Democrats and Religion in Santa Barbara -- Recap

Today in Goleta -- the city just to the north of Santa Barbara -- Democrats -- religious and nonreligious -- gathered to talk about the moral issues of our time. The subjects of conversation were immigration, health care, poverty, foreign policy (war in Iraq, etc.), and the environment. Panelists from across the religious spectrum were there.

Our time together began as we heard from several speakers, both politicians and religious leaders. The primary speakers included our Congresswoman, Lois Capps, and the State Party Chair, Art Torres. We also heard from three younger religious leaders, one Jewish, one Muslim, and one Evangelical Christian who shared why they had agreed to join in a conversation with the Democratic Party.

There were six breakout sections, one each on the five issues and one on Politics from the Pulpit. I hear each of the sessions was informative and raucous. I helped lead (I was the moderator) for the last panel -- the one on politics from the pulpit.

We were going to address two sets of three questions, but only got past the first one: "When I take a position as a person of faith with political implications, how is faith related to this decision?" We were, to say the least, conflicted. For some of us in the group of about 20, faith and public life go hand in hand. For others, the question was-- why identify one's self religiously when dealing with political issues?

We talked about inclusion and exclusion. The Democrats seek to be inclusive, but one of our group shared that she is a pro-life traditional Catholic who is also anti-war. She finds that mentioning abortion among Democrats quickly ends the discussion.

What we ended up with was the realization that one hour isn't enough, that these discussions need to continue, so that whatever religious voice ends up in public life is humble and non-coercive. We also discerned great frustration with the process and partisan politics.