Progressive Christians- The Voice of Few or the Voice of Many?

There are those that think that we, progressive Christians, are only a handful of people- the voice of a few. I disagree. I believe that we are the voice of many- perhaps even that which will at some point be coined the new "silent majority". And if not silent, at least an unseen majority, a majority that is in action but whose story is not being picked up by the press and mainstream on a daily basis, at least not yet.

In the course of the last few months, as we have established CrossLeft, I have come to realize that there are a good number of us who are working on furthering the cause of progressive Christianity. We are indeed many and diverse and committed. This presents an exciting though challenging proposition for us. How do we let the world know that in the US there are many progressive Christians in action in their politics and their faith? What will it take so that it is clear that there is a movement of progressive Christians?

I think it will take just that, a movement. Much work that has been done to date on this front, but in my 30 years of life, I have yet to see an interdenominational, progressive Christian movement. The good news is, I think we are about to get there. I think we are reaching the tipping point. Many progressive Christians are fed up with the status quo and want to do something about it. Many are in action and many more are starting to link in. I think back to Rosa Parks' quote,

"At the time I was arrested I had no idea it would turn into this. It was just a day like any other day. The only thing that made it significant was that the masses of the people joined in."

I wonder if that day will be today. I think we should all go about our work and our commitment to this cause as if it might be. At CrossLeft.org we are committed to being in action and doing all we can to contribute to making this happen.

In the spirit of furthering the strength of the large progressive Christian community, at CrossLeft.org we have created a site that pulls together information on/from all of the different players, while creating an online community for progressive Christians. We are both a portal and a community. It is our opinion that our strength and ability to build a movement will only come from the collective voice of all of the progressive Christian movers and shakers who care about their faith and are doing something about it.

We think that it is important that we harness our collective progressive Christian energy in a way that we are all connected and know what we are doing so that we can work together and contribute to each other and the building of a movement. To that end we have been asking the leaders of other progressive Christian groups to share their events and initiatives with CrossLeft and we have been posting everything we receive on our website. (If you have information to send about a particular group, please send it to us too. Or better yet, join our community and blog about it yourself.)

Moreover, in order to take this work to the next level, we are hoping to bring together the leaders of several progressive Christian organizations for a summit this winter. Our target: February '06 in San Francisco. Please stay tuned to CrossLeft, as we will be posting more information on this summit as the date approaches.

We are presently looking for partner organizations to join us as hosts of this summit. If you are a leader in the progressive Christian movement and are interested in helping us host and/or if you would like to put us in touch with someone else who you think would be great for this, please e-mail us at info@crossleft.net. Please note that while this is a leadership summit for leaders of this movement, we define leaders as not only those in traditional leadership roles, but also those who have taken action and define themselves as leaders in the grassroots and the netroots. So, if you are interested in being a part of this summit, please send us a note and let us know!