In a comparison study with the evangelical right, Cedarville University professor Mark Smith said the youthful evangelical left are pushing the bounds of Christianity to correct what they have determined to be inequality and injustice.“Primarily when they look at America, they see a land of inequality and that inequality seems to drive much of their political passion,” explained Smith. The evangelical left's passion, Smith described, leads them to pursue changes they believe will change America into a just society. “The goal is to bring heaven to earth,” he concluded.
The evangelical left, he said, exists at the tip of the leftist spear and encompasses young, left-leaning Christians and liberals. Some of the evangelical left are actual Christians, he described. Smith supposes these are Christians who may also be the rebelling children of the evangelical right. However, not all of the Christian left are believers. Others, he said, define their faith by spiritual experiences and their doctrine, by what their peers mutually agreed upon.
Despite his attempts to define the evangelical left, he said it is too early in the movement to tell who exactly makes up that cohort. But it is clear, he concluded, that the evangelical left are practicing a type of “new gospel” where Jesus is a key political symbol.
“Think of the Lord’s prayer: ‘Our father in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’ For the Christian left, this becomes a political doctrine. Our goal is to take what exists in heaven and to bring it to earth.”
Smith noted that President Barack Obama is seen as a figure head of the evangelical left. There are a lot of similarities between Obama and Smith’s definition of the Christian left.
