Can't We All Just Get Along?

The Washington Post takes a look at how Barack Obama’s religious policy is taking shape. To sum it up in three words: inclusion, inclusion, inclusion. In the new Obama administration, everybody’s got the president’s ear:

The last administration showed no interest in talking to a large chunk of the religious community," said Melissa Rogers, director of the Center for Religion and Public Affairs at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. "We're already seeing change. . . . This administration, so far as I can see, is not making a similar mistake.

But the Religious Left is already getting antsy. Shouldn’t Obama be, you know, on their side? So what’s he doing cozying up to people like Rick Warren? At the same time, the Religious Right is watching Obama for the slightest misstep. They’re OK with him for now. They’ll bolt, though, at the first whiff of secularism.

Trying to appeal to both the Religious Right and Religious Left is a dangerous game. It’s like walking a tightrope. Over a pit of alligators. While juggling. And there’s no tightrope. Conservatives and liberals are intractable enough when it comes to politics. If you throw religion in there too, compromise isn’t just improbable, it’s nearly impossible.

My guess is that, as the warm and fuzzy afterglow of the Obama honeymoon wears off, the president will turn more and more to the socially activist Religious Left. The Religious Right has never been his friend. Despite plenty of talk during the election of Obama-voting evangelicals—or “Obangelicals,” if you will—McCain still won white evangelical Protestants 74%-24%.

Obama isn’t going to spurn a major part of his base in favor of a group that never supported him and most likely never will. We already got a hint of that with Obama’s repeal of Bush’s abortion gag rule policy. It was one of the first acts of the Obama presidency, and it got the expected reaction: pro-lifers howled and pro-choice groups cheered. Clearly, Obama’s not going to spend a lot of time catering to the Religious Right.

That doesn’t mean he’ll be doing the bidding of Jim Wallis and other leftist evangelicals, though. I think his move on abortion was less a slap at the Religious Right, and more of an investment in the Religious Left’s favor bank. He knows, at some point, he’s going to disappoint them. And when they come storming into the Oval Office, he can point back to that act and say, ‘See? Who said I never did anything for you?”

For now, though, he can afford to flirt with both left and right. They’re going to catch on eventually. But which of them would have the bad manners to spoil his honeymoon so soon?