Part of the broad "Left" has traditionally been the churches. Back in 2002 when the war drums were beating, all the major organized religions of the world took very public stances against the onrushing war. Pope John Paul was probably the most vocal, but all the mainstream churches joined him -- the Anglicans, the Episcopalians, the Presbyterians, the Methodists, the Lutherans, etc. etc. All except two: Judaism (all main branches) and the Southern Baptists were alone in backing the neocon project.
This is particularly interesting when you consider the liberal tradition of, for example, the Union for Reform Judaism. Representing the largest bloc of American Jews, Reform brags on its site of its "long history of opposition to war," and how it was "the first religious organization to oppose the War in Vietnam."
But when it came to an unprovoked preemptive war on a third-world country by the planet's only superpower, this time they chose to remain silent.
Part of the broad "Left" has traditionally been the churches. Back in 2002 when the war drums were beating, all the major organized religions of the world took very public stances against the onrushing war. Pope John Paul was probably the most vocal, but all the mainstream churches joined him -- the Anglicans, the Episcopalians, the Presbyterians, the Methodists, the Lutherans, etc. etc. All except two: Judaism (all main branches) and the Southern Baptists were alone in backing the neocon project.
This is particularly interesting when you consider the liberal tradition of, for example, the Union for Reform Judaism. Representing the largest bloc of American Jews, Reform brags on its site of its "long history of opposition to war," and how it was "the first religious organization to oppose the War in Vietnam."
But when it came to an unprovoked preemptive war on a third-world country by the planet's only superpower, this time they chose to remain silent.