Progressive and Religious

President Obama's Cairo Speech Inspires Warm Responses from Diverse Progressive Religious Leaders

2009-06-11T14:00:00.011-04:00

President Obama’s speech calling for a "new beginning" for American and Muslim relations inspired warm responses from several progressive religious leaders featured in my recent book, Progressive & Religious. They were especially unified in praise for his focus on justice, interfaith cooperation, and common values, all of which serve as cornerstones for future peace and mutual respect. Obama highlighted the need for open and frank discourse in this process. These leaders are important progressive, religious voices in this dialogue, where emphasis is shifting from a history of suspicion to a future of cooperation.

Below I've featured video responses from two important leaders featured in Progressive & Religious, Rabbi David Saperstein and Dr. Eboo Patel.

Rabbi David Saperstein, Director of the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism, called Obama's address an "extraordinary, remarkable speech" that contained impressive "moral consistency" and "political courage." Click here to watch the video. Rabbi Saperstein also noted:

"One of the greatest challenges facing humanity today is finding common ground between diverse religious traditions and working with all religions to delegitimize extremism that embraces violence."

Dr. Eboo Patel, Director of Interfaith Youth Core, highlighted the hopeful vision of "interfaith cooperation," rather than "a clash of civilations" that has been a mark of President Obama's administration from its beginning. Click here to watch the video.

These video responses, and audio and written responses to President Obama's speeach from other leaders featured in Progressive & Religious, including Asra Nomani and Rami Nashashibi, are featured on a new religion website, www.Patheos.com. Thanks to Patheos for gathering these resources into one page.

To hear more of the inspiring religious perspectives that Rabbi Saperstien, Eboo Patel, and others are bringing into American public life, you can check out the "Progressive Religious Voices Podcast," which features interviews with these leaders.

To read more about the emerging progressive religious movement, you can check out Progressive & Religious: How Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Buddhist Leaders are Moving Beyond the Culture Wars and Transforming American Public Life. Rowman & Littlefield has made my book available at the best price so far ($12.48 for hardcover). To buy the book at this sale price, click here, and enter promotion code “4S9JONE50″ at checkout.

A Resurrection of Progressive Religious Voices

2009-04-13T13:11:00.005-04:00

A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of speaking at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, as a guest of Tom Krattenmaker, frequent contributor to USA Today and Associate Vice President at Lewis & Clark. (Tom, by the way, has a great piece up today at USA Today on recent books that give a new perspective on Jesus and the church by New Testament scholars Bart Ehrman and Marcus Borg and church historian Diana Butler Bass). After the event, I talked at length with George Rede, Sunday opinion editor at the Oregonian, who focused his Easter Sunday column on my recent book, Progressive & Religious. In the piece, entitled “Religious progressives find new acceptance”, Rede talks about the resurrection of progressive religious voices in American public life.

Religious Progressives find new acceptance

by George Rede

Judging from recent headlines, you might think conservatives have a lock on religion. Whether the topic is same-sex marriage, stem cell research or President Barack Obama’s invitation to speak at Notre Dame’s commencement, the same sources from the religious right get top billing.

What’s going on? Robert P. Jones, a professor and ordained minister, has an idea.

Last month at Portland’s Lewis & Clark College, Jones talked about his new book, “Progressive & Religious: How Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist Leaders Are Moving Beyond the Culture Wars and Transforming American Public Life” (Rowman & Littlefield, 2008).

In the book, Jones cuts through the assumption that religion in America — and religious politics — are the domain of the religious right. (Think Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority; Pat Robertson and the Christian Coalition; James Dobson and Focus on the Family. Recall their efforts to legislate morality on issues of abortion, sex education and gay rights.)

In reporting these hot-button issues, Jones found, the mainstream media fell into the trap of presenting a distorted picture, virtually defining religion and the public square in conservative terms. Jones’ research shows that for every progressive voice cited in the news media, three conservative religious voices were quoted.

That doesn’t match reality. After all, 14 percent of Americans define themselves as religious progressives versus 15 percent who self-identify as religious conservatives, according to the 2009 American Religious Identification Survey.

Jones spent three years crisscrossing the country doing 96 interviews with progressive religious leaders representing Christianity (both mainline and evangelical Protestant), Judaism (Reform) and Islam. From those interviews, several themes emerged: an emphasis on social justice, a fundamental belief in humanity, a vision for America as a more generous country, an active role in community organizing — plus a conviction that “truth” isn’t the exclusive realm of religious conservatives…

Continue reading the full article from The Oregonian here.

You can also read a longer piece on Progressive & Religious by George Rede, Sunday Opinion Editor for the Oregonian, here.

Progressive & Religious is 50% off in April. Rowman & Littlefield has made my book available at the best price so far ($12.48 for hardcover, expires 4/27). To buy the book at this sale price, click here, and enter promotion code “4S9PROG50″ at checkout.

President’s Faith-Based Advisory Council Taps Four Progressive Leaders Featured in Recent Book, Progressive & Religious

2009-04-07T14:33:00.004-04:00

President’s Faith-Based Advisory Council Taps Four Progressive Leaders Featured in Recent Book, Progressive & Religious

Contact: Robert P. Jones, Ph.D.
rjones@publicreligion.org, 240-638-6403

(Washington, DC) - President Obama’s newly unveiled Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships taps four progressive religious leaders featured in the recent book, Progressive & Religious: How Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Buddhist Leaders are Moving Beyond the Culture Wars and Transforming American Public Life (Rowman & Littlefield, 2008). The leaders come from across the religious spectrum, representing Christianity (both mainline and evangelical Protestant), Judaism (Reform), and Islam.

These leaders, like many others on the council, have been at the vanguard in sustaining and reviving a progressive public face of religion. The excerpts below illustrate how these leaders are faithfully and critically engaging their faith and religious tradition to work for social justice and the common good--a hopeful sign in this new era.

Harry Knox, Director of Religion and Faith Program, Human Rights Campaign. Under his leadership, HRC created a national speakers' bureau that reaches more than 10 million Americans monthly and a national network for 22 progressive state clergy coalitions around the country. Knox was denied ordination because he is openly gay, and is a former licensed minister of the United Methodist Church in Georgia.

The people that we study now as great thinkers were all revolutionary in their time. They all listened to God first, and then made what they were hearing bump up against the text and bump up against the tradition of the church. And they found that maybe the text and the tradition weren’t big enough to hold what they were hearing from God, and so they said some new things.
-Knox, in Progressive & Religious

Dr. Eboo S. Patel, Founder and Director, Interfaith Youth Core. Dr. Patel, an Indian-American Muslim, founded his Chicago-based organization to build the interfaith youth movement through service and dialogue. Patel is a Rhodes scholar and serves on the Religious Advisory Committee of the Council on Foreign Relations.

A religious pluralist is somebody who may believe very deeply that their own tradition is the only “right” tradition, but who fundamentally believes in a society where people from different backgrounds have the freedom and the right to live by their own traditions and where they can live together in equal dignity and mutual loyalty.
-Patel, in Progressive & Religious

Rabbi David N. Saperstein, Director and Counsel, Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism. Rabbi Saperstein was recently named the most influential rabbi in America by Newsweek magazine. For more than 30 years, Rabbi Saperstein has represented the Reform Jewish Movement to Congress and the administration and lobbied for a variety of social justice issues.

There is hardly a classic text of Judaism that does not resound with both spiritual meaning and God’s call for us to be engaged in creating a better world. You can open up almost any story in the Bible and feel this deep spiritual resonance that speaks across the centuries and embodies this call: that we are called to create a more just and fair world for humanity.
-Saperstein, in Progressive & Religious

Rev. Jim Wallis, President and Director, Sojourners. Sojourners is a progressive evangelical organization that has been a longstanding voice for poverty reduction, peace, and the environment. Wallis’ book, God’s Politics, stayed on the New York Times best-seller list for 4 months.

One thing that changes American Christians is direct proximity, relationship to poor people. Revival is going to be triggered when the relationship to the poor on the part of the churches reaches a critical mass.
-Wallis, in Progressive & Religious

These leaders are featured prominently in the recent book, Progressive & Religious, which explains how progressive religious leaders are tapping the deep connections between religion and social justice to work on issues like poverty and workers’ rights, the environment, health care, pluralism, and human rights. The book is the result of three years of systematic research and nearly 100 interviews with progressive religious leaders in Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism.

The website companion to the book (http://www.progressiveandreligious.org/) also features selected audio podcasts and transcripts with these groundbreaking leaders, including podcasts with Dr. Eboo Patel and Rabbi David Saperstein.

# # #

Update from the road, Progressive & Religious 50% off in April

2009-04-05T15:18:00.003-04:00

Wanted to give a few updates from the road and let everyone know that if you've wanted a copy of my recent book, Progressive & Religious, the publisher's spring sale is on!

1. Progressive & Religious 50% off in April. Rowman & Littlefield has made my book available at the best price so far ($12.48 for hardcover, expires 4/27). To buy the book at this sale price, click here, and enter promotion code "4S9PROG50" at checkout.

Feel free to pass this along to friends and colleagues.

2. We've had a successful launch of the book and book tour. I've been the recipient of the hospitality of several universities and seminaries (Emory University, Princeton Theological Seminary, Hebrew College and Andover Newton Theological School, MIT, Oregon State University, Lewis and Clark College), academic conferences (American Academy of Religion, Christian Scholars Conference), and local congregations (Oseh Shalom in MD, Oakhurst Baptist Church in GA, and the Interfaith Families Project in MD). I've also had the opportunity to do some engaging media talks, ranging from being Rev. Welton Gaddy's guest on Air America to an appearance on Fox & Friends (!). I'm continuing to book engagements for the second half of the year to tell the story of the emerging progressive religious movement.

3. We also continue to publish compelling "Progressive Religious Voices podcasts series with progressive religious leaders. You can find them on iTunes or at www.progressiveandreligious.org/podcasts. They're free--come check them out.

Gratefully,
Robby Jones

A Much-Needed Reminder of the Dynamic Nature of Lived Christianity, Then and Now

2009-03-19T13:04:00.005-04:00

Wanted to flag for everyone in the Progressive & Religious community a new book and another important contribution by Diana Butler Bass.

Gifted historian Diana Butler Bass has a knack for bringing back into focus ignored or forgotten parts of the story of Christianity. Just over two years ago, she gave us Christianity for the Rest of Us: How the Neighborhood Church Is Transforming the Faith, the story of much-ignored mainline Protestant congregations that were defying stereotypes and thriving by combining traditional worship practices with social engagement.

In her latest book, she gives us an accessible and much-needed reminder of the dynamic--and often contested--nature of lived Christianity as expressed both in the lives of its people and its institutions. In our times, when churches are wrestling with a variety of issues that challenge the orthodoxies of the past, the reminder that the traditions we take for granted today represent the outcomes of struggles from the past is invaluable. This modest but powerful insight, brought home through lively examples, has the potential to humanize current debates. It moves the question from, "What was the winning argument from the past?" to "What does faithfulness for our time require?" While seminary courses delve into the material covered here, Bass makes it accessible. The importance of these insights and the accessibility of this book make it a major contribution.

Re-energized religious left delivers for Obama

2008-11-19T12:28:00.004-05:00

I wanted to flag for everyone this article in the National Catholic Reporter that mentions my new book, Progressive and Religious, and role of religion in the 2008 election.

"I think what the emerging progressive religious movement is poised to do is to help us move from the culture wars, where religion is the tip of the spear that divided Americans," said Robert Jones, a sociologist and author of "Progressive & Religious."

"What we're really seeing is a rebalancing in many ways in this election," said Jones. "In 2004, we had the artificial constriction of religion to a couple of hot-button issues and one party."

The full article is available here.

Review of Progressive and Religious

2008-11-18T11:21:00.002-05:00

Check out this newest review of Progressive and Religious from the Baptist Studies Bulletin of Mercer University. You can access the full article here.

Progressive and Religious: How Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Buddhist
Leaders Are Moving Beyond the Culture Wars and Transforming
American Public Life
by Robert P. Jones
Reviewed by Wil Platt

Having lived through a decade or more of supremacy by the Christian right, some will be tempted to interpret the short title of this month’s selection as an oxymoron. How could any movement be both progressive and religious? As Rosemary Radford Reuther observes in her recommendation for the book, we have been presented with “the falsehood that only conservative evangelicals are seriously religious.” The basic purpose of the author is to “paint a compelling portrait of an emerging progressive religious movement in America.” I believe he succeeds in his task.

Robert P. Jones (Robby to his friends) describes himself as “a speaker, scholar, and consultant on religion and progressive politics.” He is president of Public Religion Research, a consulting firm advising advocacy groups, and visiting fellow in religion at Third Way, a progressive think tank. He completed his M. Div. at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary; the fundamentalist takeover of that institution occurred in his final semester and definitely influenced his outlook. He went on to earn a doctorate at Emory University in Atlanta. After a brief period of teaching in the Religious Studies Department of Missouri State University, he accepted a position as the founding director and senior fellow at the Center for American Values in Public Life at People for the American Way Foundation in Washington, D. C. While there and during the year following his departure, he completed the work for the book. Since 2007, he has been working as an independent consultant in progressive circles in Washington. Additional information about his background and activities can be found on his Web site.

Progressive and Religious is based upon nearly one hundred interviews with progressive religious leaders from synagogues, churches, mosques, meditation halls, and homes across the United States. Protestants who were interviewed include Tony Campolo, evangelical scholar, speaker, and writer; James Forbes, former senior pastor of the The Riverside Church in New York; Welton Gaddy, Director of the Interfaith Alliance; Brian McLaren, speaker, pastor, and leader in the Emerging Church movement; and Jim Wallis, President of Sojourners/Call to Renewal. Three chapters of the book are devoted to the Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The final chapter covers progressive Buddhists. The book contains a complete list of interviewees divided according to their religious or professional affiliation, extensive notes, and a generous bibliography.

Jones states that there were two meta-narratives that dominated late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century thought in regard to religion in America. One was the belief among mainline Protestants that the twentieth century would witness the “the full blossoming of Christian principles” and the Christianizing of the culture. On the other hand, some predicted the demise of religion in the face of an assault by science and reason. As things happened, neither of these visions came to pass. Buffeted by two world wars, economic collapse, the Holocaust, and the Cold War, the vision of a Christianized culture never came to fruition. The vision of secularization did not come to pass either; religion persisted, and continued to challenge science and rationalism. By the end of the twentieth century, in the place of these “exhausted visions,” two other forces emerged: “a defiant, rejectionist form of religion represented by the religious right and an equally militant condemnation of religion by the angry neoatheists. . . .” The religious right focused on a narrow range of issues: abortion, same-sex marriage, and stem cell research. As a result of his research, Jones believes that the majority of Americans are looking beyond the culture wars toward religious and political progress. He sees the progressive voices that he interviewed as “the vanguard of a new public face of religion in American public life.”

In the conclusion to the book, Jones discusses the “shared principles and values” of people who are both progressive and religious. First, these individuals and groups place an emphasis on social justice. They do not see this as optional; it is central to their faith. The Jewish concept of tikku olam, “healing the world,” is a way to express this concept. Second, progressives follow a relational approach to truth. Strong emphasis is given to experience in community, the use of human faculties in discerning truth, and humility. Third, progressives emphasize a “rigorous engagement with tradition” not a break with tradition. The past must be revered and respected, but it cannot supplant the present. Fourth, progressives have a belief in the unity of all humanity. In the Abrahamic faiths, this is based upon the belief that all have been created in the image of God. All people have not only a common origin but also a shared fate. Fifthly and finally, progressives have a new vision of America that emphasizes interdependence and generosity instead of unilateralism.

While some Baptists seem to be “circling the wagons,” Robert P. Jones paints a picture of a future characterized by openness, attention to issues of social justice, and religious cooperation. The progressive voices he has identified give us cause for hope.
The full article is available from the Baptist Studies Bulletin.

New Review of 'Progressive and Religious'

2008-11-05T17:57:00.006-05:00

I wanted to highlight this most recent positive review of Progressive and Religious. You can access the full text from the Spirituality and Practice website here.

Book Review

By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

Progressive & Religious
How Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Buddhist Leaders Are Moving beyond the Culture Wars and Transforming American Life
Robert P. Jones

Robert P. Jones is president of Public Religion Research, a consulting firm advising national advocacy groups, and visiting fellow in religion at Third Way, a progressive think tank. With great elan and spunk, he has completed a three-year project of interviewing 100 Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and Buddhist leaders. The result is a book that presents a glimpse of the emerging face of religion in a new era in America which E. J. Dionne and others have dubbed "a post-religious right America." Here are progressives who are deeply rooted in religious traditions, "voices that unite rather than divide; and voices that demand attention to a broader agenda of peace, social justice, care for the environment, respect for pluralism, and the common good."

For years, the religious right, comprised mainly of white evangelicals within the Republican Party, have dominated the media with their political views and wedge issues such as abortion, same-sex marriage, and embryonic stem cell research. The excesses of the Christian right have spawned a series of vitriolic antireligious books. Conspicuously absent are liberal religious voices. Jones maintains that an authentic new movement has arisen that is very different from the still vocal Christian right and the reactionary antirelgious left.

In a chapter titled "Lifting the Line of History: How Progressive Jews Are Healing the World," the author claims that Judaism presently has "the strongest and most engaged progressive voice." He talks about tikkun olam and the challenge of repairing the broken world. The sacred texts used to energize social justice issues are Genesis 1 (Creation in the Image of God), the Exodus story of liberation, and Isaiah 58 where holiness refers to an ethical orientation toward just acts. In addition to working for the alleviation of poverty and the support for LGBT equality, many Jews have joined Rabbi Michael Lerner's Network of Spiritual Progressives. On the international front, this organization calls for a "Global Marshall Plan" and "an ethical way to end the war in Iraq."

In other chapters, Jones covers three other religions: "More Truth Breaking Out: How Progressive Christians Are Seeking the Reign of God on Earth"; "Knowing One Another: How Progressive Muslims Are Fostering Justice, Beauty, and Pluralism"; and "Just Sitting Down: How Progressive Buddhists Are Being Peace and Embodying Justice." The author shares five common characteristics of a progressive religious orientation:

• An emphasis on social justice
• A relational approach to truth
• A rigorous and critical engagement with tradition
• A belief in the unity of all humanity
• A new vision of America that emphasizes interdependence, generosity, and prophetic critique

Jim Wallis has called the new energy among progressive voices a "great awakening." Jones does a fine job of mapping this new movement which offers an alternative to the present day national mood of fear and self-interest.

You can also access the full review here.

Rev. Dr. Susan Thistlethwaite - New Progressive Religious Voices Podcast

2008-10-29T16:50:00.007-04:00

Rev. Dr. Susan Thistlethwaite talks about the importance of religious education, Biblical literalism, and the emerging progressive religious movement that she calls a 'Second Reformation.'

In this new episode of Progressive Religious Voices, Rev. Dr. Susan Thistlethwaite, professor of theology at Chicago Theological Seminary and senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, emphasizes critical thought and thorough Bible study as the backbone of progressive religious education and talks about the "divine human project" of helping to heal the world.

Here's a short excerpt from the podcast:
That’s the divine human project, to heal the world. And you contribute your piece. King was right, it may be slow, but 'the arc of history bends towards justice.' Isaiah 58 says, `You shall be called the re-builders of the walls, the restorers of houses in ruins.’ Our country is in ruins. I mean, seriously. And so Isaiah 58 calls us, `I despise your feasts, your solemn assemblies.’ [And God says], 'What are you doing? You’re over here, you’re wasting my time with all of this religious ritual when the world is broken, and it’s the world that I care about. It’s the world I created as God, and so your job as a human being is to work with me in the re-building of the world, the healing of the world.' That’s what you’re doing. You’re trying to help with others the world heal itself. So for me, it is the healing of the world, that’s the human project.

Click here to listen to the podcast.

About Rev. Dr. Susan Thistlethwaite
Rev. Dr. Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite is professor of theology at Chicago Theological Seminary and senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. She was president of CTS from 1998-2008. Her area of expertise is contextual theologies of liberation, specializing in issues of violence and violation. An ordained minister of the United Church of Christ since 1974, she is the author or editor of thirteen books and has been a translator for two translations of the Bible. Her works include Casting Stones: Prostitution and Liberation in Asia and the United States (1996) and The New Testament and Psalms: An Inclusive Translation (1995).

About the Podcasts
Progressive Religious Voices is a bi-monthly podcast of interviews gleaned from nearly 100 interviews with progressive religious leaders. You can subscribe to the podcast feed directly or on iTunes to get all the exciting interviews that we will feature throughout 2008.

Other Resources
If you enjoyed this podcast, you might also enjoy our podcast featuring Rev. Dr. James Forbes, Jr., President and Founder of the Healing of the Nations Foundation of New York and Senior Minister Emeritus of Riverside Church.

You can also read more about the growing progressive religious movement in my new book, Progressive & Religious: How Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Buddhist Leaders are Moving Beyond the Culture Wars and Transforming American Public Life.

NPR - Obama Redraws Map of Religious Voters

2008-10-25T12:46:00.005-04:00

This most recent selection from National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" mentions the work of my firm, Public Religion Research, noting the positive shift in the relationship between the Democratic Party and religious voters. You can read the full text here.

Obama Redraws Map of Religious Voters
by Barbara Bradley Hagerty

Religious language trips off Barack Obama's tongue as if he were a native of the Bible Belt. From the moment he emerged on the national scene, he has spoken to believers in a language few Democrats have mastered: the language of the Bible and of a personal relationship with God...

Pollster Robert P. Jones of Public Religion Research says that Obama's appearance at the 2004 convention was a turning point in the relationship between Democrats and believers. Then, a majority of Americans viewed the Democratic Party as hostile to religion. But Jones' poll this month found a remarkable shift.
"Barack Obama was perceived to be more friendly to religion than John McCain," he says. "And that is, I think, an indication of the real sea change that's under way, and the way in which religion is interacting in public life."

Continue reading the full piece here.

NPR - How McCain Shed Pariah Status Among Evangelicals

2008-10-25T12:21:00.005-04:00

Check out this piece from National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" that talks about the work of my firm, Public Religion Research, my new book, Progressive and Religious, and the change in the political landscape from 2004 to 2008. You can read the full text here.

How McCain Shed Pariah Status Among Evangelicals
by Barbara Bradley Hagerty

When it comes to evangelicals, John McCain has remade himself in eight short years. The Republican candidate was a pariah to religious conservatives during his run for the White House in 2000. This time around, he's not exactly a Messiah but he has won over his base...

"I think 2004 really was the high-water mark of the religious right in America," says Robert P. Jones, president of Public Religion Research and author of Progressive and Religious.
Jones says the culture wars do not excite religious voters the way they used to.
"What we had in 2004 was a very artificial constriction of religion to be about abortion and same-sex marriage," he says. "We also had in a way we hadn't seen before an artificial constriction of religion to be about one political party. And it's not sustainable."
Jones' polls show abortion and same-sex marriage don't even rank in the top five issues for evangelicals, much less other religious voters.

Continue reading the full piece here.

Progressive and Religious Guest Voices

2008-10-25T11:45:00.005-04:00

'And For the Sin Of Greed That We Have Committed...'
by Rabbi Jennie C. Rosenn

I wanted to highlight for everyone this recent editorial by Rabbi Jennie Rosenn, a contributor to my new book, Progressive and Religious. She uses Yom Kippur liturgy to challenge Jews not only to respond individually to the needs of their communities, but also to work collectively with social justice groups to fight for systemic transformation. You can read the full piece here.

This is a strategic moment for the broader Jewish community to join with Jewish social justice organizations around shared values and collective action. Jewish social justice organizations, as reported in our recently published research, “Visioning Justice and the American Jewish Community,” stand on the forefront of organizing across religious, ethnic, and class lines to fight for some of the systemic changes we need — fair labor practices, universal healthcare, affordable housing and immigrant rights. In recent times we have witnessed solid examples of alliances between broader Jewish communal agencies and Jewish social justice organizations — in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina; in the face of genocide in Darfur; and on behalf of abused workers in Postville, Iowa. This is another such moment of need.

The broader Jewish community, together with Jewish social justice groups, can bring a compelling Jewish voice to every media outlet and decision-making table to help bring an end the war on the poor and middle class and to affirm the basic rights of housing, healthcare, education and pensions. In broader terms, they can define the values and principles that should determine governmental policies going forward. It is time to reframe our role as Jewish citizens and to take collective responsibility for making our values manifest in our policies.

Jews of every generation and affiliation — from those active in secular social change to those devoted to their local federations — can also act individually on this responsibility. Congregants can engage their synagogues in congregation-based community organizing. Jews of every generation can do volunteer service that addresses real needs in poor communities and speaks to the root causes of poverty. Professionals in transition from the private sector can bring their intelligence and skills to the Jewish social justice field. And we all can ensure that our tzedakah remains robust; these are days that call for shoring up, not scaling back, our giving.

Continue reading here.

The Nation - Democrats Chase Evangelical Votes

2008-10-23T13:14:00.005-04:00

Check out this story in the Nation that talks about the work of my firm, Public Religion Research, to work for a broader religious agenda of social justice and the common good. You can view the full article here.

Democrats Chase Evangelical Votes
Sarah Posner

When Barack Obama proclaimed that "we worship an awesome God in the blue states" at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, he sent a tingle through many young evangelical Democrats. The party was set to nominate John Kerry, considered by many evangelical activists to be religiously tone-deaf, but these Democratic faithful were already eyeing Obama as the un-Kerry, an unabashed believer ready to praise God in public...

Peeling away moderate and conservative evangelicals with a message of public service and social justice may prove to be a challenge, even with evangelical discontent with the GOP. But Robert Jones, author of the new book Progressive and Religious, maintains that "the real numbers are yet to be seen...there are still double-digit uncommitted voters. Those folks who aren't knee-jerk partisan voters will wait it out." Jones admitted that in 2006 "most of those evangelicals came home to the Republican Party," but he is not so sure this year. "The story will be where the uncommitted evangelicals break...I think we will see numbers breaking in a way that will surprise people."

Creating such a surprise has been the goal of Jones and some of the clients of his consulting firm, Public Religion Research, which has worked with new organizations in Washington to promote a broader religious agenda. One of his clients, Faith in Public Life (FPL), a nonprofit incubated at the Center for American Progress after the 2004 election, was at the forefront of promoting a more robust discussion of faith in this year's presidential campaign. Throughout the season, FPL has advanced the story line that less conservative religious voters are not only keen on having their voices heard in the public square but also on hearing about how presidential candidates' values guide their policy decisions. FPL organized the Compassion Forum at Messiah College in April, at which Obama and Hillary Clinton were put to the test of establishing their religious credentials, and pressed for the one at Warren's Saddleback Church.
Another one of Jones's clients, the centrist think tank Third Way, partnered with prominent evangelicals to produce an October 2007 white paper, "Come Let Us Reason Together," on how progressives and evangelicals could find common ground on divisive culture-war issues like abortion and gay rights. (Jones was a co-author.) FPL played a key role in promoting its signers, evangelical centrists like David Gushee, president of Evangelicals for Human Rights and professor of Christian ethics at Mercer University; Jim Wallis, president of Sojourners, who moderated two of the four Faith Caucus panels at the DNC; and Joel Hunter, the Florida mega-church pastor and registered Republican who gave the benediction on the closing day of the DNC. All three have been promoting evangelical interests in non-culture-war issues, with Gushee focused on environmental issues and ending torture, Wallis emphasizing fighting poverty and Hunter addressing environmental issues.
"Come Let Us Reason Together" focuses on an issue that is anathema to the religious right, and may also spoil Democratic chances to peel off moderate evangelicals and Catholics--abortion. The white paper stresses the value of abortion reduction, and while no reproductive rights groups were openly critical of it, none endorsed it. Wallis and Hunter lauded the adoption of the abortion reduction plank in the Democratic platform, hailing language that they said was included after religious leaders' input. (Reproductive rights advocates also declared victory, claiming the strongest prochoice plank in party history.) In his acceptance speech, Obama tried to straddle the line between his prochoice base and the religious abortion-reduction advocates: "We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country."

Continue reading the full text here.

Progressive & Religious Guest Voices

2008-10-21T11:49:00.001-04:00

Torture and Evangelicals: Faith takes a back seat
Tom Krattenmaker

I wanted to recommend for everyone this recent piece that features both Progressive & Religious and our recent poll on attitudes on torture among white evangelicals.
You can read the full piece here.

Then there's the integrity of the Christian religion -- already shredded, unfortunately, in the minds of many skeptical Americans... The new findings about evangelicals and torture certainly won't help in that regard. Commissioned by Mercer University and the Washington-based Faith in Public Life, and conducted by Public Religion Research, the survey finds that 57 percent of white evangelicals in the South believe torture can be justified. By comparison, an earlier poll by the Pew Research Center finds just 48 percent of the general public in support of torture.

Even more illuminating is this finding from the new poll: The evangelicals surveyed are far more likely to turn to life experience and common sense (44 percent) than Christian teaching (28 percent) in forming their opinion on torture. In other words, the segment of the population presumably most serious about their Christian faith is disinclined to be guided by the Bible on one of the central moral questions we face.

It comes as some relief to know that a different result emerged when the pollsters tweaked the question and challenged those surveyed to re-approach the issue with the Bible in mind, particularly its "do-unto others as you would have them do unto you" precept. Then, a majority agreed that torture should never be used.

Religion scholar Robert P. Jones, whose polling firm conducted the survey, believes evangelicals' support for torture probably stems from two major impulses: Fear, and the understandable but unrealistic yearning for absolute safety from terrorists.

"When you reach for ultimate security and find it ever more elusive, you then begin to rationalize your principles in the way you treat people," says Jones, author of the new book "Progressive and Religious." "It extends all the way down to doing things that [before 9/11] would have been unthinkable, like rationalizing away the Geneva Conventions, and talking about how in these times we're living in, the old morals don't apply."

New Review of 'Progressive and Religious'

2008-10-20T13:42:00.004-04:00

Progressive and Religious recently received this positive review by David M. Kinchen of Huntington News. Thought I'd share it here.

BOOK REVIEW: 'Progressive & Religious' Profiles America's Liberal Diversity of Faith

By David M. Kinchen
Huntingtonnews.net Book Critic

Robert P. Jones has discovered a group that many thought had disappeared: Believing Christians, Jews, Muslims and Buddhists who believe in America's traditional tolerance of other religions and who also support "progressive" -- the current name for "liberal" -- causes.

Based on his own research and in-depth interviews with nearly 100 Christians, Jews, Muslims and Buddhists, his intriguing book, "Progressive & Religious: How Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Buddhist Leaders Are Moving Beyond the Culture Wars and Transforming American Public Life" (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Lanham, MD., 280 Pages, notes, sources, index, $24.95) shows that -- in the U.S., at least -- there is a countervailing force to the much profiled religious right.

Progressives who are believers are caught between the rock of religious belief dominated by fundamentalists of all faiths and the hard place of fellow progressives who believe that all religion is a relic of a superstitious past, something that should be sloughed off so progressives can get on with the real task of eliminating war, hatred, poverty and other social ills.

The latter group, which Jones calls neoatheists, includes such best-selling authors as Christopher Hitchens ("God Is Not Great") -- for my 2007 review click here: http://www.huntingtonnews.net/columns/070710-kinchen-columnsbookreview.html -- and Sam Harris ("The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason," "Letter to a Christian Nation"). For my 2006 review of Harris' "Letter to a Christian Nation" click here: http://www.huntingtonnews.net/columns/061008-kinchen-review.html.

As one who trends toward the views of Hitchens and Harris, I was startled to find an echo of something I had written about a few years ago after one of my many visits to Chicago: The remarkable tolerance of diverse religious beliefs in one Chicago neighborhood, Albany Park, on the Windy City's north side. I called it the "Chicago Solution."

Interviewing a progressive Muslim in Chicago, Dr. Eboo Patel, Jones notes that unlike in other countries such as India (clashes between Christians and Hindus or Hindus and Muslims) or Iraq (Sunni vs. Shia, Muslims vs Christians, Kurds vs. Arab), different sects in the U.S. at least aren't killing each other:

Here's what Patel says (Page 155):

"Now, think about the American achievement....We are the most religiously diverse nation in human history and the most religiously devout society in the West in a moment of global religious conflict. Sunnis and Shias don't kill each other here, and liberal Protestants and evangelical conservative Protestants don't kill each other in Boise, and Orthodox Jews and Reform Jews don't throw rocks at each other on Devon Avenue in Chicago."

Just before I wrote this review, I read about violent clashes between India's dominant Hindus and the tiny minority of Christians in India's Orissa state:

The New York Times reported (Oct. 13, 2008) that:

"India, the world’s most populous democracy and officially a secular nation, is today haunted by a stark assault on one of its fundamental freedoms. Here in eastern Orissa State, riven by six weeks of religious clashes, Christian families ... say they are being forced to abandon their faith in exchange for their safety. The clash of faiths has cut a wide swath of panic and destruction through these once quiet hamlets fed by paddy fields and jackfruit trees. Here in Kandhamal, the district that has seen the greatest violence, more than 30 people have been killed, 3,000 homes burned and over 130 churches destroyed, including the tin-roofed Baptist prayer hall where the Digals [a family profiled in the story] worshiped. Today it is a heap of rubble on an empty field, where cows blithely graze."

Earlier I had read about attacks on Christians by Muslims in Mosul, in Iraq's north. And the list goes on and on....

People interviewed by Jones -- among them David Saperstein, Michael Lerner, Jim Wallis, Brian McLaren, Rosemary Radford Ruether, Feisal Abdul Rauf, Eboo Patel, Kecia Ali, Surya Das, Robert Thurman and E.J. Dionne -- reinforce the author's point of view that virtually every major progressive political involvement in American history (for instance: the struggle for Civil Rights in the South, the fight against child labor) has had progressive religious voices leading the way.

Jones says that "To judge all of religion by the behavior of the far Christian right...is to mistake the part for the whole. As I hope this book makes clear, these voices do not represent all Christians, much less all religious people."

"Progressive & Religious" is a thought-provoking, very readable book that shows that it is possible to be both religious and progressive -- at least in America and other multicultural countries like Canada and Australia.

From: http://www.hintonnews.net/columns/081014-kinchen-columnsbookreview.html

Dr. Omid Safi - New Progressive Religious Voices Podcast

2008-10-16T15:06:00.007-04:00

Dr. Omid Safi talks about Islam's relation to modernity, tradition, justice, and the emerging progressive religious movement.

In this new episode of Progressive Religious Voices, Dr. Omid Safi, Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina, describes the interplay between tradition and modernity that allows for a dynamic, progressive Islamic faith.

Here's a short excerpt from the podcast:

I think an important challenge that all of the religious traditions have had to deal with is simply the challenge of history, and in particular, the set of transformations that have come about through the Age of Enlightenment. Many of our religious traditions, Islam certainly included, have many beautiful teachings that I think are very resonant with some of what we think of today as international human right norms. And people like me who oftentimes think musically are very interested in this resonance of modern international secular human rights norms and traditional Islamic values. At a musical level, how do these two notes resonate with each other, without saying that one derives from the other one or that they must be collapsed into one and the same. It’s sort of a symphonic approach at that level.

Click here to listen to the podcast.

About Dr. Omid Safi
Dr. Omid Safi is an associate professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina and author of Progressive Muslims: On Justice, Gender, and Pluralism. Holding a Ph.D. in Religion with a concentration in Islamic Studies from Duke University, Dr. Safi's primary areas of research involve progressive Islamic thought, the social and intellectual history of pre-modern Islam, and Islamic mysticism. He frequently gives presentations dealing with various aspects of Islam, religion in the contemporary world, and spirituality and mysticism at churches, mosques, synagogues, and civic groups.

About the Podcasts
Progressive Religious Voices is a bi-monthly podcast of interviews gleaned from nearly 100 interviews with progressive religious leaders. You can subscribe to the podcast feed directly or on iTunes to get all 24 exciting interviews that we will feature throughout 2008.

Other Resources
If you enjoyed this podcast, you might also enjoy our podcast featuring Dr. Eboo Patel, founder and executive director of the Interfaith Youth Core, a Chicago-based international nonprofit that is building the interfaith movement through service and dialoge.

You can also read more about the growing progressive religious movement in my new book, Progressive & Religious: How Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Buddhist Leaders are Moving Beyond the Culture Wars and Transforming American Public Life.

Dispatches from the Beltway: God-Gap Flip-Flop

2008-10-16T10:24:00.003-04:00

Note: Cross-posted from ReligionDispatches.org.

A new survey reveals not only that church attenders and youth have swung back into Obama's camp, but that he's perceived as "friendlier" toward religion than McCain.

The recent “Faith and American Politics Survey,” a survey sponsored by Faith in Public Life and conducted by our firm, Public Religion Research, contains a fresh, in-depth look at youth, religion, and politics in the 2008 election cycle. One of the most interesting insights revealed by the survey was a new look at the fate of the so-called “God gap,” the high correlation between rates of religious service attendance and partisan vote. Whereas the relationship between religious attendance and vote was nearly linear in 2004, our new survey found that monthly church attenders—a critical group (15% of registered voters) that John Kerry lost to George W. Bush 49% to 51%—are now supporting Barack Obama over John McCain 60% to 32%.

A Quick Look Back at 2004

In the wake of the 2004 elections, we heard much about the “God-gap.” In 2004, Bush captured the vast majority of voters who were in the pews every week, and Kerry remained the favorite among those who seldom or never attended religious services. Further analysis revealed that this correlation was not a byproduct of other variables. Regression analysis on the 2004 exit polls indicates that religious attendance was one of the strongest independent predictors of vote—stronger than a variety of other possible predictors such as age, gender, income, and education.

In 2004, voters who attended religious services more than once a week were six-times more likely to support Bush than those who never attended. If you compare this gap to the more familiar “gender gap,” the power of religious attendance becomes evident: in 2004, men were only one and a half times as likely to support Bush than women. In the general population, the only demographic variable that rivaled religious attendance was race (specifically, being African American), with religious attendance ranking as the second strongest independent predictor of vote. Significantly, among whites, religious attendance was the strongest single predictor of vote in 2004.

Monthly Attenders Swing for Obama in 2008

In 2008, the pattern of support in the general population among those who attend most and least often has changed little. Republican candidate John McCain leads Democrat Barack Obama 54% to 38% among voters who attend religious services once a week or more, and Obama leads McCain 61% to 29% among voters who attend seldom or never. Among the general population, there is one major difference, however, between 2004 and 2008. This year, six-in-ten voters who attend services once or twice a month are now supporting Obama, an 11-point swing from 2004....

...

You can read the rest of the column at ReligionDispatches.org.

Faith of their Fathers? Not When it Comes to the Culture Wars

2008-10-16T10:12:00.003-04:00

Note: Cross-posted from Beliefnet's Progressive Revival Blog.

Given the divisive role religion played in the 2004 election, many progressives have been waiting for a resumption of the culture wars in this election season. Yet despite the addition of Sarah Palin to the Republican ticket, (a Pentecostal governor who strongly opposes abortion rights), there is little evidence that the social issues which played such a prominent role four years ago will dominate the 2008 election. Neither the new ruling today by the Connecticut Supreme Court striking down a law prohibiting gay and lesbian couples from getting married, nor the battle in California over a ballot initiative to repeal the current law that guarantees gay and lesbian couples marriage rights seem likely to reignite the culture wars nationwide.

The newly released "Faith and American Politics Survey," sponsored by Faith in Public Life and conducted by my firm, Public Religion Research, offers some key insights into this changing American religious landscape. Like other recent surveys, we found that religious Americans, like all Americans in this election, care much more about the economy, gas prices, and health care than they do about abortion or same-sex marriage. In fact, 83% of Americans say the economy will be a very important factor in their vote in November, compared to just 28% who say that same-sex marriage will be very important. Even among white evangelicals, the issues of abortion and same-sex marriage do not rank in the top five most important issues for the election.

Perhaps more importantly, we found that younger Americans of faith (18-34) are not their parents' culture war generation. On issues from gay and lesbian rights to the role of government at home and the role of America around the world, young Americans are bridging the divides they have inherited from the previous generation and are ushering in an era where the common good trumps ideological orthodoxy....

...

Read the rest of the article at Beliefnet's Progressive Revival Blog.

Political Progressives, Welcome Progressive Religious Voices

2008-09-30T22:10:00.003-04:00

Note: The following piece is cross-posted from Newsweek/Washington Post's "On Faith" site.
________________________

Newsweek's September 15th cover read "Palin-tol-ogy," the "advanced study of Sarah Palin and how she sees the world." Since her surprise find as the GOP vice-presidential nominee, the media has been in a tizzy trying to get the definitive story about just who Sarah Palin is. Perhaps the primary reason this newly unearthed conservative evangelical has received so much attention is that she has enlivened what was assumed to be an ossifying Christian Right. For some political progressives--who legitimately note the divisive and uncivil turn that religion has taken over the last few decades--Palin has confirmed an old suspicion: that religion is primarily "a problem" for American democracy.

These "religion as problem" progressives tend to have three prominent worries:

that religious people ultimately prefer a theocracy of their own religion to democratic pluralism;
that religion breeds incivility and intolerance; and
that religious passion is dangerously irrational and makes people of faith unreliable partners.

But if progressives allow these familiar worries to cloud their vision this election season, they will be misreading the changing religious landscape, where there is an emerging progressive religious movement that encompasses numerous faithful allies on progressive issues.

. . .

You can read the rest of the article, making the case that these worries of political progressives are misguided, here.

Progressive & Religious on Firedoglake.com Book Salon

2008-09-21T08:56:00.003-04:00

Just yesterday (09/21/2008), the Firedoglake.com book salon hosted a 2-hour discussion about my new book, Progressive and Religious. Sarah Posner, author of God's Profits: Faith, Fraud, and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters and journalist for The American Prospect and Alternet, moderated the discussion.

I've included Sarah's review of the book below. You can check out the full review and discussion thread at Firedoglake.com. I want to extend my gratitude to the Lake for the great discussion.
_____________________

By Sarah Posner
Welcome to the FDL Book Salon on Robert P. Jones' new book, Progressive and Religious: How Christian Jewish, Muslim, and Buddhist Leaders Are Moving Beyond the Culture Wars and Transforming American Public Life. It’s a really interesting and engaging read, and offers some valuable insights into how politically progressive religious people find the source of their progressive values in their religious traditions.

Because we are in the throes of the presidential campaign, peoples' minds (including my own) tend to be calibrated toward well-known and highly politicized religious movements like the religious right, which emerged with the expressed purpose of influencing elections, or the less easily defined religious center/left, which seems to seek to influence candidates' and parties' positions on issues but hasn't organized, as the right has, as a reliable voting bloc for either party. Recalibrate your thinking for this discussion, though: it has nothing to do with electoral politics, and everything to do with community organizing.

Robby opens the book with interviews of Jewish leaders, and the central concept they lay out -- that of tikkun olam, or repairing the world -- is a guiding principle even for most secular Jews (and Jews, both religious and secular, tend to be politically progressive). God made the world imperfect, messy, broken, and it’s our job to fix it. That principle informs the imperative to help the poor not just as an act of charity, but to question authority, raise hell, and transform society. It is, as Rabbi Eric Yoffie, the president of the Union for Reform Judaism, tells Robby, “establishing the conditions for justice.”

It’s not a huge leap from that concept to the underlying principles of Christianity, of course, but that central element of Jesus’ teachings has been so warped by judgmental, condemnatory fundamentalism and the political rise of the religious right that many people don’t associate it with our country’s majority religion. I know I promised not to talk about the election, but Sarah Palin’s RNC speech was emblematic of religious right disdain for the social justice Jesus. As was pointed out by many after her speech, Jesus was a community organizer, but you might forget that if you listen to the religious right too long. In those circles, Jesus’ teachings on poverty have been eclipsed by a handful of bible verses that have been twisted to condemn homosexuality.

Alleviating poverty by radicalizing social, economic, and political institutions is central to the social action of the Christian leaders in Robby’s book, as well as the Jewish ones. I was struck by the discussion in the book of the “extravagant welcome” these Christian thinkers find in Jesus’ teachings, and the imperative of welcoming all to an “open table.” (Similar concept in Judaism is how it is a mitzvah, a blessing, to welcome guests into your home.) But the “extravagant welcome” is not just into one’s literal home, it’s about, again, transforming the world to subvert the conditions and institutions in which inequality -- of wealth, of opportunity, of education -- persists.

While poverty is at the fore of these activists’ teachings, they extend that “extravagant welcome” to people marginalized and shunned by the religious right. In John 3:16, the verse cited by religious right activists to emphasize the imperative of salvation (“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believed in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”) these activists find “whosoever” to include everyone, and especially the LGBTQ people the religious right has condemned to hell.

The holistic theme of transforming the world, of course, runs through all three Abrahamic traditions, and Robby’s interviews with Muslim leaders reflect this view as well. Muslims in America must combat terrible stereotypes about not only their religion but themselves, and as a tiny minority -- less than one percent -- of the American public, that is surely daunting. Yet for the leaders profiled in the book, the principles of justice, goodness, and beauty are central to their teaching, as well as the imperative of ijtihad, or the independent thinking required to link centuries-old traditions to democracy and human rights. In denouncing the extremism of some Muslims, progressive Muslims say, in language that would resonate with Christians and Jews, “that what you do to my fellow human beings, you do to me.”

Robby also briefly explores American Buddhism, which, unlike the other religious traditions, is not based on monotheism and sacred texts. I have to admit to a paltry understanding of this religion, but Robby’s exploration of “Engaged Buddhism,” or the “interbeing” of all things, was a nice primer.

Many people think of religion as a set of principles, rules, or ceremonies, or possibly a way of connecting to a community with a shared place or tradition. But Jones' book casts it as something else, as well: a philosophy for social change that challenges authority, and that is often elegant and revelatory, even for secular allies.

New Poll of White Evangelicals Shows Faith, Golden Rule Influence Attitudes on Torture

2008-09-12T17:01:00.007-04:00

I had the privilege of presenting the findings of a poll conducted by my firm, Public Religion Research, at A National Summit on Torture: Religious Faith, Torture, and our National Soul. The poll was commissioned by Faith in Public Life and Mercer University and demonstrates the conflicted attitudes on torture among white evangelical Christians in the South.

The press conference included remarks by Katie Barge of Faith in Public Life, David Gushee of Evangelicals for Human Rights, and Tyler Wigg Stevens of Two Futures. You can download the polling memo here, and see a video of the press conference releasing it here.

______________________

Close to six-in-ten white evangelicals in the South say that torture can be often (20%) or sometimes (37%) justified in order to gain important information. This compares to roughly half (48%) of the general public who believe that torture can be justified, according to a recent Pew Research Center poll (02/2008).

Despite high levels of religiosity, white evangelicals in the South are significantly more likely to rely on life experiences and common sense (44%) than Christian teachings or beliefs (28%) when thinking about the acceptability of torture. And only about one-in-twenty white evangelicals rely on the advice of government leaders when it comes to torture. These different sources of moral thinking lead to strikingly different attitudes.

Among those influenced by Christian teachings, a majority (52%) oppose torture—14 points higher than white evangelicals in the South overall. In contrast, among those who rely most on life experiences and common sense, less than one-in-three (31%) oppose torture.

A majority (52%) agree with the Golden Rule argument against torture—that the U.S. government should not use methods against our enemies that we would not want used on American soldiers. This movement represents a 14-point increase from the 38% of white evangelicals who initially said that torture is rarely or never justified. Appeals to three other moral and theological frames did not significantly influence views on torture.

An appeal to the Golden Rule increases opposition to torture among every subgroup of white evangelicals. For example, only about one third (34%) of white evangelicals who attend worship services more than once a week say torture is never or rarely justified, but a majority (50%) of this group was persuaded by the Golden Rule argument against torture. This represents a 16-point shift in opinion among the most frequent attending white evangelicals in the South.

Other Findings
A majority (53%) of white evangelicals in the South believe that the government uses torture as part of the campaign against terrorism, despite repeated claims made by government officials that the U.S. does not engage in torture. Only about one third (32%) say that the U.S. does not use torture as a matter of policy.

Among white evangelicals in the South who are registered voters, 65% support Republican John McCain, 14% support Democrat Barack Obama, and 21% remain undecided. These findings are consistent with the recent Time Magazine poll (08/04/2008) that showed 66% supporting McCain, 17% supporting Obama, and 17% undecided among white evangelicals nationwide.

Two thirds of John McCain’s supporters say torture can often or sometimes be justified, compared to only 46% of Obama supporters and undecided voters.

About the Survey
This survey was commissioned by Mercer University and Faith in Public Life and conducted by Public Religion Research. Results for this survey were based on telephone interviews conducted under the direction of Opinion Access Corporation among a sample of 600 white evangelical Christian adults, age 18 years or older in the southeastern United States. This region includes the following states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. The survey was fielded from August 14-22, 2008.

The margin of error for the total sample is +/- 4.5% at the 95% confidence interval. In addition to sampling error surveys may also be subject to error or bias due to question wording, context and order effects. The data was weighted using demographic weighting parameters derived from the Religious Landscape Survey. Conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life from May 8 – August 13, 2007, the Religious Landscape Survey is a national survey of 35,000 adults with detailed information on religious affiliation and identity.

Tricky Terrain: "Progressive" and "Religious" (Omid Safi)

2008-09-12T15:10:00.003-04:00

Guest post by Omid Safi. Read the full text at Beliefnet's Progressive Revival blog.

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 for overtly secular approaches, a tendency to operate outside the "tradition", or an insufficient grounding in the legal and spiritual traditions of Islam.

This is part of the difficulty of Muslims, like myself, who simultaneously embrace the terms progressive and religious. This was one reason that many of us came together to put together a volume titled: Progressive Muslims: On Justice, Gender, and Pluralism. For us, our concern for the wellbeing of the whole of humanity, and an unrelenting commitment to emancipatory movements, arises out of our religious tradition. It is the very notions of serving as God's agents (khalifa), being held accountable for our actions, and speaking prophetically to the false gods of Market and Empire, Exclusivism and injustice, that inspire us. In another age, the false gods were made out of wood and stone. Today they are market realities and the violence of the military-industrial complex. Part of our radical monotheism is saying "no" emphatically to these false idols that ask for our ultimate commitment so that we can say "yes" to divine Unity and the oneness of humanity.

On the other hand, there is a hard secular critique from the Left that tends to distrust, fundamentally, (m)any religious voices that identify as progressive. Quite often, this center around issues of gender and sexuality. I both understand that distrust and sympathize with it, even as I point out to my secular friends the large number of emancipatory movements that have been grounded in religious traditions.

So I find that we are always moving back and forth: When speaking with our community, it is the emphasis that in fact we are and continue to be rooted in our tradition (and our community), while in speaking with more secular progressives that we are somehow legit. This going back and forth is draining, yet necessary. My concern, ultimately, is that the justifying back and forth does not take the place of what needs to be done: the doing. Ultimately love is a verb, not a sentiment. Justice is a relationship, not an ideal.

...

Read the rest of Omid's thoughtful piece at Beliefnet's Progressive Revival blog.

Publisher's Weekly Review of Progressive & Religious

2008-09-07T07:39:00.003-04:00

Publisher's Weekly has published a good review of Progressive & Religious in its latest "Book Line" newsletter:

Much attention has been paid to the role of the religious right in American politics, but this work offers an account of religious progressives who are seeking to make their own impact on public life. Jones, a scholar at the Center for American Progress, interviewed nearly 100 leaders from the four religious groups enumerated in the subtitle and discovered a diverse and vibrant community committed to issues like social justice, inclusion and economic fairness—a pluralistic hodgepodge Jones describes as "the other religious America." The author briefly depicts the long history of religious progressivism in America, but his book concentrates on contemporary activists, such as Jewish Funds for Justice or the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. Each faith has its own distinctive theological basis for its progressive politics, yet Jones also shows common characteristics, including a relational approach to truth and a belief in the unity of all humanity. This book will cheer religious progressives who believe their voices are underrepresented in the current conversation about faith and politics in America. (Oct.)

I think the review does a good job of highlighting one of the things I tried to do in the book--show the distinctive theological approaches of each religious tradition and also identifying some common threads that hold the fabric of the new progressive religious movement together.

Progressive & Religious - Interview on Air America

2008-08-22T11:33:00.006-04:00

Just a quick post to let everyone know that I'll be on Air America's "State of Belief" program this weekend, hosted by Welton Gaddy, Director of the Interfaith Alliance. I'll be talking about the book, the emerging progressive religious movement, and how these new religious voices for justice and the common good are changing the conversation this election cycle.

You can tune in to your local Air American station, airing in most markets Saturdays at 10am ET and Sundays at 7pm ET. Or you can listen live online here.

If you miss the show this weekend, you can:

Download the podcast of the program from iTunes for free here.
Listen to the archive of the show on "State of Belief" here (my segment begins half way through the show at 23:25).

On Evil and the Election

2008-08-22T11:18:00.003-04:00

Note: This entry cross-posted from Beliefnet's Progressive Revival blog.

In one of the most explicitly theological questions of Saturday night's "Saddleback Civil Forum," Pastor Rick Warren asked both candidates, "Does evil exist in the world today? If so, what should we do about it?" While both Obama and McCain affirmed their belief in the existence of evil, their responses revealed deeply different theological orientations in two major areas that have direct policy implications: human responsibility and the location of evil in the world.

Obama began his answer by declaring that we have a clear responsibility to confront and resist evil, but that it is "God's task" to ultimately defeat evil. . Obama went on to clarify that we can be "soldiers" in that effort but that we must have humility to realize that good intentions are not enough to guarantee good actions. McCain, on the other hand, interrupted Warren's question to flatly state that we should and can "totally defeat evil" in the world.

While McCain's bravado garnered more applause among Saddleback's evangelical audience, it is theologically problematic from a Christian point of view. If America is in charge of defeating evil in the world, this literally puts America in the role of God, a position that theologically speaking is blasphemy. Despite McCain's popularity at the evangelical Saddleback forum, it was ironically Obama's worldview--where God guarantees the defeat of evil while we have faithful parts to play--that reflected not only the more orthodox Christian worldview but also the best of American public theology. This more chastened position, which is rooted in a theological understanding of human finitude, reflects biblically based Christian thinking from St. Augustine through Martin Luther. This stance is also reflected in what is perhaps the greatest theological statement by an American President, Abraham Lincoln's (a Republican) second inaugural address, where he declared at the end of a war where both sides had claimed divine favor that "the Almighty has his own purposes."

....

__________________________

You can read the rest of the article posted on Beliefnet's Progressive Revival Blog here.

Progressive and Religious

President Obama's Cairo Speech Inspires Warm Responses from Diverse Progressive Religious Leaders

A Resurrection of Progressive Religious Voices

President’s Faith-Based Advisory Council Taps Four Progressive Leaders Featured in Recent Book, Progressive & Religious

Update from the road, Progressive & Religious 50% off in April

A Much-Needed Reminder of the Dynamic Nature of Lived Christianity, Then and Now

Re-energized religious left delivers for Obama

Review of Progressive and Religious

Progressive and Religious: How Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and BuddhistLeaders Are Moving Beyond the Culture Wars and TransformingAmerican Public Lifeby Robert P. JonesReviewed by Wil Platt

New Review of 'Progressive and Religious'

Book Review

By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

Rev. Dr. Susan Thistlethwaite - New Progressive Religious Voices Podcast

NPR - Obama Redraws Map of Religious Voters

NPR - How McCain Shed Pariah Status Among Evangelicals

Progressive and Religious Guest Voices

The Nation - Democrats Chase Evangelical Votes

Progressive & Religious Guest Voices

New Review of 'Progressive and Religious'

Dr. Omid Safi - New Progressive Religious Voices Podcast

Dispatches from the Beltway: God-Gap Flip-Flop

Faith of their Fathers? Not When it Comes to the Culture Wars

Political Progressives, Welcome Progressive Religious Voices

Progressive & Religious on Firedoglake.com Book Salon

New Poll of White Evangelicals Shows Faith, Golden Rule Influence Attitudes on Torture

Tricky Terrain: "Progressive" and "Religious" (Omid Safi)

Publisher's Weekly Review of Progressive & Religious

Progressive & Religious - Interview on Air America

On Evil and the Election

Progressive and Religious: How Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Buddhist
Leaders Are Moving Beyond the Culture Wars and Transforming
American Public Life
by Robert P. Jones
Reviewed by Wil Platt