WASHINGTON—The usual news about religion religion in the nation’s Capital is coming from the religious right. After all, they’ve been making the most noise and exercising the most political clout—especially on so-called “social issues,” such as opposing abortion, endorsing guns and agitating against gays—for decades.
On September 22, it was the progressives’ turn to speak up.
Marshalled by the Revs. William Barber II and Liz Theoharis and the Poor People’s Campaign, Jewish, Methodist, Church of Christ, Episcopal and other Christian leaders came to Congress to demand lawmakers vote—before the mid-term election—on three moral issues: strengthening and extending the Voting Rights Act, raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, and restoring programs, especially a federal child care tax credit, to feed the poor and hungry.
They got enthusiastic endorsements from progressive lawmakers who sponsored the session in a U.S. House hearing room. Whether they’ll get Congress as a whole is another matter.
Lawmakers are rushing pell-mell through measures before racing home in October to campaign for re-election. They also must pass legislation to keep the government funded.
And while the Democratic-run House has voted on all three issues—and passed the first two—the evenly split Senate has defeated all three. Prospects for a second vote there are dim.
Even though they were “preaching to the choir” of progressive U.S. representatives and their aides, the pastors, lay leaders and rabbis...
Mumbai: Senior Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar on Sunday demanded that cases should be registered against former Amravati Lok Sabha member Navneet Rana and BJP Rajya Sabha MP Anil Bonde for alleg...