When rounding up all the suspects who killed the “American Left” (or through inaction allowed it to die) you’d have to include American Christianity. This is from a piece at TPMCafe regarding the American Catholic Church, but it is true across denominations. American Christianity simply stopped being concerned with “the little guy” and started being about myopic self-righteousness or around January 20, 1981.
In less than two years, Pope Francis has changed the face of a two-thousand-year old institution. His emphasis on humility, mercy and social justice offer a vivid contrast to a vocal minority of U.S. Christian leaders who only see dark clouds and battles to fight. Think of it as the joy of the Gospel v. culture war Christianity fight. The latter is being kicked to the curb by a pope determined to rescue the church from self-righteous ideologues, princely clerics and conservative activists who think opposition to same-sex marriage and abortion are the only real litmus tests of authentic Catholicism.