The Ecumenical Right

For nearly a century now progressives have striven mightily to portray conservatives as narrow, closed-minded, intolerant religious zealots, and their efforts have paid off. Millions of Americans and Europeans hold precisely that image of the Right. But it has never been like that and isn't now. Bill Kristol points out that last Friday, before going down to Washington to speak at Glenn Beck's rally, Sarah Palin spoke at a Jewish shabbaton in Hershey, PA. He writes:

[E]vangelical Christian Sarah Palin spent Friday night with (mostly) observant Jews, along with various Christians, including some Amish. Then on Saturday she spoke at a rally hosted by a Mormon who went out of his way in his remarks to refer to the important role of "churches, synagogues and mosques" in American life.

 Read it here.

Well, what would you expect from Sarah? She was baptized into the Catholic faith, but followed her mother into a Pentacostal congregation, then took her own children into the congregation at the Wasilla Bible Church, a healthily non-denominational congregation that frequently welcomes Jews and Catholics to speak from the pulpit.