1.

RELIGIOUS LEFT LAUNCHED IN U.S.

BBC News
June 24, 2005

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4124418.stm

A group of progressive Christians in the U.S. have launched a new political movement to counter what they describe as the power of the religious right.

The Christian Alliance for Progress aims to "reclaim Christianity" and influence the political agenda.

"We can no longer stand by and watch people speak hatred, division, war and greed in the name of our faith," said Patrick Mrotek, the Alliance's founder.

The body joins other liberal religious groups formed around the 2004 election.

KEY ISSUES

Polls suggest that those who voted for President George W. Bush on account of his values may have swung the election in his favour.

"We are here because the language spoken by the religious right is Christian -- this requires a uniquely Christian response," Mr. Mrotek added.

In particular, the Alliance hopes to speak out on issues such as stem cell research and abortion.

"Many Americans, especially people of faith, are ready to hear from Christians who are tolerant, and who understand the many ways that our faiths impact our views of public life," it says on its website.

The group based in Jacksonville plans to recruit members nationwide.

A poll conducted last November by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found 63% of people who attend church services more than once a week vote Republican, while 37% vote Democrat.

2.

Nation/World

RELIGIOUS PROGRESSIVES SPEAK OUT
By Lisa Anderson

Chicago Tribune
June 23, 2005

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0506230206jun23,1,7164076.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed

NEW YORK -- With the stated goal of reclaiming the issue of faith from the Christian right, a new political organization for religious progressives launched Wednesday, joining a small number of liberal religious-oriented groups and think tanks that sprang up around the faith-infused 2004 election.

Unlike many of those groups, however, the new Christian Alliance for Progress describes itself as a grass-roots organization with plans for a national membership, and it is based in Jacksonville rather than New York or Washington.

"For years, we've been hearing the name of Christianity be used to speak about hatred, division, war and greed," said Patrick Mrotek, the Jacksonville health management consultant who founded the group.

"We believe we can no longer stand by and watch the language of our faith used in that manner, and we think it is time to reclaim our faith," he said in a telephone interview after a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington.

Supported by private donations, the group began organizing four months ago and has attracted 3,000 to 4,000 members so far, according to Kathleen LeRoy, vice president of operations. She also said "dozens of people" have agreed to head chapters of the Christian Alliance for Progress across the country.

In terms of this grass-roots effort, the alliance is modeled after the Christian Coalition, the conservative political organization founded by Pat Robertson in 1989 to mobilize the religious right.

"They're couching their effort as a conscious response to the religious right, but they also have a positive agenda, which they lay out," said John Green, director of the Bliss Institute of Politics at the University of Akron and a fellow at the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

In fact, the agenda of the alliance is similar to those of other progressive organizations, such as Sojourners, headed by moderate evangelical Rev. Jim Wallis, and the Center for American Progress, founded by John Podesta, former chief of staff in the Clinton White House.

According to its statement of purpose, "The Christian Alliance for Progress, founded firmly on the teachings of the Gospel, will stand for pursuing economic justice; responsible environmental stewardship; equality for gays and lesbians; honoring the sanctity of childbearing decisions through effective prevention, not criminalization of abortion; seeking peace, not war; and achieving health care for all Americans."

The liberal stance on abortion mirrors the softer approach recently taken by some Democrats, such as Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), that abortion, while not a good thing, is something that must be available but rare.

"On a practical level, liberal Christians have been living out their faith," LeRoy said. "We've come to recognize that that cannot be the only thing we do. We must speak about our faith, speak about our values."

Said Rev. Timothy Simpson, a Presbyterian pastor who directs religious affairs for the group, "We feel like what we're doing in this ministry stands closest to the values of Jesus and will be attractive to folks who see the corruption that has come about as a result of the colonization of the Republican Party by the Christian right."

NO LINKS TO PARTY

The group is not connected to a political party nor has it forged links with any other progressive group, Mrotek said. He emphasized that although the group welcomes all people, "our view is the language that is spoken by the religious right is Christian and we have to have a uniquely Christian response to that."

Moreover, the group talks in relatively tough terms to its conservative counterparts, using Scripture to contradict statements they have made.

On Thursday, the alliance will deliver what it calls "The Jacksonville Declaration" to the leaders of the religious right. The declaration is to be read in front of the First Baptist Church in Jacksonville, whose pastor, Jerry Vines, made headlines in 2002 when he described the Prophet Muhammad as a "demon-possessed pedophile."

In the declaration, the group quotes a number of statements that members consider at odds with the spirit of tolerance and compassion in the Bible. For example, they cite a letter religious leader Bob Jones sent to President Bush after last year's election in which he said, "You owe liberals nothing. They despise you because they despise your Christ."

DeLAY QUOTE

The declaration also quotes a statement made by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) in March in which he said, "I hope the Supreme Court will finally read the Constitution and see there's no such thing, or no mention of separation of church and state in the Constitution."

"What I thought was interesting about all those quotes was calling these religious leaders to task with their own values," Green said.

It remains to be seen how effective the new group will be, not only in creating local field offices, but in influencing the political landscape where polls show regular churchgoers lean Republican.

Green, who has conducted many polls on the intersection of religion and politics, said one statistic "ought to give religious progressives pause."

He said that compared with traditional voters, "among the more moderate and liberal groups, people tended to downplay the importance of their faith" in influencing their vote.

On the other hand, he observed, "If we had leaders for the Christian Alliance for Progress on the phone, one of the things they may say is it wouldn't be quite so lopsided if there were progressive people articulating religious values."

--lbanderson@tribune.com

3.

News & Events

LOCAL RELIGIOUS GROUP CHALLENGES RIGHT-WING POLITICIANS

** Christian Alliance For Progress To 'Take Back Our Faith' **

News4Jax.com
June 23, 2005

http://www.news4jax.com/news/4645133/detail.html
or
http://www.christianalliance.org/site/c.bnKIIQNtEoG/b.592941/k.CB7C/Home.htm (excerpt)

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- They call themselves religious Americans who want to close what they refer to as the "God gap" in politics. The Christian Alliance for Progress announced in a news conference Thursday its movement to counter the power of the religious right in the shadow of Jacksonville's politically powerful First Baptist Church.

"As everyone in the city of Jacksonville knows, the First Baptist Church is part of the Southern Baptist Convention, and as everybody in the country knows, the Southern Baptist Convention is right now calling many of the shots as part of the religious right in the Republican Party," said Tim Simpson, director of religious affairs. "So, we as citizens of Jacksonville and this organization thought that there would be no more symbolic venue than to come to the heart of what we consider to be the religious right in the city of Jacksonville and to make our case that gospel values once again need to be articulated in the public sphere from a different perspective than they have been in the past."

The grassroots progressive organization's mission statement was prominently displayed on every placard promoting the new group: "Take Back Our Faith."

"For the average American Jill or Joe, when it comes to politics, being a Christian has come to mean being a so-called values voter, and it almost always means voting Republican," said Patrick Mrotek, a local businessman and founder of the Alliance. "In fact, leaders of the religious right widely use the language of Christianity to promote only one political viewpoint."

The belief is that there are millions of swing voters who believe in God, but distrust the religious right's power. Alliance leaders want politicians to reflect more progressive values that mirror the gospels.

"This organization has been formed to mobilize and give voice to Christians who have been alienated by the extreme political agenda of certain elements of the religious right," Mrotek said. "The mission of the Christian Alliance for Progress is to reclaim Christianity and transform American politics through action based on our values."

Alliance members believe extremists on both sides of the political track are turning off voters by pushing their agendas too hard. They believe these same politicians are implying that the Bible sanctions their agendas.

"We're here because we can no longer stand by and watch people speak hatred, division, war and greed in the name of our faith," Mrotek said. "We're here because Christianity is being used by radical leaders of the religious right as they seek to marginalize gay and lesbian people; to criminalize desperate, pregnant women; to suppress scientific information and honest information about human reproduction and replace them with ignorance."

On Wednesday, Simpson, a Presbyterian minister from Tallahassee, Fla., formally introduced the local group to the national media in Washington.

"Over the last four months, a small staff and many volunteers have worked endlessly to define our message, design our Web site, and reach out to one person at a time in homes and in churches across Northeast Florida," said Kathleen Leroy, vice president of operations. "In recent weeks, only turning on the Web site, preparing for this launch and with no promotion, our message has found its way across the nation, and thousands of members have joined."

Leroy concluded Thursday's news conference with a summation of people who make up the Alliance.

"We are ordinary Americans," Leroy said. "We are clergy, laypersons active in the church. We are disaffected Christians no longer active in churches, and some of us are even non-Christians who may be drawn to the gospel message."

--For more information on the Chrisitian Alliance for Progress, click on www.ChristianAlliance.org.