Dispatches from the religious left

by Frederick Clarkson

  Rev. Debra W. Haffner is co-founder and director of the Religious Institute on Sexual Morality, Justice, and Healing in Westport, Connecticut, a national, multifaith advocacy organization dedicated to sexual health, education and justice in faith communities and society. She is a sexologist, ordained Unitarian Universalist minister and author of six books and numerous congregational resources on parenting, sexuality and spirituality. She is the former president and CEO of SIECUS, the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the U.S.

  Dr. Jean Hardisty is the Founder and President Emerita of Political Research Associates (PRA), a Boston-based research center that analyzes right wing, authoritarian, and anti-democratic trends and publishes educational materials for the general public. A political scientist with a Ph.D. from Northwestern University, she left academia after eight years of teaching and researching conservative political thought to establish PRA in response to the emergence of the New Right in 1981. After twenty-three years, she retired from PRA in 2004 and is now a Senior Scholar at the Wellesley Centers for Research on Women at Wellesley College. Dr. Hardisty is a widely published author and has been an activist for social justice issues, especially women's rights and civil rights, for over thirty years. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Highlander Research and Education Center and the Women's Community Cancer Project. Her book, Mobilizing Resentment: Conservative Resurgence from the John Birch Society to the Promise Keepers, was published by Beacon Press in October 1999 and is now available in paperback. More information can be found at www. jeanhardisty.com

  Christopher L. Hedges is a journalist and author, specializing in American and Middle Eastern politics and society. He is currently a senior fellow at The Nation Institute in New York City and a Lecturer in the Council of the Humanities and the Anschutz Distinguished Fellow at Princeton University. He has a B.A. in English Literature from Colgate University and a Master of Divinity from Harvard Divinity School. He spent nearly two decades as a foreign correspondent reporting from more than fifty countries working for The Christian Science Monitor, National Public Radio, Dallas Morning News and New York Times, where he spent fifteen years. Hedges was part of the New York Times team that won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for the paper's coverage of global terrorism. He received the 2002 Amnesty International Global Award for Human Rights Journalism. His books include: War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, (2002) What Every Person Should Know About War (2003), Losing Moses on the Freeway (2005), American Fascists (2007) and I Don't Believe in Atheists (2008).

  Dr. Peter M. J. Hess serves as Faith Project Director with the National Center for Science Education in Oakland, California. In this capacity he facilitates dialogue between religious and scien tific communities in matters of evolutionary biology. Educated at Oxford University and the Graduate Theological Union (Berkeley, CA), he is currently on the faculty of the Graduate Liberal Studies Program at Saint Mary's College (Moraga, California). A fellow of the International Society for Science and Religion, he is co-author of Catholicism and Science (Greenwood, 2008), and he is working on a book on the religious and ethical implications of the approaching end of affordable oil.

  Rev. Peter Laarman has led Progressive Christians Uniting (PCU) as its executive director since April 2004. His primary focus in Southern California has been building the network's infrastructure while developing new campus outreach and eco-justice projects. He is also part of an ongoing national conversation on the capacity issues facing progressive religious organizations. Before taking his post with PCU, Peter served for ten years as the senior minister of New York's Judson Memorial Church. In 2006 Beacon Press published a book of 14 essays he collected and edited under the rubric, Getting On Message: Challenging the Christian Rightfrom the Heart of the Gospel.

  Rev. Barry W. Lynn is executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. An attorney as well as an ordained Christian minister, Lynn has been involved in protecting civil and religious liberties all of his professional life. Prior to assuming leadership of Americans United, Lynn worked for the American Civil Liberties Union and the national office of the United Church of Christ. An accomplished public speaker and frequent news media guest, Lynn is the author of Piety & Politics: The Right-Wing Assault on Religious Freedom (Harmony, 2006) and coauthor of First Freedom First.A Citizen's Guide to Protecting Religious Liberty and the Separation of Church and State (Beacon, 2008).

  Leo Maley has worked as a union and political organizer, university lecturer, and think tank researcher. He has been a columnist for the Amherst Bulletin as well as a cohost of public affairs programs on Amherst community access TV and on WMUA-FM. His articles syndicated by History News Service have appeared in major newspapers around the country. He is one of the founders of Progressive Democrats of Massachusetts; is a member of the board of Casino Free Massachusetts; and currently chairs the Amherst Democratic Town Committee. He is a graduate of Wesley theological Seminary in Washington, DC.

  Shelby Meyerhoff and Shai Sachs are co-owners of Welcoming Websites, a small business that develops websites for liberal religious congregations and nonprofits.

  Ms. Meyerhoff blogs at LookingForFaith.org, where she addresses spirituality and religion from a Unitarian Universalist perspective. She also works at the Unitarian Universalist Association as public witness specialist, and has contributed to the magazine UU World. She is a graduate of Harvard Divinity School and Harvard College.

  Mr. Sachs blogs at MyDD.com and PlantingLiberally.org, where he discusses strategies for building the progressive movement and liberal entrepreneurship. He has worked as a professional web developer for a wide variety of non-profits since 2003. Mr. Sachs served as the leader of Cambridge Drinking Liberally since 2004, and as the leader of Democracy for America-Cambridge from 2004-2006. He is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Harvard College.

  Timothy Palmer is director of research and communications for the Religious Institute on Sexual Morality, Justice, and Healing in Westport, Connecticut, a national, multifaith advocacy organization dedicated to sexual health, education and justice in faith communities and society. A graduate of Union theological Seminary in New York, he is a former corporate speechwriter and longtime advocate for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality.

  Anastasia Pantsios is a Cleveland-based writer and photographer who has covered pop music, the arts and politics. Her photos have appeared in such magazines as Spin, Rolling Stone, the Village Voice, the New York Times, on record covers and in numerous books. She was a contributing editor to the Billboard Encyclopedia of Record Producers (1999). She was associate editor of the alternative newsweekly Cleveland Free Times, from September, 2003-July, 2008, where she covered subjects ranging from the Religious Right in Ohio to election reform to the local music scene. She has a master's degree in technical theater and scene design from Case Western Reserve University and is member of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in downtown Cleveland.

  Rev. Dr. Katherine Hancock Ragsdale is the President of Political Research Associates, a progressive think tank based in Somerville, Massachusetts, as well as an Episcopal priest and Vicar of Saint David's Church in Pepperell, Massachusetts. Ragsdale currently serves on the boards of NARAL Pro-Choice America and The White House Project. She speaks widely on issues of Reproductive Justice, LGBTQequity, and public policy affecting women.

  Rev. Daniel Schultz is a United Church of Christ pastor in rural Wisconsin and leader of the online community Street Prophets. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Candler School of Theology at Emory University, Reverend Schultz has been an online activist, a local columnist, contributor to many blogs, and originator of the annual Netroots Nation conference, where he conducts an interfaith worship service.

  Rev. Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou is the Associate Minister for Social Justice, Missions, and Community Action at Middle Collegiate Church in the East Village of New York City. A Professor of Preaching at the Seminary Consortium of Urba
n Pastoral Education, he authored the critically acclaimed urbansouls (Urban Press, 2001) and the forthcoming gods, Gays, and Guns: Religion and the Future of Democracy (Ig, 2009). Reverend Sekou is an Associate Fellow in Religion and justice at the Institute for Policy Studies and Freeman Fellow for Interfaith Peace Organizing with the historic Fellowship of Reconciliation. He has studied continental philosophy at the New School and systematic theology at Union Theological Seminary.

  Rev. Dr. Carlton W. Veazey is President and CEO of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC), the national coalition of religious groups from 15 denominations and faith traditions, and a minister of the National Baptist Convention U.S.A. Growing up in the segregated South, he witnessed the suffering of women who lacked options and opportunity. After a long and distinguished career in church ministry and public service, he joined RCRC in 1996 to continue his ministry for justice and dignity for women and families. During his 11-year tenure as President, RCRC has experienced unprecedented growth at the grassroots and nationally. Reverend Veazey founded the Coalition's celebrated National Black Church Initiative, which is breaking the silence about sexuality in African American churches, and it's South Africa Initiative, which provides HIV/AIDS prevention education in churches and community settings. Nationally, the Coalition has become an increasingly influential voice for reproductive rights and a leader in bringing cultural diversity to the pro-choice movement. Reverend Veazey was chairman of the prestigious Theological Commission of the National Baptist Convention U.S.A. (1989-1992), an organization of more than 7 million members. He is currently pastor of Fellowship Baptist Church in Washington, DC. Reverend Veazey is a graduate of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and Howard University School of Divinity.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Every book is in many ways a communal project of friends, family and colleagues-and this book is no exception. Thanks and acknowledgements are due to many, and undoubtedly I will miss someone or several someones who deserve recognition. So first to them, my sincere apologies as well as my gratitude.

  Thanks to Robert Lasner and Elizabeth Clementson for conceiving of this project and asking me to do it.

  Thanks to the contributors whose remarkable words, ideas and vision make this book sing.

  Thanks to Steve Swecker, Andrew Weaver, Osagyefo Sekou, Abby Scher, Chip Berlet, and Jonathan Hutson for advice and encouragement at critical junctures; and to Rob Boston, Jackie Witherspoon, Nakisha Eartha, and Marjorie Signer for making things happen.

  Thanks to The Wilbraham Public Library where I did much of the work on this book -- and to its wonderful staff and volunteers for proving every day the importance and vitality of public libraries in our community, our culture, and our democracy.

  Thanks to Sidney Mills for her friendship, generosity and technical wizardry; and to Frank Cocozzelli for helping me through some rocks and hard places.

  Thanks to the late Neta Waracks who meant so much in my life and lives on in much that I do; and to Valeria Thompson for being her friend and mine and an advocate when it mattered.

  Thanks to my parents, Frederick and Jean Clarkson for their love and support through it all.

  And my deepest gratitude to Kathryn Cornell for everything, always and for keeping hope alive.

  Table of Contents

  PART I.

  PART II.

  PART III.

  Introduction Joan Brown Campbell

  Editor's Introduction Frederick Clarkson

  Hillel's Questions: A Call for Leadership Marshall Ganz

  Religious Left: Changing the Script Daniel Schultz

  Not by Outrage Alone Katherine Ragsdale

  Religious Right, Religious Left Chip Berlet

  Who's God? Faith, Democracy, and the Making of an Authentic Religious Left Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou

  A Progressive Vision of ChurchState Relations Barry Lynn 81

  Towards a'lheology of Sexual Justice Debra Haffner and Timothy Palmer

  Reproductive Justice and a Comprehensive Social Justice Ethic Carlton Veazey 99

  Creationism, Evolution, and the Integrity of Science and Religion Peter Hess

  Take it from a Stem Cell Catholic Frank Cocozzelli

  Are We More Devoted to Order or to justice? Kety Esquivel

  Wrong about the Right Jean Hardisty and Deepak Bhargava

  'Thoughts about Power, Organization and Leadership Marshall Ganz

  Organizing Clergy for Marriage Equality in Massachusetts Leo Maley

  The Organizing Model of We Believe Ohio Anastasia Pantsios

  Three Wheels that Need Not Be Reinvented Frederick Clarkson

  Using New Media to Strengthen the Religious Left Shelby Meyerhoff and Shai Sachs

  The Funding Challenges of the Religious Left Peter Laarman 181

  I Don't Believe in Atheists Chris Hedges

  Afterword Jef/Sharlet

  Contributors

  Acknowledgements