"The purpose of this gathering was not to create a religious left movement to challenge the religious right, but to jump-start a religious movement that will transcend partisan politics. Believing that Jesus is neither a Republican nor a Democrat, we want to unite Christians who are concerned about what is happening in America. We are evangelicals who are troubled by what is happening to poor people in America; who are disturbed over environmental policies that are contributing to global warming; who are dismayed over the increasing arrogance of power shown in our country’s militarism; who are outraged because government funding is being reduced for schools where students, often from impoverished and dysfunctional homes, are testing poorly; who are upset with the fact that of the 22 industrialized nations America is next to last in the proportion of its national budget (less than two-tenths of 1 percent) that is designated to help the poor of third-world countries; and who are broken-hearted over discrimination against women, people of color, and those who suffer because of their sexual orientation. "I agree that Jesus is neither a Republican nor a Democrat, but I can't help but take a skeptical view of what I read here. Why? Because, when I read this list, I wonder why it is that there seems to only be issues mentioned that sound like what is to be found in the platforms of Democrat politicians.
I'm also skeptical because this statement seems to point not just to concerns, but also to answers, and to answers that seem to me likely to be exactly the wrong answers. I have two examples to suggest in this regard. First, I believe I share the concern expressed here for those who live in undeveloped and underdeveloped economies. But having our government devote more of its budget to the poor of such countries will result in little real impact on such people for a myriad of reasons that many understand today. Economic prosperity results from good government, and this means government that enforces property rights and contracts and that allows relatively little predation. Poor countries in the world have governments that are opposite in character, and often the governments in such countries are the greatest predators. Second, while the statement doesn't make a policy prescription explicit, my guess is that the policy prescription for failing schools would involve spending more government money on a public school industry, which is a monopoly that is dominated by a labor union that has both great political power as well as great economic power. Spending more money on such a monopoly is, in my view, likely to accomplish little, if any thing, of what would be hoped for. It is my conclusion that the best policy to improve failing schools is to reform our public school system to rely on a system of individual education vouchers. Note, I too am quite concerned about our failing public school system. I join the "progressive evangelicals" in that concern. I suspect the means I've come to believe will respond to this concern, will not be the means the "progressive evangelicals" will choose to support. I may be wrong in this. I'll wait and see.
