Evangelicals, Pro-Life Progressivism and More

My menial administrative duties have kept me from responding to the many interesting posts in the last few weeks re Catholic legal education, Rick Santorum and now the notion of "liberal" evangelicism. I haven't been entirely consumed by fund-raising and brow-beating my staff, however: I managed to finish the paper I wrote for the St Tommy conference on prolife progressivism (sorry about the delay, Tom Berg!). In the sidebar under my name is the article under the title "The Coherence and Importance of Prolife Progressivism." Much of it is my usual Seamless Garment stuff with which MOJ readers are familiar. I do try to add something new, however, on the question of whether PLP or the consistent ethic of life or whatever you want to call it can be culturally and politically important after secular liberalism has morphed from its traditional preoccupation with economic and social justice (the "beloved community")to a preoccupation with sexuality and autonomy, and religion in the public square has become identified almost exclusively with the religious right and its preoccupations with abortion, sexuality and "family values". Can there be a religiously inspired mass democratic movement that bridges this gap with a capacious conception of life that recognizes both the tragedy of abortion and the tragedy of poverty? I suggest that "liberal" movements need religious inspiration (and often have had it). I suggest further that Catholic social justice types need to share in the evangelical Great Awakening of the early 21st century by joining hands with liberal evangelicals such as Jim Wallis.  So read the article... I will try to blog later or the NYT Santorum piece, which raises some ointersting related pieces.