Finally, a religious left

Several months ago, or perhaps more like a year ago, my partner and I attended a Sunday service at Community Church of Hope in central Phoenix. You may have passed by it on 7th Avenue near Indian School. It is the one with all the rainbow flags. The pastor gave a sermon very different than what I am used to from Presbyterian pulpits, which usually don't talk a great deal about what is going on politically in America (except for the recently deceased Rev. D. James Kennedy from Florida, who was conservative Presbyterian on a mission to reclaim America for Jesus). The Pastor at Community Church of Hope had been a chaplain in the Arizona legislature when he came out of the closet as a gay man. He spoke of how little support he received from a legislature made up largely of the religious right and the secular left. The conservatives in the legislature were unwilling to support a chaplain who was gay, while the liberals didn't like the idea of having a chaplain at all. But as the Christian Science Monitor points out, there is a religious left rising, as evidenced in the way "faith and values" have made their way into the Democratic presidential primary lexicon.