Progressive AND Catholic???

The other day I received this article through my RSS feed to Catholic Online U.S. News. It was a good week because I also happened to pick up at the library A Dynamic God : living an unconventional Catholic faith by Nancy Mairs. I thought “Holy Cow or, I guess. Holy Jesus, Mary and Joseph I actually do exist. Because until now I thought Catholics were supposed to vote REPUBLICAN! Actually by getting on the Christian right bandwagon Christians of all denominations are doing themselves a real disservice. Have you ever noticed that in intellectual/progressive circles Christianity has developed a bad name? With so many Christians allying themselves with the Christian Right, Christianity has become synonymous in some peoples mind with right wing politics. Funny thing though, Jesus never actually had anything to do with either the Republican or the Democratic parties, despite what the Republican Party may claim. And I can’t believe that a God who believed in feeding the hungry, caring for the sick and helping the needy would support politicians who support greed. I know that the story is that the Republican Party has the upper hand in moral issues. I don’t buy it. To believe that you would have to reduce morality to issues of sexual plumbing. Even then these issues are much more complex than the pundits would have you believe. I am not saying that either party has a moral upper hand. Both parties are heavily indebted to lobbyists and at times it seems as if voters don’t even exist. The problem with a two party system is that neither choice is particularly wonderful. But I do support a progressive agenda and believe of the two parties that the Democratic Party is closest to progressiveness. A least hopefully they’ll get the troops out of Iraq, maybe institute universal health care, institute fair immigration policies, abolish the death penalty….Well a girl can always dream can’t she?