Rise Of The Religious Left

Still the only recorded instance of Anwen smiling!

I am looking for feedback, comments, suggestions about the letter below. It will be incomplete because I have to go to work, but I will gratefully accept suggestions on this first half and look forward to more input on the second half later!

Dear Lilith,

I'm writing in response to your request for a formal proposal describing what I had in mind when I spoke with you about a blog for the progressive, Religious Left (RL for short). At this stage it is nothing more than an idea; but I feel it is an idea long overdue.

What made me aware of this need was the Religious Right's (or lunatics, for short) recent so-called "Justice Sundays" which they used as a political platform to declare war on our nation's Constitutional separation of powers and to issue threats to federal judges who did not adhere to their ideas. As I watched this carefully orchestrated religion draped farce progress I waited for the response from the RL or even Religious moderates. There wasn't one that I was aware of. I became curious and did some searching and really, there are only two places I found that have a progressive political agenda and a religious bent on the the web: Sojourners, a wonderful evangelical Christian magazine and a forum for progressive Christians called the Religious Left. Both of these sites lack the input of other faiths and neither site really seems to have the ability to help generate a coherent, unified voice for the religious left.

Our adversaries, and indeed with the way they use eliminationist rhetoric in describing progressives they are truly satanic in the etymological meaning of the word, are organized, coherent, well-funded and vocal. The manner in which they have managed to have Intelligent Design snuck into the classrooms and their efficient use of anti-gay ballot measures to turn out the vote illustrates how potent they are. It goes without saying that people like you and I are in grave danger should they truly ascend to supremacy over our nation.

My proposal was to create an interfaith political disscussion site with a central focus on developing the political message of the religious left as a coherent whole. This would differ greatly from other interfaith organizations currently out there in that the focus is not primarily on learning about similarities in each other's faiths, but rather on developing a consistent, coherent, religious message for the public about where religious progressives stand on the issues.

That's it for now... any and all suggestions appreciated. Yes, even from you, Beth!