Feeling patriotic this weekend? Take some action to ensure that all of your fellow citizens have equal access to the vote. The Voting Rights Act is among the most successful pieces of civil rights legislation in our nations' history. It enjoys broad bi-partisan support, but is being held up in the House by a determined group of GOP legislators. Check out this page to see how faith leaders are speaking up to break this Congressional logjam before the VRA can expire. For more info, check out www.renewthevra.org. Happy 4th!

Posted by David Buckley at 04:25 PM | Link | del.icio.us | Digg | Comments (0)

Apparently some in progressive Blogistan appear troubled by Sen. Obama.

You can see some of that at Hotline where the National Journal catches the confusion; as does MyDD:

Is it Bill Clinton’s fault? Or Lieberman’s? Or is it just common confusion over the demographic, best expressed at Pam’s House Blend whose term slippage in her title “Obama: Dems need to court the fundies� reveals the all too common broad generalization of faith in America?

But the most interesting debate occurs over at DailyKos spin off Street Prophets. Because many of the people leaving comments were actually present, and liked it. Chuck Currie posts:

“These days there are a lot of people on the political left who recoil at the mention of religion. Sadly, people like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell have defined for many what it means to be Christian. Secularists, said Obama, "are wrong when they ask believers to leave their religion at the door before entering into the public square. Frederick Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, Williams Jennings Bryant, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King - indeed, the majority of great reformers in American history - were not only motivated by faith, but repeatedly used religious language to argue for their cause.�

Here is Sen. Obama the next day, “So my point was that we need to have a more complex, more nuanced conversation about religion. And if we do that, then I think the whole country benefits.�

Oh, wait, a politician calling for nuance, is that how they usually court fundamentalists? See McCain in Lynchberg. By the way, Atrios et al, more nuance and complexity will only help with building a good wall of separation of church and state.

Here is Sen. Obama exhibiting some of that nuance:

“the history of the separation of church and state is what has allowed religious freedom to thrive in this country, and that when we talk about issues, it's also important for us to recognize that there are folks who are non-believers, who are of different faiths, and we've got to translate whatever moral concerns or religious concerns that we have in a universal language that all Americans can talk about.�

Courting Destiny expresses that usual knee-jerk fear, writing, “Take away one little little piece of The First Amendment and the door opens for the entire First Amendment to be looked at and revised. Do most Evangelicals and other church going Americans want The first Amendment to be tampered with (sic)? I doubt it.�

As The Green Knight points out: “What he is doing is talking about long-term strategy for winning and for making positive change in the country.�

And I would add that the political chessboard doesn’t get smaller just because one disdains much of it. Over 250 million Americans believe in God and most of them even affiliate themselves with organized religion. The key to making America better for more people is to capture and control more the rhetorical ground. What Obama articulated is a progressive openness toward religion that will reduce the amount of value language available to the religious Right.

But most importantly, analyzing the rhetoric of Sen. Obama’s speech reveals that some folks are not reading it carefully. Read it again, he is on your side.

In fact, Sen. Obama, who admits to doubt, works to recontextualize the usual shibboleths.

The secular world needs to distinguish between means and ends. Usually, “separation of church and state� is their term, but Obama allows sharp evangelicals to see it as their term as well, raised as an historical wall against majoritarian pressure.

And now to the point that has many Kossacks boiling: “It is doubtful that children reciting the Pledge of Allegiance feel oppressed or brainwashed as a consequence of muttering the phrase `under God.'"

What Obama is really saying is that kids repeating “under God� is essentially meaningless, which is exactly what a good atheist believes.

Of course the state shouldn’t force us to say what we think is metaphysically meaningless, but on a functional (and tactical) level, the strict separationist actually infuses the phrase with meaning by directly attacking it. Much wiser to treat the term as meaningless, not just believe it. Instead, progressives win when they avoid making symbols out of what the Right can use to appeal to broad swaths of Americana.

Better to argue from the positive, by saying let’s mix mangers, dreidels, and sleighs because we are a diverse people and we respect everyone, etc., rather than pushing no mangers and crosses period. By diffusing the meaning of symbols, progressive pluralism brings the battle to our turf along with a foundation of values which appeals to the other 90% of people. I hate to argue from historical determinism but it is clear that the evangelical mind is opening and finding common ground with the rest of the world. Poverty, AIDS, the environment—if you are not aware of this, read more widely here!

Most of these kids graduating from Wheaton, Azusa, Westmont, BIOLA and Hope are bored with the old fights, and so are a new generation of Catholics. I know because I just sat in a room with several hundred of them, one of whom has been living on the Arizona boarder bringing water to migrants as they cross. She received a lot of applause. She may say “under God� but frankly her actions speak much louder than what those words symbolize to those on the far Right or left. Something is changing in the battle, and real liberal hope—an American government for the common good—just might materialize if we continue to welcome folks like her and Senator Obama into our “Democratic� process.

Posted by Alex Carpenter at 03:49 PM | Link | del.icio.us | Digg | Comments (4)

EJ Dionne in the Washington Post is almost always worth one's time, and this morning is must read material. He calls Sen. Obama's Wednesday speech,

what may be the most important pronouncement by a Democrat on faith and politics since John F. Kennedy's Houston speech in 1960 declaring his independence from the Vatican.

It's telling to contrast what made those two speeches groundbreaking. Kennedy was set to run for the presidency, to become our nation's first Catholic president. Worried about anti-Catholic attacks on his loyalty to country like those that hampered Gov. Al Smith of New York in the presidential election of '28, Kennedy delivers an address to Southern Baptist leaders that underscored the limits of his faith. It essentially boils down to, 'I'm a Catholic, but I'm not going to take orders from the pope.' Imagine that, a Democrat needing to convince voters that his faith wouldn't matter TOO MUCH.

Fast forward almost fifty years to Wednesday at the Call to Renewal conference in DC. A lot has changed in the party of Kennedy, so much so that conservative Catholics like to make the near-blasphemous claim that JFK would have run as a Republican today. Sen. Obama delivers his address not to assure Americans that he'll maintain the separation of church and state, but to reassert that progressives don't need to advocate a public square stripped of all faith and values.

There's a lot to say about the particulars of Obama's speech, but the contrast between these two historic speeches makes it crystal clear how necessary the senator's words were on Wednesday. If his call for fairminded dialogue is heeded, America and all working for the common good will be stronger for it.

Posted by David Buckley at 09:31 AM | Link | del.icio.us | Digg | Comments (7)

The headline in the Los Angeles Times screams at us, “War’s Iraqi Death Toll Tops 50,000.� But we may have become tone deaf. At least 50,000 Iraqis have died violently since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion! The toll is devastating. The documented cases show a country descending into violence, as the headline article elaborates. The tone deafness on our part to others’ suffering is due to the fact that we only focus on our own 2520 U.S. deaths. It’s only our blood that matters. This is a war to save the civilization, and damn those who oppose this administration, while the most threatened and hated Americans are Muslims.

It is not only death, but it is the fact that untold numbers of civilian lives are broken and fractured. There is a loss of the sanctity of life.

We in the religious community must stop courting death. We must sanctify life with our own weapons of respecting all and reaching out to our enemies, not destroying them. We must fight hatred for the rest of our lives. We must not be silent or indifferent to the intricacies and manipulations of government leaders, whether Republicans or Democrats.

Our religious vision of revenge must be in fighting hatred with the power that we bring in the interfaith community. We must lower the walls of ignorance that have allowed hatred to ferment to such heights. We must stand up to the rising cultures of hate, accusation, and deceit.

Finally, the sacredness of life was best articulated by the father of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal journalist beheaded and killed in 2002. Judea Pearl, sharing lunch with me last week, spoke of hatred. “Military battles,� he said, “are won in two parallel ways: by making your enemy weaker, and by making your troops stronger.� The same applies to battles of hatred. In addition to curtailing ignorance in the world at large, we must empower the troops of peace here at home, and our children and grandchildren to be the elite forces of these troops.

This is what the sanctity of life must be! There are powerful voices in our community who are speaking out against the immorality of war. It is time we come together to speak out.

Rabbi Steven B. Jacobs, Faith in Public Life Board Member
RabbiStevenBJacobs@yahoo.com
(818-917-9691)

Posted by Rabbi Steven Jacobs at 12:29 PM | Link | del.icio.us | Digg | Comments (17)

Today, the man President Bush calls “the pope� delivered an incisive speech articulating a principled way forward in the American debate over faith and public life. I sat four rows away, and it was good.

Speaking at the First National City Church, to a packed audience of mainline, evangelical, and Catholic progressive activists, Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) began with a story familiar to many—having his religious bona fides questioned because he wasn’t conservative enough. Pushing past both the Right’s patently parochial rhetoric and the secular stammer of the left, the senator swung back with a vision for American values rooted in his hopeful prayer that “reconciles the beliefs of each with the good of all.�

The only African-American in the U. S. Senate, and only the third since reconstruction, Obama pointed out that the “single biggest 'gap' in party affiliation among white Americans today is not between men and women, or those who reside in so-called Red States and those who reside in Blue, but between those who attend church regularly and those who don't.� And thus it follows that “we make a mistake when we fail to acknowledge the power of faith in the lives of the American people.�

While this might seem like easy words for the crowd, already the DailyKos community contains some prickly posts worried over the senator's recognition that “under God� is not the most difficult or stultifying aspect of a child’s school life. Read their posts here as well as some Obama defenders who urge people to read the whole speech, not just the AP MSM angle.

But Obama is no religious ideologue, sharing in the speech about his own secularist upbringing, and even after joining the Trinity United Church of Christ he recognizes the value that doubt plays in the search for meaning. He points out that one American's doubt shouldn't force another's awkward silence. In fact, the Left's religious sotto voce leaves it unable to call the country to high ideals.

Not long ago Hendrik Hertzberg at the New Yorker noted the junior Democratic senator joking at the Gridiron dinner.

“You hear this constant refrain from our critics that Democrats don’t stand for anything,� Obama said. “That’s really unfair. We do stand for anything.�

Listening to today's speech it's clear that Barack offers progressives (and the Democratic party) a new religious principle on which to stand.

He opposed CAFTA, has called for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq, and even in a skeptical The Nation article entitled "Mr. Obama Goes to Washington," David Sirota notes the junior senator's "rare flash of defiance when he unsuccessfully pushed legislation this year to create an Office of Public Integrity." Obama has even blogged on DailyKos, addressing the sphere's two dominant topics: troops out of Iraq and into Darfur.

“They are exactly right to be fired up about Darfur, he writes. "It is in our national interest to stop states from failing, and to stop genocide. But they also have to recognize that if we are willing to engage militarily in those circumstances, then there certainly are situations that call for direct military engagement in defense of our national interests.� He adds, "we are less equipped to deal with Iran because of the Iraq war.�

But Obama's short record and today's speech reveals more than progressive ideals and sharp political timing. He also envisions a way forward that eschews the Right's solipsistic rhetorical grip on American values. He sees that the solutions to gun violence, poverty, war and failed immigration policy lie in our ability to turn personal ideals into broad movements for the common good:

“Democracy demands that the religiously motivated translate their concerns into universal, rather than religion-specific, values. It requires that their proposals be subject to argument, and amenable to reason. I may be opposed to abortion for religious reasons, but if I seek to pass a law banning the practice, I cannot simply point to the teachings of my church or evoke God's will. I have to explain why abortion violates some principle that is accessible to people of all faiths, including those with no faith at all.�

By saying to the faithful and the secular of all varieties that the American conversation should always be privately honest and publicly plural, today, Obama leads a party hung by others’ prayer to a new vision for faith in public life.

Posted by Alex Carpenter at 02:25 PM | Link | del.icio.us | Digg | Comments (6)

I first heard then-State Sen. Barack Obama speak during his 2004 campaign in my home of Kankakee County, Illinois. Before the Democratic Keynote Address, I shook the hand of the “skinny kid with a funny name,� and he hooked me for life with his stump of “a campaign and politics that recognizes a common decency of every human being.� I listened and thought that Obama’s words could have been taken from a pamphlet on Catholic Social Teaching, but this universal message attracted both secular and religious individuals.

For the past several years, religious conservatives have given members of the progressive community plenty of reason to distrust people of faith in pursuit of justice and the common good. This morning, U.S. Sen. Obama, the Golden Boy of the Left, offered an account of his own political convictions grounded in faith and identified the challenge for faithful people whose faith compels them to seek social, economic, and racial justice.

On the final morning of Sojourners' “Pentecost 2006� Conference, Sen. Obama took to the podium this morning at National City Christian Church in Downtown Washington, DC. After being awarded the Joseph Award for his commitment to combat poverty as a community organizer and elected official, Obama delivered a thoughtful address on faith in the public sphere.

Obama described the contemporary polity in which a Religious Right has claimed a sole ownership of moral values and a Secular Left often relegates faith to absurdity. He affirmed the importance of a barrier between church and state, as a protection for both. According to Obama, people of faith can and have invoked monumental social and political change, but they do carry an extra duty. He explained, “Democracy demands that the religiously motivated translate their concerns into universal, rather than religion-specific values. It requires that their proposals be subject to argument, and amenable to reason.�

Obama demonstrates that faith and reason are not mutually exclusive, rather that their rightful integration can be a powerful force to do good.

Posted by Dave Baron at 01:57 PM | Link | del.icio.us | Digg | Comments (0)

The Progressive Faith Blog Con looms less than three weeks away. To give you a sense of who will be there, all the bloggers listed below will be attending.

Of course, Velveteen Rabbi has been instrumental in organizing the conference. Here she addresses the practical reality of what interfaith worship and fellowship means when we actually get together.

Left coaster, Pearlbear, raises questions about the scare tactics of some liberal advocacy groups:

"The truth is always far more complicated and nuanced, but complicated and nuanced feels like it doesn't lead to either action, or to contributions. But the continued process of ignoring complicated and nuanced realities leads to more divisivenss, and more fragmentation - and these are the things that are, ultimately, the enemies of social change."

Even the Devils Believe confesses to being "angry and upset. . . over the Episcopal Church's convention and the gathering of the PC-USA. It has been a very difficult time to read blogs (and I've been less behind than I expected, because I had a hard time setting limits). It is difficult to see people working well within the Christian tradition, including employing feminine names and imagery for God, tarred as heretics by people who don't seem to understand the tradition outside a very narrow section of Scripture."

Last week at the Faith in Public Life Blog, Dave Baron addressed church and state issues after attending a congressional hearing. Read it here. The Air America State of Belief blog also noticed the legislation and writes:

". . .it's clearly the intention of our Congressional leaders to make it impossible to legally challenge conflations of church and state. Next bill on the docket: if you successfully prosecute a Congressman for corruption, you get a hundred lashes."

Blogging from the UUA General Assembly in St. Louis, MO, Philocrites points readers to a good Hallmark Channel TV program by Forrest Church called "The American Creed."

CrossLeft hosts a blog that reflects on a recent post by Talk2Action. Pointing out that "Many of Us Don't Know the Real Nature of the Beast," he wonders: "Have we yet succeeded in framing a way to discuss their theocratic agenda so that the average American, that vital mainstream voter understands what drives our advocacy?"

And finally, Islamicate shares a paper presented at Harvard's Islam and the West Conference. It is titled, "Moslems on the Internets."

Posted by Alex Carpenter at 11:20 AM | Link | del.icio.us | Digg | Comments (1)

Another stained glass ceiling was shattered last week when Katharine Jefferts Schori became the Episcopal Church’s first female Presiding Bishop. Many of our friends in the blogosphere rejoiced.

Unfortunately the joyful sentiment was not universal. Faith and Policy inducted the Rev. H.W. Herrmann into its Hall of Shame for his disgruntled response to Bishop Schori’s election. His own words do the talking:

“Just like we can’t use grape juice and saltines for Communion, because it isn’t the right matter, we do not believe that the right matter is being offered here,� Rev. Herrmann said in an interview on Sunday.

The Rev. makes the all-too common mistake of mixing the right-wing matter with the right matter of scripture. Fortunately, as demonstrated by a recent Washington Post article, “Religious Liberals Gain New Visibility,� the monologue of the Right is no longer satisfying the spiritual appetites of those who desire solutions that benefit the common good on issues of homelessness, poverty, and injustice.

As the Rev. Tim Ahrens of We Believe Ohio stated, “The wind is changing,� and the Right no longer gets to decide on its own what matters. We at Faith in Public Life seek to ensure that the media takes notice of this changing spirit.

Posted by Lauren Phelps at 02:58 PM | Link | del.icio.us | Digg | Comments (1)

As many of you noted, we had a bug that asked for a password when people tried to post comments. All fixed now, so let the open commenting begin!

Posted by David Buckley at 02:15 PM | Link | del.icio.us | Digg | Comments (25)

As a first-time intern in DC, I have been astonished with the sheer quantity of things to do and see. Leaders in a city of leaders are always looking for a crowd to share their thoughts. Many of these opportunities have a great deal to do with our work at Faith in Public Life, so we will be taking advantage of these Washington resources by attending and offering our analyses.

Yesterday morning, Rep. Steve Chabot (R-OH) chaired a hearing on a bill regarding the public expression of religion. This issue, a favorite used by some religious conservatives to label those who disagree with their agenda as anti-God, has been brought to the House of Representatives by Rep. John Hostettler (R-IN) with H.R. 2679, the Public Expression of Religion Act of 2005, or PERA.

Current law allows for people to file suit against state and local governments for alleged constitutional violations of the Establishment Clause in the 1st Amendment; i.e. the 10 Commandments in public courthouses or school prayer. Also, if court affirms a violation has occurred, the individual’s attorney fees are to be paid by the offending authority. PERA would change two aspects of the law: 1) only injunctive relief would be permitted in these cases (10 Commandments need to be taken down, but no monetary award), and 2) the attorney fee-shifting would be eliminated. Individuals would need to pay their legal fees even if the court finds a violation has been committed.

Though testimonies and debate focused on the legal procedures, it is apparent that the intent of the bill was to allow more leeway for religion in the public sphere and to take power away from those who claim to be offended by it. This debate asks a question that our organization, Faith in Public Life, and ourselves, as people of faith, are confronted with continually. What is the appropriate relationship of religious belief in politics and the public sphere? It is discouraging to watch as some individuals exploit faith for political gain by focusing on only a couple sensational issues; and we recognize the danger of a religious majority imposing its beliefs on others. However, we simultaneously believe faith has an important role in building a public conscience and enacting social justice.

We have tried to show that concerned religious individuals have already started to answer these questions. Take a look at our Faith Issues Resources, where you can find links to several resources and voices of faith on this issue of church and state. Several of those voices are highlighted in our Media Speakers Bureau, which includes Melissa Rogers, visiting professor of religion and public policy at Wake Forest University Divinity School and the founder and director of its Center for Religion and Public Affairs (check out her article Religious Freedom For All: Why the Supreme Court is right and the Family Research Council is wrong about religious freedom); K. Hollyn Hollman and Rev. J. Brent. Walker of the Baptist Joint Committee on Religious Liberty, which works to further the Baptist heritage that champions the principle that religion must be neither advanced nor inhibited by government; Rev. Dr. Welton Gaddy, President of the Interfaith Alliance and host of State of Belief, which is based on the proposition that religion has a positive and healing role to play in the life of the nation; and Rabbi David Saperstein, Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.

Use these resources to learn how people of faith are integrating religion and public life in a meaningful way -- without violating the lines that separate religion and government -- to promote the common good.

Posted by Dave Baron at 01:54 PM | Link | del.icio.us | Digg | Comments (6)

According to the New York Times,

“House Republican leaders abruptly canceled a planned vote to renew the Voting Rights Act on Wednesday after a rebellion by lawmakers who said the civil rights measure unfairly singled out Southern states and unnecessarily required ballots to be printed in foreign languages.�

And as the Los Angeles Times points out,

“The effort to amend the requirement that nine states clear election laws with the Justice Department was led by Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-Ga.). The requirement, he argued, unfairly singled out Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia.�

Of course, these states do have a long history of discriminating against minority voters, and recent studies of Ohio and Florida show that the statist tendency continues to manifest itself by disenfranchising American voters.

So, who is Lynn Westmoreland?

Oh yeah, he's the guy who appeared on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report on Monday to chat about his other agenda: posting the Ten Commandments in public buildings to help folks remember the Rules.

Watch the clip to see what happens when Stephen Colbert asks Rep. Westmoreland if he can remember those rules himself.

Posted by Alex Carpenter at 02:19 PM | Link | del.icio.us | Digg | Comments (0)

Welcome to the first issue of Faith in Public Life's Blog Round Up!

Once a week we'll bring you an informative summary of the trends and posts in our corner of the blogosphere. Suggestions for the round-up or the blogroll are always welcome.

Several bloggers happily lead with the election of the Rev. Katherine Jefferts Schori to be the 26th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church.

Chuck Currie notes the historical significance of female church leadership, and dismissing the pessimists An Inch At a Time recalls:

“I remember the deep pain, division and anguish of the 1970's when the ordination of women (the last great threat to global Anglicanism and Western Civilization as we know it) was the thing that was going to split the church. I remember the lines for communion stretched out at diocesan convention with folks jockeying to get into position so they wouldn't have to receive communion from (horrors!) a woman priest."

Celebrating the news, the Faith and Policy Weblog kicks naysayer, the Rev. (not the right time) Herrmann, rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Quincy, Illinois, into its hall of shame.

Avoiding that fate while reporting from the General Convention, Father Jake confesses to being a recovering chauvinist. He writes, “We have crossed the ‘threshold demanding a courageous act of faith.’ Now, for some of us recovering chauvinists, there may need to be a form of 'ego death’.� And dotCommonweal explores the ecumenical dimension. “Cardinal Walter Kasper has been warning the CofE that moving ahead with such ordinations would create a ‘serious and long lasting chill’ between the Catholic Church and the Anglican communion.�

On any moderate shift within the Southern Baptist leadership with the election of Rev. Frank Page, Mainstream Baptist is skeptical. And so is Andrew Sullivan due to information from his friends “inside the Baptist Beltway.�

In addition to the twists and turns of church politics, American political events have kept our blogger friends busy. Several including Pam’s House Blend, The Center for Faith in Politics and Jewish blogger jspot take up Dem Gov. Kathleen Blanco’s signing of a strict ban on abortions in Louisiana.

Connecting morality to the minimum wage, Oklahoma-based Mainstream Baptist prints a speech he delivered Monday on the steps of the State capital. As the speech reaches its climax, he appeals to the religious leaders of his state: “You are standing in line to siphon off faith-based funds that were formerly distributed directly to the working poor. There will be a PAYDAY SOMEDAY!�

Muslim bloggers Truth and Beauty and City of Brass discuss the recent NYTimes article on two American Muslim Clerics seeking a middle ground in American faith and culture. City of Brass writes, “America is already the greatest Islamic nation in the world. Muslims of all sects within Islam can pracctice their faith freeely here [sic], build masajid, pray. There is no nation on earth that officially calls itself "Islamic" that accords all believers the same freedom of faith. None.�

Tired of the Republican use of “cut and run� to describe the Democratic position on the Iraq War, The Green Knight comes up with a new term for the Republican stance: lie and die.

Faith in Society reviews a new book entitled Faith and Politics After Christendom: The Church as a Movement for Anarchy. “In particular, the book suggests that where it has previously defended the social order, the church now has a brand new opportunity to exercise its prophetic role, challenging injustice, shaking institutions and undermining some of the central values and norms on which society is built.�

And finally, pointing out that activist judges have conspired to slowly, gradually change the “face of America to a gorgeous deep, golden tan!,� the Religious Left Blog follows the religious right's logic and points out “how to really protect marriage.�

Posted by David Buckley at 05:26 PM | Link | del.icio.us | Digg | Comments (0)

It's an exciting time to be a blogger interested in faith and progressive politics. There are more of us every day (we'll be featuring some of the best here at FPL), and national leaders in our community are becoming more and more aware of how important blogs can be in spreading the good news about their work. With all that energy in the cyber-air, it's almost providential that we get to announce that the first ever Progressive Faith Blog Con is on its way.

The Blog Con will take place from July 14-16 in Montclair, NJ (just outside of New York). It's the brain-child of some of the best minds in our corner of the blogosphere, and will feature Velveteen Rabbi, Mainstream Baptist, Chuck Currie, Pastor Dan of Street Prophets, XPatriated Texan, Talk to Action, Philocrites, CrossLeft, JSpot, Rabbi Arthur Waskow, and many, many more. Check out the site for more details on attending. You won't want to miss it! The buzz about the event is already building here, here, here, here, and, well, you get the point.

We at FPL are thrilled to be working on this, and will be sure to keep you all up to date as the calendar ticks down to July 14. Register now (space is limited!), spread the good word on your blogs, and make sure you're there for this landmark event.

Posted by David Buckley at 05:08 PM | Link | del.icio.us | Digg | Comments (3)

Welcome to Faith in Public Life’s corner of the blogosphere! We’re glad to join the hundreds of bloggers out there in this growing and exciting community. Like any responsible new neighbor, we’ll try to make a good first impression, keep the yard looking tidy, and not make TOO much noise.

As you’ve hopefully noticed from the rest of this website, Faith in Public Life isn’t a normal organization. We exist as a resource center for faith communities working for justice and the common good. When we do our jobs right, we provide faith leaders and community members with the tools they need to more effectively carry out their work. When our partners win, we win, so to speak.

In keeping with this mission, this blog won’t be entirely normal either. We’ll feature our share of staff-written content on current events at the intersection of religion and politics, but we’ll spend most of our time featuring the best work of others, in an attempt to build up the strongest voices for justice and the common good in our community.

What does it mean to use a blog to provide resources to the community? We’ll frequently feature cross posts from bloggers whose voices add to the national debate on faith in politics. We’ll have guest blogs from our board members and partners who don’t maintain regular blogs but who are excited by the chance to engage in conversations with this community. We’ll put together a weekly highlight reel of the most interesting posts from far and wide in the faith blogosphere. And we’ll use the blog to post audio and video clips of our partners making an impact in mainstream media outlets.

We hope that this blog can play a role in building up this exciting community. Leave comments, tell us all what you think, and spread the word about Faith in Public Life as a resource center for bloggers who care about faith, justice, and the common good.

Posted by David Buckley at 08:57 AM | Link | del.icio.us | Digg | Comments (4)