I find the idea creepy too, but I wonder if that isn't a problem—not just with regard to religion, but a big problem for progressive politics in general.
By and large, American liberals and progressives just aren't joiners any more; we find big pep rallies and collective action suspect. When we do get involved in activism, there's a sense that it's an alliance of convenience on a specific issue; we want that freedom to back out and not be compelled to assent to everything the organization does and says.
But collective action in alliances is traditionally how you gather and wield power. And the conservative movement certainly knows a lot about how to keep people in if they don't necessarily sign onto everything the larger organization believes (that may be disintegrating now, but it'll take a long time). On the left, the liberal churches are the only organizations that are really good at this.
I'm not sure how to get around this. I recall Mark Schmitt wrestling with it some time ago, talking about how the decline of labor-union power was related to this decline of what he called membership-based organizations in favor of what he called transaction-based ones. Maybe it's possible to build transaction-based alliances that are effective, but so far the big problem seems to be that they fall apart once the cause of the moment passes.
no subject
By and large, American liberals and progressives just aren't joiners any more; we find big pep rallies and collective action suspect. When we do get involved in activism, there's a sense that it's an alliance of convenience on a specific issue; we want that freedom to back out and not be compelled to assent to everything the organization does and says.
But collective action in alliances is traditionally how you gather and wield power. And the conservative movement certainly knows a lot about how to keep people in if they don't necessarily sign onto everything the larger organization believes (that may be disintegrating now, but it'll take a long time). On the left, the liberal churches are the only organizations that are really good at this.
I'm not sure how to get around this. I recall Mark Schmitt wrestling with it some time ago, talking about how the decline of labor-union power was related to this decline of what he called membership-based organizations in favor of what he called transaction-based ones. Maybe it's possible to build transaction-based alliances that are effective, but so far the big problem seems to be that they fall apart once the cause of the moment passes.