For the past 25 years, as the religious right has grown in influence, people would ask: where is the religious left? Well, looking at the All Star roster of religious leaders, writers and activists, we can clearly see that intellectually it has never been more vibrant. It’s with great excitement that Beliefnet launches the ultimate group blog for religious progressives. Scan the bios and i think you’ll agree: this is a rather extraordinary collection of religious leaders and thinkers. They will use this blog to comment on the news, philosophically combat religious conservatives and argue with each other over priorities.
We’ve been fortunate to have had Jim Wallis and friends on our site for about a year. In a couple of months, he’ll be moving his main blog back to his home site, sojo.net, though we expect Jim will continue to contribute to Beliefnet in other ways.
You might wonder: why no religious right group blog? We’re lucky enough to have Crunchy Con (alias Rod Dreher) as our premier conservative blogger. In fact, we’re proud to say that as far as we can tell Rod now has the most popular religious conservative blog on the web. It’s the ultimate compliment that we needed a group of 30 plus liberal luminaries to create parity with Crunchy Con.
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posted July 29, 2008 at 12:19 pm
I’ve spent the last two days reading and digesting Progressive Rivial. Love it! It is now a pat of my daily reading.
posted July 29, 2008 at 2:38 pm
The list of commentators matches closely with a couple of shelves of books in my office. And those who are not already represented on said shelf will likely be there soon. I am impressed and thrilled to have such a powerful battery of insight and wisdom available on a daily basis!
posted July 29, 2008 at 2:39 pm
Ha! Combating religious liberalism with one hand tied behind my back! Bring it on, baby!
(Seriously, welcome to the new gang.)
posted July 29, 2008 at 3:23 pm
I am so happy about this, and plan to be a regular visitor.
Progressives having religious opinions! Shocking!
posted July 29, 2008 at 7:02 pm
Yes…I see a wonderful balance on the front page now under the “Politics and News” banner:
Rod Dreher – conservative
Jim Wallis – liberal (and leaving soon)
Steven Waldman – conservative
Michele McGinty – conservative
God-o-Meter – conservative
Progressive revival – liberal
Yep…I can see how a conservative might call this balanced. It’s unfortunate that there aren’t more liberal options under this section. What’s also disappointing is that there are NO non-Christian views represented specifically under this section. Surely there are blogs regarding politics from Pagan, Humanist, Atheist, Buddhist, or other religious viewpoints.
posted July 29, 2008 at 10:37 pm
What gives you the idea that Steven Waldman is conservative? He definitely seems to be fairly non-partisan, and is liberal-leaning if anything.
And what is so conservative about God-O-Meter? That is also fairly objective and unbiased.
posted July 30, 2008 at 3:44 pm
I agree 110% with DonF that this is what conservatives call balanced. I’ve read about 4 of the entries and so far found very little in the way of progressive anything, but a lot about a gathering of Catholics, a lot of pro-life stuff, even the requisite anti-gay rants, etc.
God-o-rama is not so much “conservative” as lame. (Ditto for Michele McGuinty – the “reformed” babbling chick – singular, not plural, at least so far.) I think he averages 2.1 coments per post (with many postings gathering zero reactions). But “objective and unbiased”!?!?! That’s a real laff. Gilgoff has a hard on for anything anti-Obama – and it shows.