Dispatches from the Religious Left: The Future of Faith and Politics in America (Paperback)

~ Frederick Clarkson (Editor)
Key Phrases: reproductive justice, religious left, marriage equality, Religious Right, United States, New Orleans (more...)

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"If he were alive today, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would remind us that 'We are the leaders we have been waiting for.' Consider Dispatches from the Religious Left your briefing book on how and why it is important to be a ‘courageous leader’ in these challenging times."—Robert Edgar, President, Common Cause, former General Secretary of the National Council of Churches

"The Progressive faith community has been an essential component of American social movements through our history. Largely invisible since the rise of the Religious Right, progressive faith action is reemerging, seeking out new directions. This excellent volume illuminates many facets of where we are today, and calls for further, dynamic revitalization, urging us on to our highest aspirations for a just society. Read it and take heart!"—Elizabeth Sholes, Director of Public Policy, California Council of Churches

Over the past thirty years, while the Religious Right has developed into one of the most powerful forces in American politics, the Religious Left—despite having a rich historical tradition of leading social change in the United States—has been unable to develop into a movement with the scale or coherence of the Religious Right.

Dispatches from the Religious Left: The Future of Faith and Politics in America is a groundbreaking and visionary collection that offers a progressive counter-voice to the Religious Right’s dominance over the religious conversation in America.

Edited by Frederick Clarkson, with an introduction by Joan Brown Campbell and an afterword by Jeff Sharlet, Dispatches features many of today’s most prominent progressive religious voices: Chris Hedges, Marshall Ganz, "Pastor Dan" Schultz, Barry Lynn, Peter Laarman, Carlton Veazey, Katherine Ragsdale, Osagyefo Sekou,  Debra Haffner, Timothy Palmer, Peter Hess, Chip Berlet, Leo Maley, Frank Cocozzelli, Kety Esquivel, Jean Hardisty, Deepak Bhargava, Anastasia Pantsios, Shelby Meyerhoff and Shai Sachs. Taken together, the bold, energetic and forward-looking essays in this important and vital book show how we can begin to build a thriving and dynamic Religious Left that can offer a new and healthier religious and political direction for this country.

 

Product Details

• Paperback: 220 pages
• Publisher: Ig Publishing (October 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0978843185
• ISBN-13: 978-0978843182
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #772,284 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Clarkson has hit a single which could be turned into a home run if the left had any balls, October 10, 2008

By	William F Harrison (Fayetteville, AR United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Fred Clarkson has been active in supporting liberal issues apparently for most of his life. In this group of essays he is aiming at inspiring others on our side of the political fence to get off our arses and play ball. Where are the ministerial lions of old who used their pulpits to support civil rights, nonviolence, love, hope and charity among their congregants. Oh, I know there are a few still showing their long and sharp teeth, but most preachers and ministers on the religious left seem to have been defanged and had their claws torn out. As the prize winning poet, William Butler Yeats once wrote, "the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity!"

Well, Yeats wasn't writing about Clarkson or his essayists, or about my friend Lowell Grisham, a native of Oxford Mississippi and now the passionate minister of St Paul's Episcopal Church in my little home town. He has joyfully taken on "the worst" here in Fayetteville sicne arriving here several years ago. And Fredrick does, too.

If you are one of the silent religious liberals in our land, read these essays. See if they strick a spark to your tinder.