What do you think: is doing the right thing more important than holding the right beliefs?

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Can religious conservatives also be political liberals?
By Bill McKenzie,  August 5, 2013

Can religious conservatives also be political liberals?

Yes, there is a long history of people who espouse a fairly orthodox view of Christianity and a progressive view of social and cultural issues such as ones dealing with racial justice, environmental stewardship and the death penalty. In Catholic circles, this is known as the just-life tradition. (Usually, the just-life view includes opposition to abortion.). In white Protestant circles, you see evangelicals like the Rev. Jim Wallis upholding this approach. And, before him, you had liberal evangelicals like the late GOP Sen. Mark Hatfield.

But the most dominant mixture of religious conservatism and political liberalism is found among African-Americans. A new survey by the Public Religion Research Institute and the Brookings Institution reports that 49 percent of African-Americans consider themselves religiously conservative. That percentage is higher than any other group. (The survey assessed one’s religious conservatism or liberalism by looking at whether a religious person holds a personal vs. impersonal view of God, reads the Bible or sacred texts literally or non-literally, and has a “preservationist” or “adaptive” view of religious tradition.)

At the same time, they register liberal on issues like favoring the Affordable Care Act. And only three percent of black Protestants consider themselves economically conservative.

This interesting blend of religious conservatism and political liberalism is often lost by those of us who write about religion and politics. But it also is sometimes a point of discomfort for some political progressives. The Washington Post’s E.J. Dionne comments on this phenomenon in his column that ran in our paper today.

He urges his fellow liberals to be more open to religious conservatives as well as other political progressives whose religious convictions shape their political views. “For liberalism to thrive, there needs to be acceptance and, even better, some respect across the boundaries of belief and nonbelief,” writes Dionne.

This survey also is the subject of the current Texas Faith discussion, which you can read at this DallasNews.com link. The Dallas Morning News’ Wayne Slater asked our Texas Faith panel to comment on whether it’s more important to do the right thing or to have the right beliefs. The question stems from the PRRI/Brookings report that shows two-thirds of respondents say that doing the right thing is more important than holding the right beliefs. Conversely, one-third of respondents see it the other way.


I am going to stop here and recommend this report. There is a lot in it to digest. But what are your thoughts about Wayne’s question? Do beliefs matter more than actions? Or is it the other way around? Or is it both?
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