Holier Than Thou We

The New York Times reports today that some liberal clergy are forming a new organization, the Clergy Leadership Network, “to counter the influence of conservative Christian organizations.”

I would have thought that there was no shortage of liberal Christian organizations, starting with the National Council of Churches and working down through most denominations, but hey, political advocacy is a good thing, and I certainly have no problem if liberal and lefty clergy feel the need for another one.

What I do have a problem with is that the smug air of moral superiority that, increasingly, seeps from every pore modern liberalism becomes almost an impenetrable smog of smugness when the particular liberals think they are commissioned to engage in a divine mission.

The Rev. Albert M. Pennybacker, of Lexington, Ky., chief executive officer for the organization and the chairman of its national committee, said: “The Christian Right has been very articulate, but they have been exclusive and very judgmental of anyone who doesn’t agree with them. People may want to label us the Christian Left. But what we really are about is mainstream issues and truth, and if that makes us left then that shines even more light on the need for a shift in our society.”

Oh, please. Give me a break. Exclusive? Very judgmental? How odd to pick these two alleged characteristics as the very worst thing you can say about your political opponents. They’re more like the sort of things you’d hear a scolding mom say as she observed the blue collar play habits of some poor toddler in a rich kid’s sandbox. Could the good reverend really believe that liberal organizations are not “exclusive,” in the sense that, heaven (to whom he should have a direct line) forbid, they include only people who agree with them and thus of necessity exclude those who don’t?

Ah, but liberal groups are different from the bad rightie groups, for liberals are swimming in the “mainstream,” and they, unlike those on the right, care about “truth.” If the Reverend Pennybacker is representative of what “mainsteam” Christianity is preaching these days, no wonder sin looks so good.

But, of course, Rev. Pennybacker sounds like a perfect representative of this new group, since contemporary liberals seem driven more by personal contempt for Bush and conservatives than by competing ideas. At least, as with Pennybacker, that’s what they always seem to mention first and loudest. For example, the article also quoted Rev. William Sloane Coffin, a board member and well known liberal activist, exuding the same combination of morally superior smugness and personal contempt for conservatives. Said Coffin:

The arrogance and self-righteousness of the present administration are very dangerous. And silence by members of the clergy, in the face of such arrogance, is tantamount to betrayal of the Gospel or the Torah or the Koran.

“Arrogance” and “self-righteousness,” like being “exclusive” and “judgmental,” are highly personal qualities. You don’t disagree with arrogance and self-righteousness; you denounce them, and you can justify to yourself denouncing them at ever higher decibel levels if you can portray yourself as a victim. Liberals have become expert at denouncing, and at seeing themselves as victimized. The new lefty clergy groups is no exception.

Jenny Backus, a Democratic consultant working with the new group, said: “There’s been a concerted effort by Christian conservatives to question the faith of people who disagree with their positions in the same way that they question their patriotism. The Clergy Leadership Network will now be the amen corner for people of faith who express disagreement with the administration and the Christian Right.”

Well, amen. Of course you don’t have to be a professional Christian to play these cards. Most liberals seem to feel, on scant evidence that I’ve seen, that they are being persecuted and victimized. At the Democratic Debate in Detroit not long ago Dick Gephardt said the following (and was highly praised by New Republic writer Jonathan Cohn):

We’ve got some differences here in opinion about this war and the money. But I think it’s an abomination for this administration and this president to call people who disagree with him, as sometimes we do, as lacking patriotism. I think the highest act of patriotism is saying what we believe.

I might have missed it (I’m sure you’ll clue me in if that’s the case), but I don’t recall anyone in the Bush administration questioning the patriotism of critics. I myself, however, would probably question whether the Reverends Pennybacker or Coffin or the Representative Gephardt telling us what they believe could be described as “the highest act of patriotism.” I’m not sure patriotism has a hierarchy, but if it does I rather suspect that the contribution of those who have given what Lincoln at Gettysburg called “the last full measure of devotion” to their country ranks somewhat higher on the scale.