I am working on a piece about slander. Natasha Crain here does a great job of careful distinctions and unmuddying water as she addresses a typical calumny from the progressive Christian and the atheist. This sort of fisking is much needed. Two points are worth adding to Crain’s effective rebuttal of Nicholas Kristof. First, Kristof’s article is a new classic in a genre of religious-subculture articles I have known (and, alas, written): the laundry list of celebrity endorsements designed to make the faithful feel better. How is it different from a “Justin Bieber or Kanye found God” piece? (Well, a Bieber piece would not slander U2 or the Gaithers.) Second, I doubt any of the religious politicos that Kristof loves have ever brought anyone into their nominal faith, only channeled believers into the woke faith.

Natasha Crain, “No, The Growth of Progressive Christian Politicians Is Not a Good Thing for America”

But more importantly, here is where Kristof begins to blur the lines and equivocate between progressive theology and progressive politics. Notice how he moves from a strictly moral issue (homosexuality) to primarily economic ones (policy decisions on how to help the poor or tax businesses). This is a common move of politically progressive Christians. While they popularly accuse politically conservative Christians of mixing politics and religion, they frequently do the same, bundling progressive politics with what Jesus would “really” want.