The Left Hand of God
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This "side" of God must be come to terms with, but it is not the only legitimate expression of the divinity. Lerner points out that God also has a Left Hand, representing the love, compassion, kindness, and solidarity that must form the basis of any religiously guided progressive politics. This argument is crucial because it allows progressives to step onto the terrain that has for too long been dominated by the Right. Against domination and anger, Lerner offers a "Generosity Strategy" based in part on his years of work as a psychotherapist. This, he argues, is the way to break down the negative stereotypes that have alienated so many people from the Democratic Party and the larger progressive movement since the late 1960s, when both moved towards a kind of identity politics with no place for the majority of white, middle-class, religiously Christian Americans.
Lerner proposes such a strategy for tackling the "spiritual crisis" that afflicts America, moving the Democrats away from being the minor league Party of the Right Hand of God and towards something more in keeping with the progressive social vision that once animated it. The problem is, as Lerner admits (making an argument similar to Thomas Frank's in What's the Matter with Kansas?), the Left has become too elitist and out of touch with ordinary Americans, to whom conservatives, though directly responsible for policies that do many of them economic harm, connect on a deeper, more personal level than secular liberals have been able to.
And when it comes down to it, millions of people seem to be willing to vote for someone who is screwing them economically if that person at least shows them a basic level of respect even while playing on their fears of all those "others" who threaten either to take away their jobs or convert their kids to homosexuality.
As important as Lerner's diagnosis of what ails liberals in America is the list of policy recommendations he offers. What's needed, he argues, is a "spiritual covenant with America," one that directly approaches American families with a vision and set of policies that reward love and caring, and encompasses kindness, generosity and commitment to the common good. Such an ethics would touch on issues such as education, health care, environmental stewardship, and —no less important—personal responsibility and respect.
It is in the latter area that Lerner in some respects parts ways with Wallis, whose evangelical background has makes it very difficult for him to accept homosexuality, at least publicly. Lerner's vision of personal morality is more expansive and more in tune with a true progressive vision even as it maintains Wallis's important focus on social justice as a defining expression of Christian belief.
All of these arguments are persuasive, and what makes the book an inspiring read is that it empowers the reader with practical ideas for implementing the spiritually progressive politics Lerner envisions. And yet, reading the book's discussion of utterly sensible policy suggestions such as a Social Responsibility Amendment to the Constitution, and education reform, I can't help thinking that success depends on an incredible degree of faith; not in God, but rather in the American people, and in the possibility that if the Left could find the right way to present these ideas to them they would embrace—or at least consider—our politics.
I am not convinced that "Americans" (to the extent we can make such a generalization) really want the God of Loving Kindness for whom Lerner so powerfully advocates. Suppose Americans, like Russians, or Israelis, or a host of other peoples, have come to like their leaders strong, brutal, and willing to hit back at all enemies, real or perceived, as long as they can manage the violence such policies inevitably generate?
Suppose it's too late to change our system? Suppose it's rotten to the core? For as long as I can remember, Lerner has been saying that at some point the utopian becomes pragmatic when pragmatism no longer works. But what happens when utopianism—at least of the progressive, rather than apocalyptic, variety—no longer moves people, because the system has succeeded in making such a transformation seem impossible to imagine?
What made America so strong during the last half century was its ability to return to its ideals of liberty and justice even after straying from them. If, as many argue, America's century has ended, then perhaps one symptom of its decline is the inability of American culture to renew itself in the way Lerner calls for. The fact that across Latin America, and even in Europe, radical progressive movements based on a progressive reading of Christianity have come to the fore over the last several decades suggests that the best hope for the politics Lerner is calling might well lie outside the United States.
It's unfortunate, then, that The Left Hand of God's analysis doesn't reach beyond America's shores. My gut feeling is that for the spiritual vision Lerner and his comrades envision to succeed in America, it will first have to succeed elsewhere, showing Americans by example that there is a Third Way. At the very least, an urgent task before the movement is to bring together the most spiritually aware critics from across the globe to figure out a way to restore hope in an age of increasing cynicism and naked political power. This book is a crucially important move in that direction; let's hope it inspires similar thinking and writing on a truly global scale.
Mark LeVine is professor of Middle Eastern history at UC Irvine and author of Why They Don't Hate Us: Lifting the Veil on the Axis of Evil.
