Progressive Revival

Earlier this week, a group of thirty or so young Jews, Christians, and Muslims came together to participate in a voter registration drive in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston.  Working in partnership with the local ACORN branch, the interfaith activists received training on non-partisan voter engagement, participated in conversation about the spiritual underpinnings of their…

When people talk about radical homosexuals, they mean me. When they talk about left-wing, socialist feminists, that would be me. And when they talk about Christian voters, that’s  me, too.    So I’m driving along yesterday with my friend and colleague Paul: he’s a gay left-winger, too, and a priest at the church where I’m…

The “p” word has had a tortured history with Muslims, as it does with many other religious communities. Ironically, it tends to work as a better marker to many non-Muslims of the social and political commitments of the Muslims who self-identify as progressive. For too many Muslims, the term progressive has often been a cover…

Just last week my cousin from Texas, whom I have not heard from for many years, forwarded me one of those emails. You know the ones that so many of us have gotten with the smears and lies about Senator Barack Obama: “Barack Obama supports infanticide.” “Barack Obama was sworn in on the Koran.”  “Barack Obama…

Plainly, no one can confidently predict how large a factor racist attitudes will play in the November presidential election.  In the privacy of the voting booth, people’s fears and prejudices may be more powerful than the marked (and widely documented) shifts in both American law and American culture these last 40 years or so.  How…

O God, here we go again, I thought as news wires began to sketch the tragedy played out in Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church last week.  My reaction would have been the same had the needless loss of lives occurred in a university, a business office, a government building or elsewhere. The basic ingredients are…

In my last  post, I asked how one decided which is the most important political issue and who he/she should vote for for president.   I learned from my readings of the Bible to “Love thy neighbor” and that “I am my brother’s keeper.”  So as a society, are we practicing His teachings in the political arena and in…

The proprietors of Progressive Revival have encouraged us original bloggers to comment on a post by pastordan at Street Prophets offering a conditional disparagement of the ideological disposition of this crew.  Since Pastordan singled me out for abuse as nothing more than a “DLC hack,” guess I should rise to a point of personal privilege by responding. …

As reports continue to cite Catholics like Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine or Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as veep short-listers for Obama, the McCain camp appears to have countered with a little-noticed event that could have large implications should Obama try to shore up his Catholic flank with the No. 2 pick. Yesterday in Denver, John…

Rev. Gene Robinson, the gay Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire, was pointedly not to attend Lambeth Conference. But he has been there and posted this poignant dispatch on his blog.   Since arriving in Canterbury, I had not yet visited the Cathedral. I went nowhere near the place on Sunday’s opening service. The ever-anxious leadership had…

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