A Call for Unity Between Secular and Religious Progressives
My name is Jeff Nall. I’m a secular-humanist and progressive activist. Over the past couple of years I have been working to unite the religious and secular left to combat the injustices being carried out in and by our nation. After a great dialogue with some leaders in the secular-humanist and Christian community, I recently finished a letter purposed to encourage unity among progressive religious and secular leaders. The letter is a statement of unity to be signed on to by as many folks as possible.
I am writing to ask you to sign on in support as an individual and, if you are involved in an organization, to ask the group to sponsor the letter.You can do so by emailing me at Nall@NewProgressiveAlliance.com
This letter and project gives a much needed affirmative answer to the important question put forth by people such as editor of The Nation, Katrina vanden Heuvel, who recently wrote:
“I believe that one of the key issues facing the left . . . is whether all of us—secular, spiritual, and religious alike—can treat one another with the humanity, honesty, respect and grace we all need and deserve?�
Below you’ll find a copy of the letter followed by a list of current key signers (bare in mind we just began asking for signers two weeks ago) and information about the project.
We have also just launched a site (www.newprogressivealliance.com), bare in mind we just launched it last night. It will be updated and improved significantly. The features the letter and signatories. Soon it will also feature writing by myself and others on the subject of our shared values. We'll also eventually include plenty of information on progressive secular and religious groups. The main purpose of the site/project, at least initially, will be to get urge people to realize that progressives, whether one is a progressive atheist or a progressive Christian, share a great many principles.
A New Progressive Alliance:
A Call for Unity Between Secular and Religious Progressives
www.NewProgressiveAlliance.com
Realizing that our shared commitment to human rights, religious freedom, and peace and social justice, significantly outweighs our differences; we the undersigned, comprised of both secular and religious progressives, declare an alliance between progressive, rational-minded people regardless of one’s spiritual, religious, or secular perspective.
While our beliefs about the existence of God may differ, progressive Americans share a common tradition of humanism dating back to at least the Renaissance. Many spiritual and religious thinkers have significantly contributed to the advancement of doubt, free thinking, and the sciences, laying the ground work for the Enlightenment and modernity. There is no “cultural war� dividing us.
While we make no apologies for the beliefs that have helped to shape our character, we acknowledge that neither faith in God nor atheism suffices to define one’s ethical character. We maintain that the character of a human being can only be defined and evaluated on the basis of one’s actions.
We agree that fanaticism, be it religious or secular, is the true enemy of reason and of human progress.
We therefore formally reject the proposition that one cannot be both religious and rational. And we patently reject the notion that people of faith are incapable of respecting modern science and evolution.
We equally reject the point of view that implies one must believe in God or hold a specific religious belief in order to be valued as a moral/ethical being.
We call upon our movements to unite for the betterment of our society and to reject the enmity of pundits who have made their careers out of promoting intolerance and hatred.
We affirm the plurality of our nation and the importance of maintaining the wall of separation between civic and religious authorities in order to preserve the democratic principle of freedom of and from religion.
Our nation has been carved into a maze of horrors: torture, war, poverty, gross spending on warfare, corruption, religious fanaticism, sexism, homophobia, bigotry and intolerance. Progressive people both with and without religious faith must work together if we are to correct these injustices.
We, the undersigned, agree that given our nation’s many ethical and societal challenges, secular, spiritual and religious progressives must set aside their differences to work together to create a better world.
June 3, 2006
Current Key Signatories
Rev. Timothy F. Simpson, Interim President of the Christian Alliance for Progress; minister in the Presbyterian Church USA; and editor for the journal Political Theology.
Rev. Dr. Robert M. Bowman, Ph.D., Presiding Archbishop & Founder United Catholic Church
Delwin Brown, Pacific School of Religion dean emeritus and The Progressive Christian Witness project director. www.progressivechristianwitness.org
Rabbi Greg M. Epstein, Humanist Chaplain of Harvard University
Jennifer Hancock, executive director of the Humanists of Florida Association
Ross Hamilton Henry, Humanist Minister board member of the Humanist Institute, and The Humainst Society
Hemant Mehta, the eBay atheist
Jeff Nall, Humanist writer and activist board member of the Humanists of Florida Association
James Rowe Adams, Founder The Center for Progressive Christianity www.tcpc.org
Michael Zimmerman, Founder The Clergy Letter Project www.evolutionsunday.org
Endorsing Organizations
Christian Progressive Alliance (www.ChristianProgressiveAlliance.org)
- JeffNall's blog
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Comments
ABOUT THE PROJECT
ABOUT
This statement is the product of an ongoing dialogue I have had with a range of progressive leaders from secular, religious, and spiritual progressives. After speaking to people such as Rev. Timothy Simpson of the Christian Alliance for Progress I quickly began to realize that secular-humanists like myself have a too much in common with religious and spiritual progressives to allow our differences to divide us. And after speaking to secular-humanists such as Jennifer Hancock, executive director for the Humanists of Florida Association, I realized many secularists agree that it is time progressives of all beliefs unite for the improvement of our society.
While I authored the original draft of the statement, several people were instrumental in co-authoring the version you now know. Those most responsible for shaping the final version of the letter are Greg M. Epstein, Humanist Chaplain of Harvard University, and Jennifer Hancock.
How this Letter/Project Came to Be
Since the start of the Iraq war, the surge in American-based religious Fanaticism, and the birth of both my daughter and my activist spirit, I’ve become less interested in nourishing discord and firmly dedicated to discovering ethical commonality.
Simply put, the destructive, inhumane, and theocratic impulses of our nation caused me to realize the need for greater unity among political progressives, regardless of their religious perspectives.
I began my part-time campaign in 2004 when I wrote an article entitled, “Turning to Friends in Faithful Places: Why Non-Theists Must Befriend Likeminded, Minority Religious Groups.
Support your intent, but mutuality missing
JeffNall,
As a regular blogger on CrossLeft, I support your project and your intent, but I doubt that I personally could sign on to your letter in its present form, because a very important mutuality has been left out. The letter basically states (truly in my estimation) how much liberal religion has supported and grown alongside humanist values, from embrace of doubt, to care for the suffering, to appreciation of the rational mind. All of these secularists, atheists, and humanists might be comfortable with and fundamentalists perhaps uncomfortable with because these are principles already shared and held by people who don't share their type of belief in God. The true test of coalition-building is the ability to grow and learn beyond one's "easy commonality" with others based in the current values one holds. I see no real mutuality. I welcome the value offered by logic, science,etc. How about a reciprocal agreement by secular, atheist, agnostic, and humanists to openly consider faith and the non-rational concommitantly with the rational. What does secular faith look like? What role does inspiration, forgiveness, redemption, and other values assigned to progressive religion (and claimed by all sorts) have in common and in commitment with progressives broadly.
I think we need to take a stronger stand than "putting aside our differences." I believe we need to embrace our differences in a spirit of one people and cross over into each others "land" as an existential act of faith. I shall not wield the Bible or faith as a shield against my secular brother and sister, but welcome them in their creative, spiritual, and beautiful difference. To do so is to know the secularity in me. I would ask the same of my secular brothers and sisters, to know the religion in them. As Ziggy Marley has said in his wonderful new song, "Love is My Religion": "I shall not condemn; I shall not convert" for I trust the Living spirit between us, no matter how it is conceived to help guide us and help us learn beyond ourselves. Rationality is very helpful when it comes to personal responsibility and social justice, but the non-rational helps us look beyond ourselves as mere individuals or members of society, rather as "interbeings" (as Christian-sympathetic Buddhist Thich Nhat Hanh would say) connected on a cosmological level, sharing bread, and helping each other to both achieve and create awareness.
Reexamine the passage below, and see if you don't agree.
Jeff Nall:
"While our beliefs about the existence of God may differ, progressive Americans share a common tradition of humanism dating back to at least the Renaissance. Many spiritual and religious thinkers have significantly contributed to the advancement of doubt, free thinking, and the sciences, laying the ground work for the Enlightenment and modernity. There is no “cultural war