It’s important for journalists to be able to parse the distinctions among those who call themselves Christian, tedious as it may be.
Mobilizing Religious Progressives on Health Care
The President is reaching out to faith leaders to help reframe the health care debates in moral terms, and religious progressives are heeding the call(s).
Beyond Progressive Religion
Everyone has it wrong regarding politics and religion: the Christian Right, Atheists, and even the Progressive Religious community. The author proposes a daring alternative.
Catholic Bad Girls or Good Catholic Women: Bridging the Generation Gap
A young, lesbian, Catholic progressive responds to Frances Kissling on the question of old-school ideas and strategies versus the brave new world of boundary-busting and online activism.
Why I Am Still a Christian
A friend once asked Diana Butler Bass why she was still a Christian. The answer lies in the question of spiritual memory, and of a community that exists through time.
Christianity v. Christ: An Excerpt From A People’s History of Christianity
Most people know only the Big-C Christianity—Christ, Constantine, Christendom, Calvin, and Christian America—but there is another one, linked to a biblical parable of a wounded man’s rescue by a stranger.
Carlton Pearson was a televangelist superstar, until he began preaching the gospel of inclusion and was ousted. But now this conservative Pentecostal preacher turned progressive religious radical has a new congregation.
Putting the “Protest” Back in Protestant: Reclaiming the Spirit of Resistance
Why has so much religious leadership come to look like “the bland leading the bland”? On the occasion of Pentecost, we present a romp through the wide range of Protestantisms, and answer the question: Why is that biblical book called “Acts” and not “Lazing About”?
RDPulpit: Dry Bones & Oil Spills: the Dangerous Memory of Ken Saro-Wiwa
Shell Oil is being called to answer for the pollution of the Niger river and for the death of activist Ken Saro-Wiwa. A seminarian calls for action.
Better Gay at Work Than Gay in Church
A new report on the state of the workplace for LGBT Americans shows that the Fortune 500 is way ahead of churches when it comes to equal rights. In some cases it’s easier to be gay at Chevron than in church on Sunday morning.
Common Ground on “Life”
A conservative and a progressive find common ground on organ donation. What do you think?
Post-Modern Progressives, or Liberalism Ain’t What It Used To Be
With whom does one make alliances for the sake of peace in the world? Post-modern progressive theology does not compromise, but neither does it insist on a single truth. In its journey toward justice, it keeps its eye on the practical.
Response: Is the Centrist Orthodoxy True?
Mark Silk's recent analysis of the rift between the "prophets" and the "priests" of the left hinges on the assumption that reaching out to centrist evangelicals will help Democrats. But will it?
By The Way: Gay Marriage in Iowa, not California?
To all the breathless detractors of “flyover country,” think about the history of Iowa before expressing shock.
Jesus Never Built a Bridge with a Pharisee: On Compromise with Conservatives
As the disagreement heats up between "religious progressives" and the "religious left" on the nature of compromise with centrists and conservatives, Candace Chellew-Hodge argues that you can respect your opponent and still refuse to compromise.
What Liberals Want: A Response to Susan Thistlethwaite
Theologian Susan Thistlethwaite suggested in Newsweek that liberals should respect progressive efforts to connect with evangelicals. Frances Kissling responds that the respect should begin with a sitdown between liberals and progressives.
Op-Ed: The Real Muslims?
We all know by now that there are some who would like to claim the term “Christian” for their own particular brand of belief. Is there an analogy to this in the contemporary North American Muslim community?
By the Way: James Dobson Departs the Scene
As the old guard retires, a generational challenge emerges for the Christian Right. Who can lead a movement whose constituency no longer agrees with its core tenets?
A New Theopolitical Order: But What About The Women?
Even as they invite progressive religious groups to the table the leaders of the Democratic party shun religious feminism.
For several weeks a debate has been taking place between an author of a document seeking to “end the culture wars” and the editor of a collection of essays on the Religious Left. In this installment the editor responds to criticisms and details their divergent goals.
Ideology is More Than Skin Deep: Why I Can’t Get Along To Go Along
The differences among religious folk in this country—once these issues make their way into politics—manifest in real divisions of money and power and security. To think that these conflicts can be resolved with mild-mannered compromises between Third Way and centrist evangelicals underestimates their importance.
Battling for the Soul of the Democratic Party
Since the 2004 defeat of John Kerry, a handful of religious Inside-the-Beltway Democrats—called the religious left by some—have seen their influence rise dramatically. But how progressive is their “broader agenda?” And what of religious left leaders who include reproductive justice and LGBT civil rights on their list?
If we allow the progressive movement to be reactive without first building the shared values and beliefs that make such actions sustainable, then our house will turn out to have been built upon sand. And when the electoral rains come, we will be washed away...
RD10Q: Progressive & Religious: Moving Beyond the Culture Wars and Transforming American Public Life
“Taking aim” at both the Religious Right and the New Atheists, a new book aims to make progressive politics safe for the religious, and religion safe for progressive politics.
Obama Territory
For the congregation of a Baptist church in Brooklyn Obama's candidacy inspires hope, but there is so much work to be done—a progressive urban agenda is at stake. Will the candidate remember this when he comes into his kingdom?