Shawna R. B. Atteberry

For anyone living in New York. Street Prophets will also be streaming this event live and taking question from the online audience!

Professor Harvey Cox and E. J. Dionne to Headline Discussion on Faith and the Progressive Movement

Event is second in series presented by the Progressive Book Club and the Center for American Progress

New York, NY: The Progressive Book Club (PBC) and the Center for American Progress (CAP) today announced that Harvard divinity professor Harvey Cox and syndicated columnist and author E. J. Dionne will headline the second installment of the monthly series Moving Forward: Foundations of a New Progressive Era. Launched last month, the Moving Forward series brings together leading progressive authors and policy experts in unique in-person and online forums designed to help Americans learn, connect, debate, and mobilize around ideas.

The evening’s discussion will explore the issues raised in Harvey Cox’s new book, The Future of Faith. Cox posits that Christianity is undergoing a third period of transformation marked by a disregard of dogma in favor of a more open “spirituality,” and a collapse of barriers between different religions.  One of the casualties of this transformation is an historically influential actor in American politics: religious fundamentalism.

Joining Professor Cox will be E.J. Dionne, whose most recent book – Souled Out: Reclaiming Faith and Politics After the Religious Right – announced the end of the Religious Right’s narrow social agenda, and the rise of more open-minded, social-justice oriented faith movements on both sides of the political aisle.  The two will engage in a lively discussion on the current and historical role of religion in American politics, and what this ongoing transformation means as current and future administrations struggle with a wide range of foreign and domestic policy challenges.

Author and Progressive Book Club Editorial Board member Todd Gitlin will moderate the discussion, which will be streamed live on the Progressive Book Club blog and feature a Q&A that engages both the live and online audience. There will be a reception following the discussion.

Beginning on November 9^th, seats can be reserved by RSVPing online at http://progressivebookclub.com/cap.

WHAT: Discussion with Professor Harvey Cox and E. J. Dionne

WHERE: WNYC’s Greene Space

44 Charlton Street (at Varick Street)

New York, NY 10014

WHEN: November 18, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.

FOR PRESS INQUIRIES:

PBC – Dina Owobu, 212.871.8219, dowobu@progressivebookclub.com

CAP – Anna Soellner, 202.492.296, asoellner@americanprogress.org

ABOUT THE PROGRAM PARTICIPANTS

E. J. Dionne Jr. is a syndicated columnist for the Washington Post, a regular political analyst on National Public Radio, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and a professor at Georgetown University. His books include the best-selling Why Americans Hate Politics (Simon & Schuster), which won the Los Angeles Times book prize and was nominated for the National Book Award.  His latest book is Souled Out: Reclaiming Faith and Politics After the Religious Right.

Harvey Cox is Hollis Research Professor of Divinity at Harvard, where he began teaching in 1965, both at HDS and in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. An American Baptist minister, he was the Protestant chaplain at Temple University and the director of religious activities at Oberlin College; an ecumenical fraternal worker in Berlin; and a professor at Andover Newton Theological School. His research and teaching interests focus on the interaction of religion, culture, and politics. His most recent book is The Future of Faith.

Todd Gitlin is a professor of journalism and sociology and chair of the Ph. D. program in Communications at Columbia University. He is the author of twelve books, including, most recently, The Bulldozer and the Big Tent: Blind Republicans, Lame Democrats, and the Recovery of American Ideals. He was the third president of Students for a Democratic Society, in 1963-64, and later helped organize the first national demonstration against the Vietnam War

ABOUT PROGRESSIVE BOOK CLUB

Progressive Book Club finds and promotes important authors, ideas, and new voices. Part e-bookseller and part online magazine, the club offers a unique opportunity to buy new books and support important causes with every purchase. PBC has created a 21st-century platform that enables people to learn, connect, and engage on the issues they care about most—while keeping progressive ideas at the center of the national debate.

ABOUT THE CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS

The Center for American Progress is a think tank dedicated to improving the lives of Americans through ideas and action. CAP combines bold policy ideas with a modern communications platform to help shape the national debate, expose the hollowness of conservative governing philosophy, and challenge the media to cover the issues that truly matter. Founded in 2003, CAP is headed by John D. Podesta, former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton and professor at the Georgetown University Law Center. CAP is designed to provide long-term leadership and support to the progressive movement. CAP’s ability to develop thoughtful policy proposals and engage in the war of ideas with conservatives is unique and effective. CAP policy experts cover a wide range of issue areas, and often work across disciplines to tackle complex, interrelated issues such as national security, energy, and climate change.

ABOUT THE PROGRESSIVE STUDIES PROGRAM

The Progressive Studies Program, co-directed by John Halpin and Ruy Teixeira, is a unique interdisciplinary project that explores the history, intellectual foundations, and public understanding of progressivism in America. The program seeks to increase public awareness of progressive ideas and values, and educate public officials and policymakers through lectures, seminars, articles, public events, book discussions, new media tools, and training seminars with activists and young people. It also seeks to develop thoughtful and honest debates about modern progressivism and its relationship to the earlier progressive era and other political and social movements throughout American history. The program’s public research component will complement these discussions by documenting and tracking American ideological attitudes and demographic trends across the country.

Here is the full transcript of Rev. Dr. Sharon E. Watkins’ sermon from this morning’s National Prayer Service from The Christian Church/Disciples of Christ. You can watch a webcast of the service at the Washington National Cathedral’s site.

Remember The National Prayer Service will begin at 9:00 a.m. on The Washington National Cathedral’s website. Rev. Sharon E. Watkins (General Minister and President of The Christian Church/Disciples of Christ) will be preaching, and Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori of The Episcopal Church will be giving the benediction. If you watch it let me know what you think.

Herbert Bridges, 94, cries as he watches Obama sworn in as president. The photo is from The LA Times.

From the Inaugural Speech:

What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them— that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account — to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day — because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government. . . .

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness.  We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus – and non-believers.  We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace. . . .

For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter’s courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent’s willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.

Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends — honesty and hard work, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism — these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility — a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.

“Praise song for the day” by Elizabeth Edwards (click here to see video).

Each day we go about our business, walking past each other, catching each others’ eyes or not, about to speak or speaking. All about us is noise. All about us is noise and bramble, thorn and din, each one of our ancestors on our tongues. Someone is stitching up a hem, darning a hole in a uniform, patching a tire, repairing the things in need of repair.

Someone is trying to make music somewhere with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice.

A woman and her son wait for the bus.

A farmer considers the changing sky; A teacher says, “Take out your pencils. Begin.”

We encounter each other in words, words spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed; words to consider, reconsider.

We cross dirt roads and highways that mark the will of someone and then others who said, “I need to see what’s on the other side; I know there’s something better down the road.”

We need to find a place where we are safe; We walk into that which we cannot yet see.

Say it plain, that many have died for this day. Sing the names of the dead who brought us here, who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges, picked the cotton and the lettuce, built brick by brick the glittering edifices they would then keep clean and work inside of.

Praise song for struggle; praise song for the day. Praise song for every hand-lettered sign; The figuring it out at kitchen tables.

Some live by “Love thy neighbor as thy self.”

Others by first do no harm, or take no more than you need.

What if the mightiest word is love, love beyond marital, filial, national. Love that casts a widening pool of light. Love with no need to preempt grievance.

In today’s sharp sparkle, this winter air, anything can be made, any sentence begun.

On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp — praise song for walking forward in that light.

Rev. Dr. Joseph Lowry’s benediction:

And now, Lord, in the complex arena of human relations, help us to make choices on the side of love, not hate; on the side of inclusion, not exclusion; tolerance, not intolerance. . .

Help us then, now, Lord, to work for that day when nation shall not lift up sword against  nation, when tanks will be beaten into tractors, when every man and every woman shall sit under his or her own vine and fig tree, and none shall be afraid; when justice will roll down like waters and righteousness as a mighty stream.

Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around–when yellow will be mellow–when the red man can get ahead, man–and when white will embrace what is right.

Let all those who do justice and love mercy say amen.

AUDIENCE: Amen!

REV. LOWERY: Say amen –

AUDIENCE: Amen!

REV. LOWERY: — and amen.

AUDIENCE: Amen!

It was such a good day. I am so happy to have seen history made, and to have a president that I was proud to vote for.

The excitement and hope were tangible in the air of Grant Park at the Obama rally. When Tracy and I arrived at the rally, Pennsylvania had already went to Obama, and we were waiting for the three biggies: Ohio, Virginia, and Florida. The park was alive with anticipation. Then it happened: Ohio went to Obama and then Virginia. The park erupted in cheers. And minutes later the news we had been praying for and hoping for: Barak Obama was declared the President Elect. The entire field (and I’m sure all of Grant Park and most of Chicago) exploded in cheers, yelling, and clapping. People were jumping up and down and holding on to one another. After I got done jumping up and down, I kissed My Hubby and held on to him. We were a part of history: the largest election turnout ever and the first African-American president. Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr., appeared on the jumbotron, and that picture of tears streaming down his face captured the entire night.

I now have hope that our country can go in a different direction. That we will once again make peace instead of war (It’s nice to know that we now have a Christian president that takes The Sermon on the Mount seriously. What would happen if more Christians took The Sermon on the Mount more seriously and literally?). That the tax cuts going to the wealthiest people and corporations at the expense of most Americans will stop. As President-Elect Obama said, it will take a lot of hard work and sacrifice, but we now have leadership that will help us get our economy back on track and begin to get us out of Bush’s personnel war with Iraq. And oddly enough, I believed what Obama said. I haven’t believed a word that’s come out President Bush’s mouth in over four years. But the Bush reign is over. On January 21 the real work will begin. And yes, President Obama, I will be a part of it.

Here are the pictures I took last night.

Me amongst 65,000 friends

Tracy

Tracy in a sea of faces

Right after Barak Obama was declared the new president

The Stage

The Field Museum

Reaction the Obama family taking stage

Listening to the President Elect

Lord God of all creation,

You rule and judge all nations,
You scatter the arrogant of mind and heart,
You cast down rulers from their thrones and raise up the lowly.

Today we elect those who will serve in our government:
the voices that call us to go this way or that way are confusing,
the signs of these times that we must discern are tragic and unjust,
the culture of death that afflicts all people is powerful.

Open our eyes to see your Reign in history,
our hearts to share your love with all people,
our ears to hear the cry of the widow, the orphan, and the stranger among us.

Send your Holy Spirit upon the people of this land:
Teach us to make wise and prudent decisions.
Increase our faith and hope.
Help us to live the Gospel we profess.

May all who are elected this day:
do justice,
love goodness,
and walk humbly before You and all people.

We ask for these blessings,
confident in your providence through all time,
calling upon Mary our Mother
and all the saints who have served the cause of justice,
through your Son, Jesus Christ, Redeemer and Savior, Amen.

H/T to Polisigh for both the prayer and the picture.