In this video, RD senior correspondent Daniel Schultz discusses the religious left with Jack Jenkins, RNS reporter and author of “American Prophets: The Religious Roots of Progressive Politics and the Ongoing Fight for the Soul of the Country.” [See below for a breakdown of the conversation by topic.]
00:00 — Intro/Is this a great or terrible time for this book?
03:03 — Seeing Indigenous/Native American activism as religious efforts
07:02 — Tension between religious secular activists
14:22 — Symbolic action vs. organizing for power in religious left
27:07 — “Both-sides-ism” and differences in religious sensibilities on left/right
30:36 — Religion/religious people at the core of the left, but does the religious left have an identity?
35:04 — Is the religious left on the rise… this time? Is it just a journalism problem?
39:25 — Religious left in the election/Democratic Party
43:15 — A conversation with Melvin Graham, brother of Cynthia Graham Hurd who was murdered in racist shooting at Mother Emanuel church in South Carolina in 2015
48:09 — Can religious left create a whole separate ecosystem, a la the religious right, to build power?
54:38 — What is Dan wrong about?/Conclusion
