Web Sites (scroll down for progressive Christian blogs)
Jeff Sharlet, ubiquitous analyst of the Christian Right (and erstwhile contributor to Harpers) runs The Revealer out of the New York University Center for Religion and Media. A favorite–the subject matter is topical, the style unpretentiously witty, the learning displayed by the writers staggering, to the point that each time i venture in I generally don’t leave until I’ve at least skimmed every new piece. The staff (must be nice…) editorializes on all things related to religion in contemporary American culturen and I do mean “all.” Nice newsletter, issued at irregular intervals, to boot–I can’t resist the teasers.
The Center for Progressive Christianity (Cambridge, MA) focuses on providing guides for “Christians who recognize the faithfulness of other people who have other names for the way to God’s realm, and acknowledge that their ways are true for them, as our ways are true for us.” Ummm, maybe. Doctrinal and ethical practices are delineated via “the Eight Points.” Site includes: a brief annotated “news” section, composed primarily of opinion pieces culled from progressive sites; directories of progressive Christian Churches and groups; open threaded discussion forums, including discussions of books and spiritual topics; and dozens of brief reviews of current books on the intersection of Christianity and culture.
The site also offers numerous resources for downloading and purchase: posters and brochures; a deep catalog of books, many available online for printing; tapes of the annual TCPC Conference along with Conference proceedings (sample titles: “Risking Art, Risking Faith: Exploring the Intersection of Christianity, Creativity and Diverse Spiritualities” (1999); “Out of the Whirlwind: Claiming a Vision of Progressive Christianity” (1996); “The Big Tent: Presenting a New Generation of Progressive Christian Leaders” (2003). Also posts a newsletter, the ”Online Quarterly Constellation.”
Rabbi Michael Lerner’s Tikkun, which bills itself as “the prophetic voice of the spiritual and religious left,” is a “multifaith community,” noted for the monthly magazine bearing the same name. Has a strong progressive Jewish bent. Sponsors local communities and a network. Deeply interested in Israeli-Palestinian peace issues. Open discussion forum topics range from Edward Said to “Challenging Corporate Power.” Uses the notion of a “Social Responsibility Amendment” as a linchpin for discussion of various matters.
Pax Christi.Net (American chapter: Pax Christi USA ) is an international organization founded in 1945 to “promote Christian reconciliation in postwar Europe.” Catholic peace movement uniting over sixty non-governmental organizations around the world, together comprising more than 60,000 members. Pax Christi works in five continents and in over 50 countries. Focus is on human rights, security and disarmament, economic justice and ecology, as summarized in the organization’s vision. The Web site provides a very long list of reports and efforts; archived, with a useful taxonomy.
Public Christian: Christian Morality in Politics and Public Life. The writing isn’t always top notch, but the sentiments are sincere. Often angry and reproachful, the articles have that pull-no-punches mentality that Jesus might have admired, leastways when He was in one of His Moods. Includes an interesting synopsis of “The Moral Priorities of Jesus.”
Sojourners is the online vehicle for Jim Wallis’ group and the journal of the same name. Includes selections from Sojourners’ Magazine, and downloadable selections from Wallis’s seminal God’s Politics (2003) along with the recent The Great Awakening. This busy site also features the group’s famous “God is Not a Republican” ad PDF); sign-up for the weekly e-magazine SojoMail.
Sojourners recently merged with Call to Renewal, the “faith-based” anti poverty campaign whose fundamental principles are contained in The Isaiah Platform and whose laudable goal is to “muster the political will to end poverty.” (See The Nation (2006) for a thorough and sympathetic analysis of the “evangelical left”).
Similarly, Bread for the World marshalls its 58,000 members worldwide to serve a lobbying group for the poor. They’re involved in the nitty gritty of federal policymaking, for example, currently conducting a campaign eliminate some of the inequities in the 2007 Farm Bill.
The American Society of Friends—that’s Quakers, to you, and, despite being lumped into this category, not precisely “Christians,” either—have been a quiet but consistent force for good for centuries. The Friends Committee on National Legislation bills itself as the largest peace lobby (501C)4 (not a PAC) in DC; initiated in 1943, the organization claims partial responsibility for The Peace Corps, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The American Friends Service Committee belies any stereotype of Quakers as quivering wallflowers. This group has long taken the lead in organizing antiwar demonstrations, and their site, devoted to traditional Quaker ideals, applies the same to various world issues. Their ongoing quiet unyielding public demonstrations against the war in Boston are genuinely inspiring.
The National Catholic Reporter is the web site of the influential Catholic magazine. Bluntly critical of Rome where need be. Includes news and opinion. Joe Fuerherd provides valuable reports from Washington on matters of faith and politics; I’m partial to the the weekly sermons by Thomas J. Gumbleton, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Detroit, Michigan. Also contains good coverage of continents other than NA, a special ongoing section devoted to healthcare issues, and a reader forum. An example of what Catholicism can aspire to on its better days.
Jesus Radicals is a fascinating site making the case “for faith and anarchy.” Worth a visit just to check out the design and layout; provides a solid basic library of Christian, anarchist, and christo-anarchist thinking. Be sure to check out the library, comprising essays, along with a very interesting collection of prayers, and comments on liturgy. Of particular interest, links to the writings of those theologians and like-minded spirits who have struggled with the idea(a) of Christian anarchism. Forum to boot. The site is as unique as their philosophy: In today’s political climate, Christianity and Anarchism aren’t the most obvious bedfellows. However, both traditions look intentionally to non-governmental sources of authority, and in both traditions there is awareness of the political and ethical stakes of this decision.
On a somewhat less aspirational level, Ship of Fools: The Magazine of Christian Unrest is a gently satiric online magazine. I enjoy the delightful “Fruitcake Index” and you will too.
Back to High Seriousness and Kingdom Now. Post 9/11, the founders of this organization discovered a golden calf in our midst in that ”we, the Church in the United States, have prostrated ourselves before the idol of our nation.” They invite others to “join us in repentance, turning from the United States’ twisted notions of liberty, democracy and justice, from the historical misconceptions of its ‘Christian heritage’ and from the ubiquitous greed that drives our nation.” Maintains “95 Theses for Regeneration.”
The Catholic Worker is devoted to promoting the work and vision of Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin. Includes a searchable index of Day’s writing along with her autobiography.
Bad Subjects: top-notch writing and incisive examination of matters political from largely unknown writers who deserve attention. Features a special 72-article installment called “Jesuslands,” which “consider[s]s the deployment of public religious faith as a foundation for domestic and foreign policy, and the malignant cultural phenomena created by such usage.”
Church Folks for a Better America is a project of the Peace Action Education Fund, the educational arm of the Coalition for Peace Action (Princeton, NJ 08542). The site hosts a nice collection of antiwar poems and antiwar sermons, mostly post 9/11 but including Bonhoeffer and King. Very good resource for articles on the immorality of the Iraq war . This group ran the “The Dove Ad” and created the “Open Letter to Alberto Gonzales,” read on the floor of the US Senate and endorsed by numerous theologians and religious leaders.
Every Church a Peace Church is a community heavily involved in peace pilgrimages to Palestine. Includes study materials, including an introduction to Jesus as peacemaker, a section on forming “experimental peace churches,” activist materials on developing peace colleges and other groups, meetings, extensive links, etc.
Evangelicals for Social Action go way back: “We wrote and signed the now famous Chicago Declaration of Evangelical Social Concern, confessing our failure to confront injustice, racism and discrimination against women, and pledging to do better. Looking back, the Chicago Declaration sounds pretty tame, but it was new and powerful in 1973…” “For the Health of the Nation: An Evangelical Call to Civil Responsibility” provides justification and guidelines for increasing evangelical political activity—addressing the need to address AIDS, poverty, civil rights, etc. See the excellent letter to GWB (January 05) addressing poverty in America, as well as “History worth reading: We talked and became part of Religious Leaders for McGovern/Shriver.” Interesting catalog of books with a real focus on Christians and the environment.
Progressive Religious Blogs
I am painfully aware of the obvious shortcomings here. At the same time, the number and variety of religious oriented blogs defies taxonomy. Though they do share a general consensus: the judeo-christian tradition is by and large a fine thing, as is feeding the hungry, though certain restrictions apply; Islam is a religion of peace, no matter what Muslims themselves may think; homosexuality is probably more sad than bad (though of course a very vocal minority very strongly disagrees), but in any case, it ain’t good. A presumptuous bunch, and it’s in the blogs, I think, that readers will find true progressive struggling to wrench their modern-day quasi-enlightened sensibilities into some kind of accord with the fanatastical detritus bequeathed them by their medieval and ancient desert forbears. If nothing else, most will agree that women have souls–that’s something, no?–and some, I suspect, share with Professor Peter Singer a gnawing suspicion that our meat may too.
Actually, there are dozens, probably hundreds, of personal religious blogs that do make for genuinely interesting reading, as I’ll strive to get round to them. In the meantime, most feature blogrolls: go fishing.
Sponsored by the Baptist Joint Commission for Religious Liberty, the Blog from the Capital focuses exclusively on the intersection of faith and federal polity. Spare, almost entirely devoid of analysis, it’s a serious collection of meaningful news.
The Christian Alliance for Progress blog features ongoing commentary on religious-related news story. The writing’s not flashy, and the site has a homespun feel about it—an alternative to some of the bombast and bluster to which many of us drawn to these subjects seem all-too-susceptible. Read the CafP’s ”Jacksonville Declaration” for a statement of principles.
”Father Jake Stops the World” is subtitled “the musings of an eclectic and sometimes eccentric Episcopalian priest.” This one is for those engaged in matters theological and, especially, Anglican and Episcopalian polity. Having spent the better part of a year working over a new edition of Richard Hooker’s Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity (Medieval & Renaissance Texts and Studies 1993 / 2 vols. / 1,296 pages), I am perhaps unduly fascinated; but there are many gems herein.
The Village Gate (formerly “The Right Christians”) is both a blog and “a village of blogs.” Contains thoughtful grassroots reflections on news items and current conditions. “A place for religious progressives to gather, inform one another, encourage each other and mobilize for action in their communities and the nation.”
Theoblogical provides very intelligent ongoing commentary on politics and religion. Highly recommended for both the sources and the observations.
A Truckstop for the Soul. Fascinating and thorough collection of writing on Christianity in pop culture. Mirthful collection of contemporary quotes (Bono, Moby–Moby?) on the right hand side.
Beatitudes Society works to innoulate a progressive Christian ethos in seminarians and laypeople alike. The site’s blog provides useful analysis of current news and trends, notably in the field of religion-and-politics.
StreetProphets, a DailyKos community, is home to good ol’ Pastor Dan. If you can get past the earnestly folksy tone and kumbayesque calls to “the Daily Prayer Closet,” you’ll find some intelligent commentary. And a very very good blogroll, including links to Christian news pages, progressive religious groups, and liberal Christian blogs.
