The Left needs to "find common ground" with Evangelical Christians
"There's no point arguing that it can't be done because the cultural differences are too great," says Chomsky
Chomsky, Noam; Derber, Charles
http://www.salon.com/2017/07/14/noam-chomsky-the-left-needs-to-find-common-ground-with-evangelical-christians/
Date Written: 2017-07-14
Publisher: Salon Media Group
Year Published: 2017
Resource Type: Article
Cx Number: CX21536
A discussion between Noam Chomsky and Charles Derber excerpted from the novel by Derber entitled, "Welcome to the Revolution: Universalizing Democracy for Social Justice in Perilous Times."
Abstract:
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Excerpt:
The Left should be working with and for the African-American community, it should be working on civil rights, it should be working for gay rights, for women's rights, and so on. That's fine. What it has dropped pretty much is class issues.
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In fact, in the Evangelical community, there have been very progressive elements. Take the Central America solidarity movements. They were very significant. This is probably the first time in history that in the country that was responsible for the atrocities, individuals were going to help the victims. I don't think that's ever happened before. Nobody ever dreamt of going to a Vietnamese village to live with the villagers, to help them, to provide a white face, which is a little protection. It just never occurred to anyone. This happened with tens of thousands of people during the Central America solidarity period. Many of them were Evangelical.
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On climate, Trump is not all that different from the leadership of the Republican Party, or those in the primaries. Every single candidate either denied that climate change is happening or said we shouldn't do anything about it. Trump's position is maybe rhetorically more extreme, but not fundamentally different from the Party. That's a big educational and organizing opportunity for the Left. The United States is off the spectrum, global spectrum on this issue in some respects, which can be dealt with. Almost half the population thinks there can't be a climate change problem because of the Second Coming within a couple decades.
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