Last weekend I posted a piece here, titled, The Lights are Coming on in America. Since then, I have detailed more enouraging signs that the long needed mobilization for democracy is now under way. We live in momentous times, and the things we do and don’t do, will have everything to do with the way the future turns out. Few of us, maybe none of us, ever imagined we would be where we are today. But here we are, friends: you and I, and the lights coming on around us.

One of the catalysts for lights snapping on lately has been the outrage caused by the Family Research Council’s claim that Democrats and liberals are opponents of “people of faith.” This, and a series of related insults came as part of the publicity for thier Justice Sunday telecast planned for April 24th, and especially the participation of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN).

In case anyone was wondering, where are all the moderate and progressive people of faith? Where are their voices in public life? Well, witness people of faith rising in defense of their faith, and in defense of constitutional democracy.

Dr. Bruce Prescott has detailed the outraged responses of several religious leaders. Here is sample:

“Rev. Martin Marty, America’s premier church historian,” Prescott reports, ‘has written a scathing essay in Sightings entitled ‘Furious with Frist’ that denounced Senate majority leader Bill Frist’s participation in the Family Research Council’s forthcoming Sunday telecast against filibusters. He said: ‘Most of the international religion stories these days have to do with theocratic suppressors of freedom, would-be monopolizers of religious expressions. We’ve been spared such holy wars here. But Frist and company, in the name of their interpretation of American freedom, sound more like jihadists than winsome believers. It would be healing to see them on their knees apologizing to the larger public of believers.’”

Meanwhile, the Clergy and Laity Network and Driving Democracy, the organizers of the alternative Social Justice Sunday event, have announced that it will be staged at Central Presbyterian Church in Louisville — not far from where the Family Research Council’s rally will take place.

Everyone is invited. Details and updates can be found on the web site of Building the Beloved Community, (a phrase borrowed from Martin Luther King.)

SOCIAL JUSTICE SUNDAY

You are invited to a Public Gathering of Progressive Religious Communities and Progressive Community Groups:

2:30 PM Sunday Afternoon, April 24

Central Presbyterian Church

318 W. Kentucky St. (the corner of Kentucky St. and 4th St.)

Louisville, Kentucky

Phone: (502) 587-6935

Progressive Religious Communities, our leaders and our community friends are gathering to witness:

OUR OUTRAGE over the attempt by the Family Research Council and its radical Christian Right colleagues to highjack the judicial selection process for their political/theocratic agenda

OUR DISMAY Senate Majority Leader, Senator Bill Frist, is lending his name and influence to the Family Research Council’s claim of universal support from “people of faith” for its strategy, thereby giving false religious credentials to a thinly veiled political agenda

OUR POSITIVE COMMITMENT to defend and strengthen our social context in its commitment to fairness for all people, free of biased religious doctrines and prejudiced attitudes which are inimical to a mature religious understanding of the standards of inclusiveness and justice in American life

AMONG THE SPEAKERS:

Rev. Dr. Nancy Jo Kemper, Executive Director, Kentucky Council of Churches

Rev. Dr. Robert Franklin, Professor, Emory University, Atlanta, former President, Interdenominational Theological Center, ordained minister, Church of God in Christ

Rev. Dr. Joan Brown Campbell. Director, Department of Religion, Chautauqua Institution, Chautauqua, New York (and former General Secretary of the National Council of Churches, NCC)

Emily Whitehurst, Director of the 100 year old ecumenical council in Austin, Texas

Rev. Dr. Albert M. Pennybacker, Chair and Executive Officer, Clergy and Laity Network, former NCC Associate General Secretary for Public Policy, former Professor, Lexington (KY) Theological Seminary

This event was pulled together in a less than a week. Not bad. It will undoubtedly, and deservedly get a great deal of attention and an overflowing crowd.

We have much to do. But let’s be very clear that there are many moderate and progressive people of faith speaking out and taking action. This is one part of a much wider mobilization that needs to take place to take on Frist and his gang of theocrats.