There has recently been speculation about religious progressives becoming the new Religious Right. See the Atlantic, The Rise of the Christian Left in America, and Slate Are Millennials Killing Off the Religious Right? And Salon The rise of the religious left. Commonweal's Peter Steinfels offers some good insights in his piece, Religious Progressives? He is not persuaded that such a transition will happen:
… Two findings of the study itself feed my doubts. One is the low percentage of religious progressives (11%) who say that their religion is "the most important thing in my life" compared to the high proportion (54%) of religious conservatives saying the same thing. …
… A second finding feeds my doubts about the potential impact of religious progressives. It turns out that 87% of religious progressives view religion as a "private matter" that should be kept out of public debate on political and social issues. That view may provide a negative counter to aggressive religious intervention on behalf of traditional sexual and personal norms, but it does not provide much ground for religious engagement on the kinds of issues that the study puts before us – helping the poor, maintaining the safety net, and opposing inequality. …
I think he is on to something. I do not believe that most religious progressives have religion and church at the center of their lives and social networks, at least not in the same numbers as conservatives. Their religion functions more in an advisory capacity to be considered with various other inputs rather than as a guiding force. The vitality of the religious right has been based on marrying this guiding force to a particular political ideology. I don't think that will ever be the same for religious progressives. My perception is that the Religious Right is more inclined to be animated by their religious conviction to pursue political ends, while progressives are motivated by their political convictions, seeing the church as chaplain to their cause.
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