For years the editors of Christianity and Crisis have done their best to make friends with the international left, even to the point of adjusting or ignoring in­convenient doctrines. Despite these efforts, The Nation recently took aim at all (not just conservative) religionists and fired a broadside entitled “Political Opium.” C&C’s soul-searching response:

What’s the point? On many issues and in much of its content, The Nation projects a vision of the just and caring society that we (and, we believe, the editors of Commonweal, Sojourners, The Christian Century, National Catholic Reporter etc., along with the leaders and staffs of major Jewish and Christian organizations) find attractive. We push many of the same causes and fight the same kind of enemies­—in Central America, South Africa, the Middle East, on the environment, the rights of women and minorities, school prayer, the death penalty, the arms race, superpower relationships…. Nobody asks the editors of The Nation to genuflect before our beliefs; but why spit on them? Are we the enemy?

“Verily, I say unto you, they have their reward” (Matt. 6:5).