Popularized Lay Zen Practice Has Always Been Progressive

 I'm tempted to write several pages on this topic alone, but in response to those (OK 1 or 2 or a few) that decry the fact that white convert American Buddhists tend to be progressive seem to be unaware of the recent history of lay Zen practice. 

As a guy who practiced with those affiliated with likely the original root of modern popular lay Zen practice, I often forget that no, lay Zen practice did not start with Shunryu Suzuki "and a bunch of hippies," but rather it started back in Japan in the 19th century as a response to Meiji era reforms, including the elimination of class differences as well as the fact that:

The newly established Meiji government promoted a nationalistic ideology that condemned Buddhism as a foreign religion. This ideology known as the haibutsu kishaku (廃仏毀釈; lit: abolish Buddhism destroy Shakyamuni) reached its peak in a series of organized attacks on Buddhist temples and establishments all over the country.

So,  in contrast to those who decry white American Zen Buddhism as the toy-thing of a progressive elite, it in fact was never that, even in Japan; and moreover, those decriers tend to ignore that "Suzuki's hippies" were originally social outcasts before they got older and bougie. Moreover, in the traditions in which I practice, there are resources allowing for those of lesser means to participate; one person I regularly see at retreats has taken a vow of poverty. 

And I assure you, every single practitioner I have seen at every single Zen center has come to Zen "like a refugee" - to steal a phrase from Leonard Cohen and aptly apply it.

Finally, let's not forget Brian Victoria.  Although Japanese Zen "opened up" to all lay people, especially in the Rinzai tradition, it did so by accommodating itself to 文明開化, or perhaps better put in hindsight, "Make Japan Great Again," it did compromise some fundamental Mahayana principles, which were, thankfully, repudiated after WWII.

I've written this elsewhere: I know of no zendo or temple that would turn away a Trump supporter.  But, like reality and the Christian Sermon on the Mount, I submit Mahayana Buddhism has a distinctly progressive bias. It just is what it is, and you can accept it or not.  But don't build straw-men conspiracies out of it.  Read the links, especially the first link; it's very instructive.