Third Way released report on how non-evangelical progressives and the larger evangelical community can work together on forging alliances on social issues.

Naturally this elicited responses around the 'sphere:

The Rev. Deb Haffner writes:

The authors are leading evangelicals and people associated with the Third Way Foundation. Although I like and work with one of the authors, I think it’s fair to say that there is scant representation of progressive religious voices in the report.

Pastor Dan didn't find much that applied to electoral politics.

Third Way responded to Pastor Dan, arguing that on two big points :

1. Perhaps the most pervasive misunderstanding in PD’s response is that he has imposed a partisan frame on an explicitly non-partisan paper. 2. Second, and more troubling, is PD’s misreading of the data and the real political landscape, both of which cause him to miss what’s "new" and significant in this paper.

Pastor Dan responded:

As it stands, we're not really sure who's being brought into dialog, which is the other problem with the paper. Had the authors stated explicitly, "this is what the evangelical community thinks is middle ground," it would have been a better starting point for a conversation. What we have at the moment is "this is what evangelicals and progressives agree on," which is odd, since we don't have a clear picture of who was in those conversations, or why those people are representative of our communities.

On the other hand, here's Rachel from the press conference:

Talk to Action's Carlos suggests that this could "shake-up the usual antagonism between the Christian Right and the Secular and religious left."

The Rev. Anne Howard writes:

The labels of yesterday aren't working either so I'd say it's time for some new conversations. I figure this document could be educational for all the progressives who see evangelicals as monolithic, for all the secular folks who figure that Christians are Visigoths on social issues, and who believe that religion plays NO role in public life.

Over in evangelical land, the tone was different. Emergent Village sees hope. And Religion, Nationalism, Terror categorizes the report: Militant Fundamentalists versus Moderate Evangelicals.

And Jim Wallis writes: "Progressives and evangelicals are people who care deeply about the justice and health of our society, and potential alliances between us on key issues could provide a genuine convergence for the common good."

Interestingly, the NPR News Blog (looking for news in interesting places), notes: "However, a leader of the National Right to Life Committee has dismissed the new initiative, calling the Third Way approach 'a political ploy to silence the debate.'" The enemy of my enemy. . .?