolfe’s piece - “If Rick Warren is successful in linking both political parties with his church, he will pave the way to a situation in which churches will no longer be identified with any political party. Then and only then will evangelical Protestantism become the moral and spiritual force it ought to be, urging its members to manifest their compassion, reminding them of their inclination to sin, and helping them find ways to reconcile their conviction that their God is the one and true Lord with those who adhere to other faiths or none at all.

The joint appearance of McCain and Obama at Saddleback is only one event in a long political campaign. But it is also a significant antidote to the poison that the religious right injected into American politics. The United States is unlikely ever to be as secular as Western Europe. If a better balance between religion and politics is to come about, it will because of what religious leaders do, and not because of what non-believers such as myself want to happen.”

Full TNR “The Plank” post here

cross posted from joetrippi.com 

Authors Website: JoeTrippi.com

Authors Bio:
Joe Trippi, heralded on the cover of The New Republic as the man who “reinvented campaigning,” was born in California and began his political career working on Edward M. Kennedy’s presidential campaign in 1980. His work in presidential politics continued with the campaigns of Walter Mondale, Gary Hart, Richard Gephardt and Howard Dean.

As a campaign manager, Trippi has run presidential, Senate, gubernatorial and mayoral campaigns. He was selected by former Vice President Walter Mondale to manage IowaÂ’s first-in-the-nation caucuses in 1984 and later went on to run several key states for the Mondale for President campaign. In 1988, Trippi was the Deputy National Campaign Manager for Richard GephardtÂ’s presidential campaign.

In 2004, he was National Campaign Manager for Howard DeanÂ’s presidential campaign, pioneering the use of online technology to organize what became the largest grassroots movement in presidential politics. Through TrippiÂ’s innovative use of the internet for small-donor fundraising, Dean for America ended up raising more money than any Democratic presidential campaign in history, all with donations averaging less than $100 each. TrippiÂ’s innovations have brought fundamental change to the electoral system and will be the model for how all future political campaigns are run.

Full bio here