There’s another Christian movement that’s changing our politics. It has nothing to do with whiteness or nationalism
The social gospel was at the foundation of the socialist movement in Canada. This spiritual basis has been eroded over the past century. Most people involved with socialist politics now have no interest in religion, despite the fact that this is the central concern of the vast majority of people on this planet. Spirituality is regarded by the new atheism as a risible relic of the superstitious past, a dangerously irrational aberration that needs to be stamped out, and certainly not to be taken seriously in policy-making. Religion is given a hearing on the Right, but only in a form that satisfies the objectives of the Right. The Right and the Left then conclude that this right-wing religion is the only real religion, with the result that the integral connection between spirituality and socialism is severed. Socialism stripped of its spiritual foundation becomes weak, unable to compete with the fiery zeal of the Right, except in the dismal realm of identity politics. The only way forward is to assert the vital connection between socialism and spirituality. This may require the establishment of a new organization, the union of spiritual socialists. It would be fully ecumenical, but it would exclude those who are intransigently opposed to spirituality. Let the militant new atheists fight over the bones of the old parties.