Don't hand religion to the right

There are sign in this country that the right are seeking to recapture the religious vote [back to the days when it was supposed that the Church of England was the Tory party at prayer]. This article makes a foray into analysis of why the left loses the plot when it comes to religion. I think that the authors are right in saying this: "the religious left has found itself constantly challenged by the secular left. Whilst the religious right and neo-conservatives have worked together, progressives have split and split again. Blair is too embarrassed to talk the language of faith because he knows it would alienate his allies. Some object to religion on principle. Others insist that a Christian response is inevitably intolerant, exclusive, even racist. So left secularists welcomed Jubilee 2000 but ignored the fact that the Jubilee is a biblical concept."
What it doesn't say is that perhaps part of the problem is that Blair et al.s Christian Socialism has alienated its natural supporters by Blair's support for the USA-led intervention in Iraq and the winner is the right. However it is also true that 'fundamentalist' secularists are another reason for alienating Christian support: they seem intent on reserving progressive politics for those who don't beleive in God. Strange, really, since British progressive politics has traditionally been driven by Christians [principally Methodists, it seems].
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