Lefties ascendant?

My sour mood about the prospects for religious lefties took a decided upturn when I read this piece about religious progressives in Salon:

While politicians like Rick Perry and pundits like Bill O’Reilly may clog up a lot of media airtime, the proportion of religious conservatives in the United States is shrinking with each successive generation, and close to 20 percent of Americans today are religious progressives, according to a new survey conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute and the Brookings Institution.

Here's the breakdown on age:

• Mean age: 44 – just under the mean age in the general population of 47 – while the mean age of religious conservatives is 53.
• 23% percent of Millennials (ages 18-33) are progressives, 17% are conservatives and 22% are nonreligious

Breakdown of progressives by faith community

• 29% -- Catholics (yay, us!)
• 19% -- White mainline Protestants
• 18% -- Religious, but unaffiliated with a religious tradition
• 13% -- Non-Christian religious Americans (Jews, Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims)
• 9% -- Black Protestants
• 4% -- White evangelical Protestants (figures)

Meanwhile, here's the breakdown of conservatives by faith community

• 43% --White evangelical Protestants
• 17% -- Catholics
• 15% -- White mainline Protestants
• 8% -- Black Protestants

Percentage that thinks being religious is primarily about doing the right thing:

• 79% -- progressives
• 38% -- conservatives

Percentage of each group that thinks being religious mostly involves having the right beliefs:

• 16% -- progressives
• 54% -- conservatives

While these figures pretty much sum up my understanding of the way the religious forces arrayed, I am buoyed by the fact that some many Christians see their faith as being more than sitting around waiting for heaven. But bottom line for Christians progressives? Speak up! We're getting shouted down by the righties!

Real bottom line: there is hope.