I’ll be appearing on The Sunday Show, a weekly public affairs show on KPFA 94.1 FM in Berkley, CA this Sunday, December 30th. Noon to 1:00pm (EST) 9:00 to 10:00am left coast time. I’ll be joining host Phillip Maldari and fellow guest Kevin Alexander Gray to talk about what happened in the year that was, and what can we expect in the year to come? The show is live-streamed as well as broadcast, and podcasts are available.

The interview I taped with Welton Gaddy the other day will air on his Air America radio program State of Belief on dozens of stations and the XM satalite radio network this weekend.   Day and times vary. Information on how to listen, including times for web casts, can be found here. The occasion was to talk about Dispatches from the Religious Left – but naturally, as people who have been deeply involved in these subjects for many years do — we dived into all of the inter-related subjects with gusto.

Today I taped an interview with Barry Lynn, who is best known as the executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.  Less well known is that he also hosts a syndicated radio show,  Culture Shocks.   I am told that it will be possible to listen to the podcast at the AU web site.  We discussed the State of the Religious Right and the prospective Religious Left arising from his, and others’ contributions to Dispatches from the Religious Left.

Thanks to the urgent efforts of the religious right, the anti-marriage equality amendment is on the ballot in California is narrowly ahead in recent polls. And we should expect a fierce battle to the finish. Longtime Religious Right leader Chuck Colson calls the California initiative “the armaggeddon of the culture war.” Maggie Gallagher, president of the National Organization for Marriage says “This is ground zero in a culture war that the California Supreme Court just declared on Christianity and every single faith.”

Meanwhile in Connecticut, a referendum held every 20 years as to whether a sate constitutional convention should be held, coincidentally is being held this year, and opponents of marriage equality are urging a “yes” vote in order to try to make it easier to change the constitution regarding marriage, and thereby overturn the decision of the state Supreme Court. The effort ggained momentum when the state’s Catholic Bishops urged a “yes” vote, making statewide news.

As these battles are being fought, there are lessons to be learned along the way — even as Beltway Insiders keep claiming, all evidence to the contrary not withstanding, that the culture wars are over or are fading, and that the religious right is dead, or in precipitous decline. These kinds of thought-stopping declarations tend to prevent us from having the kinds of conversations we actually need to be having about political reality.

While is not clear whether the CT constitutional convention measure will pass, it does enjoy the support of a number of groups such as the Connecticut Family Institute (the state political arm of Focus on the Family Action) as well as GOP Gov. Jodi Rell. It is also not clear that if it did pass, the convention would take up the issue of marriage equality. But no matter what happens, the issue promises to remain alive in CT politics for the forseeable future.

As it happens, I featured an essay about some of the lessons of the Massachusetts experience in Dispatches from the Religious Left: The Future of Faith and Politics in America. The essay is authored by Leo Maley, a longtime political, labor, and yes, community organizer. He currently chairs the Amherst, MA Democratic Town Committee.  Here are a few quotes from his piece:

The back-story of this historic civil and human rights victory is the role of over 1,000 clergy–and numerous laypersons–who, in publicly supporting marriage equality, powerfully reframed the same-sex marriage debate in a way that helped lead to this major progressive achievement. However, the historic Goodridge decision is not the achievement I am talking about. Instead, the victory to which religious progressives contributed so significantly was the dramatic showdown vote in the state legislature in 2006 that headed off a state-wide ballot question designed to undo Goodridge and thus write discrimination into the Massachusetts constitution. This success story should embolden and inspire progressive religious activists as a model for organizing on this issue over the long haul…
In June 2006, RCFM [the Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry] publicly confronted what it called the “bigotry espoused in the name of faith,” by releasing an open letter that charged the Catholic Church with “religious discrimination” for trying to deny legal recognition to marriages conducted by clergy of other faiths. (Keep in mind that Catholics comprise fully half of the population in Massachusetts, and over two-thirds of state legislature.) The letter declared that “By proclaiming homosexuality and same-sex unions to be universally immoral and worthy of second-class status under state law, you are sending a message that our faith communities are immoral. You are harming us and our families and your own faithful as well.”

RCFM also gathered thousands of signatures from pro-equality Catholics on a “Roman Catholic Statement Supporting Marriage Equality for Same-Sex Couples in Massachusetts” which emphasized the “danger of one religious tradition or doctrine dominating another,” and affirmed the constitutional principle of the separation of church and state. The Statement recalled that Roman Catholics were once denied civil rights, argued that Catholic social justice teachings called for respect, “not merely tolerance,” and reminded the public that “same-sex civil marriage does not in any way coerce any religious faith or tradition to change its beliefs or doctrine.” RCFM’s challenge to the Catholic Church’s anti-equality stance was critical. And the courage and integrity of the religious leaders who stood up for what they believed, and effectively organized on behalf of their convictions, made a crucial difference in preserving marriage equality in Massachusetts.

His essay ought to be of immediate use in states where marriage equality is an issue, and for the forseeable future. It is worth bearing in mind Colson also said (as reported by Church & State):

“This is where if we lose, it would be very hard to turn the ship right again,” said Colson, according to a report in Charisma, a leading Pentecostal magazine. “If we win, we might start rolling back the other side. This is a major, major struggle, and we should spare nothing in defining marriage the way every civilization has as the union of one man and one woman joined together as one flesh, as we believe in the Scripture in order to procreate.”

This Sunday (October 12), from Noon-1 p.m. EST,  I will discuss Dispatches with Leo Maley, who is both a Dispatches contributor and co-host of ‘Focus,’ a progressive public affairs show on WMUA 91.1 FM (Amherst).   (The interview begins a couple minutes past the hour.)   You can listen to the program live on the web.  Leo’s chapter in Dispatches is titled:  “Organizing Clergy for Marriage Equality in Massachusetts.”  Here is a quote from his important essay:

The back-story of this historic civil and human rights victory is the role of over 1,000 clergy—and numerous laypersons—who, in publicly supporting marriage equality, powerfully reframed the same-sex marriage debate in a way that helped lead to this major progressive achievement. However, the historic Goodridge decision is not the achievement I am talking about. Instead, the victory to which religious progressives contributed so significantly was the dramatic showdown vote in the state legislature in 2006 that headed off a state-wide ballot question designed to undo Goodridge and thus write discrimination into the Massachusetts constitution. This success story should embolden and inspire progressive religious activists as a model for organizing on this issue over the long haul, as well as informing our thinking about a broader and more politically dynamic Religious Left.

Amidst the frenzy of the election and the meltdown on Wall Street it can be hard to capture people’s attention when a new book comes out.
Indeed. There are book launches every day in New York City — the publishing capital of the world.  But there are few that feature a 50 member gospel choir singing and clapping in celebration of a bold effort to launch a national discussion of what it would take to have a powerful religious movement for social justice in America.  But that is just what the dramatic launch event for  Dispatches from the Religious Left: The Future of Faith and Politics in America  to be held in an historic New York church will be like.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008
7:00pm – 10:00pm
Middle Collegiate Church
50 East 7th St.
New York, NY
212-477-0666
The historic Middle Collegiate Church, in the heart of NYC’s East Village dates back to 1628 — and today is as contemporary, dynamic, and progressive a congregation as there is in the country. The event will kick-off with the church’s famous gospel choir — followed by conversation with Dispatches contributors, including former New York Times war correspondent and best-selling author Chris Hedges; Rev. Debra Haffner, Director of the Religious Institute on Sexual Morality, Justice and Healing; Rev. Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou, Associate Minister for Missions, Social Justice and Community Action at Middle Collegiate Church — and book editor Frederick Clarkson.  The event will be moderated by the Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis, Senior Minister at Middle Collegiate Church.
(There will be a video of the event posted later on the church web site.)

Host Francesca Rheannon of Writer’s Voice discusses Dispatches from the Religious Left with contributor Leo Maley and me, focusing on models for political organizing — notably that of Progressive Democrats of Massachusetts and the Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry. This Friday at 4:30 PM, on WMUA-FM at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Robert at Ig Publishing tells me that the book arrived today — which means that both free standing and cyber bookstores will have it soon too, if they do not already.

I also did my first official book-related radio interview yestderday on Spiritually Speaking — an hour long discussion with Rev. Linda Anderson on WVKR, 91.3 FM in Poughkeepsie, NY.

The MP3 podcast and transcript can be found here.