Hey Everybody: Start the Revolution! We're in the National Cathedral!!
Night before last the values conference kicked off. E. J. Dionne witnessed to civil society, proclaimed “I’m not a Democrat in spite of being a Christian; I’m a Democrat because I’m a Christian.� David Hollinger kept the audience on the edge of their pews as he reviewed the history of our movement – how mainline Protestants of the twentieth century overcame their prejudices against Jews, Catholics, and atheists; how in order to move forward they need to overcome their barriers towards speaking in public about this legacy and how they see it wedded to their faith.
Helen Thompson got up and testified about how her spiritual life had been utterly transformed because of the progressive Christians she met on the internet – who for the first time were able to convince her that there were others like her. A priest stood up and said, let’s organize around one issue, and let it be POVERTY. A vestryman from the Cathedral offered DC as a bastion of fundraising to back it.
I looked out from the stage where I was moderating the conversation, at these dozens of articulate clergymen and lay leaders, each of them energized as you never see attendants at conferences.
Friends, we're raising the roof. It's time to move on from merely proclaiming "one individual *can* do something". We *are* doing something. We met the Beatitudes Society, spreading like wildfire through American colleges. We talked to clergy and activists about press releases, calling journalists, making allies on the internet, and beginning a broader lobby for political change. We've been talking about the next conferences, the CrossWalk march, the leadership of the many movements.
I am so glad we've been here. I'll be posting more brief notes on what we saw here at the Forum. Podcasts of conference discussions and lectures will be up here soon. Photos will be showing up (remember, you can upload your own pics!!) If you were at the conference, please say hello, through blog or forum.
If you're interested in using CrossLeft for your own movements, please get in touch and tell us about your activism -- be it fair trade, anti-racism, peace and justice, or political change. We are SO glad to know you, and we are longing to be involved and engaged with you in your work. No Progressive Christians needs ever feel henceforward alone or abandoned in a hateful, godforsaken world. The movement is emerging.
