THE THREAT OF THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT

'So Much Is at Stake'

Sept. 1 - When the Democrats met for their national convention in Boston in July, the Rev. James A. Forbes, Jr. was given a prime speaking slot the second night of the convention. He's not getting one from this week's gathering of Republicans--but that doesn't mean the senior minister at Manhattan's Riverside Church isn't working to get his message out. Forbes has helped to spearhead a new nationwide interfaith effort with other progressive religious leaders that is called Mobilization 2004. Its goal: to counter religious-right groups like the Christian Coalition. And to promote it, he invited Bill Clinton to speak at his pulpit on Sunday. On Tuesday night, he organized a rally at the church, attended by an estimated 3,000 New Yorkers "to call attention to the real moral, social and economic issues of this election." Forbes also plans to take his message on the road after the convention, traveling to several states over the next two months to speak to voters about the importance of developing public policy that addresses, as he puts it, "the needs of all Americans including poor, marginalized and immigrant populations." NEWSWEEK's Jennifer Barrett Ozols spoke with Forbes about the emergence of the progressive religious movement in politics and the role it could play in the presidential election.

(Click on the link above to read full interview)

Forget about objectivity, wouldn't you think that snappy journalistic writing alone would have resulted in a reference to "The Religious Left" amidst all of the refernces to "The Religious Right?" Instead we are provided with "the progressive religious movement." Interesting.

Forbes is an intelligent, articulate, and, I believe, a sincere man. I have no problem with his addressing political issues, but then I have no problem with clergy of the "conservative religious movement" doing so either.

Nor do I.

I truly wish we had been able to hear Falwell and Dobson from the pulpit, I mean, podium at the RNC.

Would have definitely been worth the price of admission.

Then again, that's not the voice the RNC wanted America to hear, is it.


Hmmmmm ........