God Bless Liberals!
July 20, 2010 1:48 PM Subscribe
Where are the liberal, progressive, Christian blogs and media?
Short story: when driving through Wisconsin, we passed a huge sign that simply said, "God Bless America". Progressive, liberal me winced at the percieved conservatism, evangelism, and other ickiness I attribute to that sort of sentiment. However, there's nothing overtly Republican, Tea-Party, or conservative about that phrase -- so where are the people using it in any other way? The wonderfully liberal side of Jesus gets trotted out by modern progressives ironically, but I don't see any genuine deeply-christian progressives promoting those sentiments unironically. A Google for the phrase "God Bless Obama" finds some things along those lines, but it's pretty sparse. Does anyone know a good source for non-conservative, progressive, liberal Christian politics? Such an animal may not exist, but I still hold out some hope...
Short story: when driving through Wisconsin, we passed a huge sign that simply said, "God Bless America". Progressive, liberal me winced at the percieved conservatism, evangelism, and other ickiness I attribute to that sort of sentiment. However, there's nothing overtly Republican, Tea-Party, or conservative about that phrase -- so where are the people using it in any other way? The wonderfully liberal side of Jesus gets trotted out by modern progressives ironically, but I don't see any genuine deeply-christian progressives promoting those sentiments unironically. A Google for the phrase "God Bless Obama" finds some things along those lines, but it's pretty sparse. Does anyone know a good source for non-conservative, progressive, liberal Christian politics? Such an animal may not exist, but I still hold out some hope...
Sojourners is a website and magazine that bills itself as "progressive Christian commentary on faith, politics, and culture".
posted by BitterOldPunk at 1:53 PM on July 20, 2010
posted by BitterOldPunk at 1:53 PM on July 20, 2010
We enjoy Pastor Anonymous at Magdalene's Egg.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 1:53 PM on July 20, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 1:53 PM on July 20, 2010 [1 favorite]
Also, though I haven't read it, I believe there's a lot about this in Alan Wolfe's book The Future of Liberalism.
posted by Jaltcoh at 1:58 PM on July 20, 2010
posted by Jaltcoh at 1:58 PM on July 20, 2010
Christian Science Monitor. Scroll down to the section of the FAQ where they answer the question, "Is the Monitor a religious publication?"
posted by jtherkel at 2:04 PM on July 20, 2010
posted by jtherkel at 2:04 PM on July 20, 2010
My liberal, progressive Christian husband likes Brian McLaren. He wrote this mefi post, which has a lot of other links he likes.
posted by desjardins at 2:08 PM on July 20, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by desjardins at 2:08 PM on July 20, 2010 [1 favorite]
Behold! Sarcastic Lutheran, run by a high school pal of mine who is a very progressive minister in Denver.
posted by scody at 2:15 PM on July 20, 2010
posted by scody at 2:15 PM on July 20, 2010
Real Live Preacher is great. His site can be a bit hard to find stuff in because it's so huge and he's been doing it so long, but his video series on hell gives a good idea of the flavor of the site. I've given the google video link for that although they are on the blog, but, as I said, hard to find stuff in
posted by frobozz at 2:16 PM on July 20, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by frobozz at 2:16 PM on July 20, 2010 [1 favorite]
America Magazine, published by the Jesuits, fits the bill.
posted by jquinby at 2:19 PM on July 20, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by jquinby at 2:19 PM on July 20, 2010 [1 favorite]
Not American, but the Jesuits here in Australia do Eureka Street. They've been around since 1991 and before lack of funds forced them to close their paper-publishing arm were one of Australia's most serious public affairs magazines.
They've still got some of the country's best coverage of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 2:36 PM on July 20, 2010
They've still got some of the country's best coverage of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 2:36 PM on July 20, 2010
The Private Intellectual is another progressive minister's blog.
posted by Kylio at 2:36 PM on July 20, 2010
posted by Kylio at 2:36 PM on July 20, 2010
Nthing America and adding the National Catholic Reporter. And, of course, the Catholic Worker paper, which is not online.
posted by jgirl at 2:57 PM on July 20, 2010
posted by jgirl at 2:57 PM on July 20, 2010
The New Oxford Review used to be pretty good from a non-icky Catholic viewpoint.
posted by timsteil at 3:32 PM on July 20, 2010
posted by timsteil at 3:32 PM on July 20, 2010
Add to the excellent suggestions above Commonweal and First Things. Relevant is a Christian mag focused on twenty somethings and tends to be pretty progressive.
A term to search on is "Emergent" or "Post-modern" Christianity. You'll find a lot of like-minded Christians that way. Also look for mentions of "Red Letter" Christians -- people who advocate living the actual words Jesus said instead of the Old Testament with a Jesus veneer. I always chuckle to read conservative fundamentalist Christains complaining about Red Letter Christians ideas of taking Jesus' words literally.
Look for anything written by Fr. Richard Rohr and Fr. Ron Rohlheiser. Jim Wallis is a pretty famous progressive Christian advocate as well. As is Leanoard Sweet, who is kind of a pop progressive Christian minister.
posted by cross_impact at 3:49 PM on July 20, 2010
A term to search on is "Emergent" or "Post-modern" Christianity. You'll find a lot of like-minded Christians that way. Also look for mentions of "Red Letter" Christians -- people who advocate living the actual words Jesus said instead of the Old Testament with a Jesus veneer. I always chuckle to read conservative fundamentalist Christains complaining about Red Letter Christians ideas of taking Jesus' words literally.
Look for anything written by Fr. Richard Rohr and Fr. Ron Rohlheiser. Jim Wallis is a pretty famous progressive Christian advocate as well. As is Leanoard Sweet, who is kind of a pop progressive Christian minister.
posted by cross_impact at 3:49 PM on July 20, 2010
Simple Massing Priest is a progressive Anglican priest/blogger on the Canadian prairies.
posted by Jaybo at 4:23 PM on July 20, 2010
posted by Jaybo at 4:23 PM on July 20, 2010
A Soul in Training by our own Pater Aletheias.
posted by donnagirl at 5:57 PM on July 20, 2010 [4 favorites]
posted by donnagirl at 5:57 PM on July 20, 2010 [4 favorites]
Nthing a lot of what's here...
It's been awhile since I read Real Live Preacher, but he's always good stuff. I for sure make sure to read every E.J. Dionne column -- he was a rare voice of reason and compassion throughout the healthcare debates.
I get the Sojourners weekly email, which I will admit to usually just skimming -- but it's got a lot of material.
LUTHERANCHIK'S "L" WORD DIARY is good too. She lives somewhere in Michigan, working in social work or human services, and blogs a lot about church and trying to make a difference in people's lives.
posted by midatlanticwanderer at 6:04 PM on July 20, 2010
It's been awhile since I read Real Live Preacher, but he's always good stuff. I for sure make sure to read every E.J. Dionne column -- he was a rare voice of reason and compassion throughout the healthcare debates.
I get the Sojourners weekly email, which I will admit to usually just skimming -- but it's got a lot of material.
LUTHERANCHIK'S "L" WORD DIARY is good too. She lives somewhere in Michigan, working in social work or human services, and blogs a lot about church and trying to make a difference in people's lives.
posted by midatlanticwanderer at 6:04 PM on July 20, 2010
Father Joseph Girzone in his Joshua series of fiction books brings (IMO) a very realistic and progressive Jesus to life in modern day America. This is a Jesus that attends a variety of churches and synagogues, seems more interested in the people than the institutions, who chastises today's religious bureaucracy as stridently as He did in the first century, who cares deeply for the common people and their needs and who, in His own daily life, tries to model and elicit loving behavior from others.
posted by forthright at 6:35 PM on July 20, 2010
posted by forthright at 6:35 PM on July 20, 2010
For the sake of intellectual honesty, beware of the distinction between those who make a principled effort to emphasize the "social gospel" within the orthodox Christian tradition, and those who are seeking to have their cake and eat it to: nominally Christian for sentimental or tactical reasons, but never failing to discard orthodoxy when it conflicts with any element of the secular agenda of license and redistribution.
posted by MattD at 9:31 PM on July 20, 2010
posted by MattD at 9:31 PM on July 20, 2010
I know you're probably talking about the US, and I don't know if you consider socialism = liberalism, but googling Christian socialism brings up a couple...
www.thecsm.org.uk
thechristiansocialist.blogspot.com
posted by low_horrible_immoral at 6:00 AM on July 21, 2010
www.thecsm.org.uk
thechristiansocialist.blogspot.com
posted by low_horrible_immoral at 6:00 AM on July 21, 2010
Not a blog exactly, but I've recently become very interested in Walter Wink's work.
posted by wobh at 11:49 PM on July 21, 2010
posted by wobh at 11:49 PM on July 21, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Catseye at 1:51 PM on July 20, 2010 [5 favorites]