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From Selma and Raleigh to You and Me
They are asking us to blog (yes they are, I was on a conference call for bloggers with Rev. Barber and this post is the result.) And they they are asking us to come. It looks to be an historic day -- and perhaps the beginning of the kind of response to the long march of the Religious and Political Right to power that could begin to turn the tide. Barber says he expects tens of thousands of marchers, and that he knows of people coming from at least 18 states. The Moral Mondays movement has recently spread to Georgia and South Carolina (where they call it Truthful Tuesdays). Some years ago, some of us came together to put together Talk to Action, a group blog site where we could write about the Religious Right and where such things as reproductive justice, LGTBQ rights and separation of church and state would be viewed as central values. A few years later, some of us came together to produce a book called Dispatches from the Religious Left: The Future of Faith and Politics in America which also adhered to these values at a time when others thought it was acceptable to downplay or negotiate them away in pursuit of short term political gain. We were also acutely aware of the need for greater involvement of religious progressives in electoral politics, recognizing that if the playing field were left to the Religious Right we would get ever more theocratic government. The late Bob Edgar kindly blurbed the book, writing: "If he were alive today, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would remind us that 'We are the leaders we have been waiting for.' Consider Dispatches from the Religious Left your briefing book on how and why it is important to be a `courageous leader' in these challenging times." I am glad to see that the Moral Mondays movement is broadly inclusive in its call for justice and that it is taking the long view for the long haul. On the blogger conference call, Barber said he sees a revival in progressive churches as people seek to reclaim the best of the social justice tradition. He says it is the kind of revival that will always take place "when extremists go too far." Its a new day.
From Selma and Raleigh to You and Me | 3 comments (3 topical, 0 hidden)
From Selma and Raleigh to You and Me | 3 comments (3 topical, 0 hidden)
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