Sullivan’s guest bloggers bring up the idea that there is a coalition to be forged between bleeding-heart liberals and evangelicals, centered on their shared belief in helping the poor. They quote Kristof:
Members of the Christian right…are the new internationalists, increasingly engaged in humanitarian causes abroad — thus creating opportunities for common ground between left and right on issues we all care about.
I used to be pretty into this idea, but I’ve become less sanguine of late. Because even if we can get liberals and evangelicals to agree that poverty is a problem that needs to be dealt with, I imagine we’ll still be arguing about whether it’s the government’s responsibility to deal with it. And if they ever did find common ground, I imagine it would look a LOT like Bush’s faith-based initiatives, wouldn’t it?
