HT to Media Matters for a great piece on this segment.

On Tucker Carlson's show Friday, he commented that he has "never met anybody less sincere than the religious left." He added, "You think that Falwell was cloying and phony, you haven't met the religious left." This comment came in response to former Rep. Tom Andrews' (D-ME) comment that a lot of religious people including evangelicals, are calling for caring for God's creation, a just foreign policy, and for government to take a firm, moral stand against poverty.

It would be great for Tucker to let the world know who exactly he is talking about on the "religious left."

Is he talking about any one of the leading evangelical leaders who signed the Evangelical Climate Initiative Statement last year? Those leaders include Rick Warren, the head of the National Association of Evangelicals, and numerous other leaders of highly respected organizations and churches. On a just foreign policy, is he talking about those who led the Christian Peace Witness for Iraq earlier this year, which included representatives of almost every major Protestant denomination? Or perhaps the Pope's opposition to the war is what Tucker meant by insincere! On poverty, is he talking about the Let Justice Roll Campaign, ...or Jim Wallis or Jim Forbes, who have devoted more than the last 3 decades of their careers to drawing attention to God's call that we bring good news to the poor? Or perhaps it's the folks at the Jewish Funds for Justice who are building grassroots congregational networks (surely of similarly insincere people) to fight for economic justice?

Those are just the issues on which Tucker specifically said progressive faith leaders were being insincere. We could easily expand the list of progressive faith leaders to include advocates for marriage equality, human rights, and immigration reform.

How about a segment with a religious leader challenging Tucker's accusation of insincerity of those he labels the "religious left"? There's been a lot of buzz about religious progressives lately-- this would give viewers a lively debate and a chance to come to their own conclusions about the sincerity of the commitment of religious leaders who focus on causes like the environment, the war and poverty.

I have a feeling that put up next to Tucker, these faith leaders won't have a problem coming off as sincere.