Philocrites

What religious liberals can learn from Dean.

by Philocrites

The Right Christians — a must-read religion and politics site — is exploring the question of what progressive Christians and other liberal religious people can learn from the Dean campaign's extraordinary use of Meetup, blogs, and other new networking methods. Allen Brill, the site's author, is a Lutheran pastor with some big plans. (Just think: a Daily Kos for people of faith!) The initial idea is here, with followup questions about Meetup, focus, software, and the refined idea. Join in!

Oh, a comment: I use the phrase "religious liberals" in the headline of this post with some caution, since Allen's project isn't directed at theological liberals so much as at politically progressive Christians. There's considerable overlap, but I would like to note that liberal religion and religious liberalism tend to refer to theologically non-orthodox and generally modernist religious perspectives, embracing Unitarianism, religious naturalism, Ethical Culture, etc., which are not necessarily inconsistent with politically libertarian and even conservative political views. Progressive Christianity, on the other hand, tends to include theologically orthodox Christians who would never regard themselves as "religious liberals," even though they are focused on social justice. I'm interested in Allen's project for ecumenical and political reasons, but his project isn't quite the same as a site that tried to bring religious liberals of all stripes together. But a headline that said "What can progressive Christians and other religious liberals learn from Dean?" just seemed too damn long.

Copyright © 2004 by Philocrites | Posted 18 January 2004 at 11:05 PM

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