Report from the 2005 Spiritual Progressives online conference

Faith has long played a role in influencing public opinion of government across the political spectrum. Currently, however, the religious Right is far more effective in setting the policy agenda than the religious Left. From May 10th through May 19th, 2005, participants across denominations joined agnostics and atheists in the Spiritual Progressives online conference to discuss the interplay between religion and progressive politics, between belief and civic activism. <p>The communicative power of shared values is the main tool for uniting the progressive movement and reaching out to moderates unaware of how the progressive platform follows logically from their spiritual beliefs. Agreement fostered through the dialogue of this conference confirms the power and possibility of describing these shared values. The very difficult task of analyzing modes of reasoning and understanding discourse in order to know the existing elements of our shared “progressive theology” remains before us. This report summarizes the main discussions that took place during the conferece, as well as the conclusions reached.

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