AlterNet has a really good article today, On God’s Side. As a non-theist raised in the Presbyterian church, these are politics I can really get behind. Even if I’m not a Christian, my ethics are to a great extent based on Christian morality. I just wish more sensible Christians would speak up so people would realize that being Christian doesn’t mean being a crazy neocon evangelical.

Some excerpts from the article:

But did anybody really suggest or imagine [gay marriage and abortion] are the only two moral values issues? I’m an evangelical Christian and I find 3,000 verses in the Bible on the poor, so fighting poverty is a moral value too, or protecting the environment – protecting God’s creation is a moral value. The ethics of war – whether we go to war, how we go to war, whether we tell the truth about the war – are fundamental moral and religious questions.

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But in the public square, religion has to be disciplined by democracy. That means you don’t enter the public square and say I’m religious so I ought to win. Or God has spoken to me directly and I have the fix for Social Security. You say my faith motivates me. It shapes my convictions or it compels me to act on behalf of the poor or peace or whatever.

But then you say, here is my best offering on this question, and I have to persuade my fellow citizens. I have to persuade them that what I think is best for the common good – not that it’s the best religious vision, but it’s best for all of us.

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So I think religion has to be taken to the street. It has to be real on the ground. And I also think Christians ought to be those who lead by example. Religious people – I mean, the best rabbis I know, the best priests and pastors I know, the best lay people I know, are the ones who just do their faith. You know, they don’t just proclaim their faith, they do their faith. St. Francis once said, ‘Always preach the gospel, and use words if necessary.’ You know, so he’s making your point. He’s saying it’s what we do. That’s the key. And then people say, ‘Why do you do all these things?’ And I say: ‘Oh, it’s because of my faith, because I think that’s what Jesus is calling me to do and I’m trying to be a follower of Jesus.’ So I think putting faith into action is critical.

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These are the two ways of bringing God into public life. This is our American history. One is God on our side, and that leads to the worst things in politics. It leads to overconfidence and hubris – triumphalism – and often to bad foreign policy, often to wars, and in this case, now pre-emptive, unilateral war.

The other way about worrying – praying earnestly if we’re on God’s side – brings into politics the things that we’re missing today, like humility and penitence and reflection, and even accountability.