Religion & Leadership
[ Excerpt from "Democrats Court Religious Leaders," By Melissa Evans, SB NEWS ROOM, June 01 2007 ]
Hoping to dispel the myth that Democrats aren’t religious -- and that the religious only care about abortion and gay marriage -- clergy and liberal politicians will come together for an unprecedented summit this weekend in Goleta.
The event, coordinated at the request of the California Democratic Party, is the result of more than a year of informal conversations and roundtable discussions with local clergy.
Democrats, in part, want to learn lessons from the 2004 presidential election -- in which the Religious Right successfully captured the language of the religious and lobbied conservative voters using polarizing social issues, said Karin Quimby, a Democratic activist who helped organize the summit...
Santa Barbara City Councilman Das Williams, an evangelical Christian, is also participating in a panel discussion on poverty. The other workshops will look at issues such as the environment, foreign policy, healthcare, immigration and “politics from the pulpit.”
The issues to be discussed were selected by clergy members through a poll conducted by Quimby over the last several months. She asked religious leaders to identify their top concerns...
“Our No. 1 goal is to create a space inside the Democratic party where religious leaders feel they have a place to speak out,” said Jonathon Saur, a Westmont College graduate who is helping organize Sunday’s event at the Goleta Valley Community Center.
“The Religious Right has been much more vocal when it comes to faith language, but it’s a myth that there’s no faithful Democrats out there,” Saur added.
As Democrats head into the 2008 Presidential Election, the religious moderates and progressives will be a crucial voice, Quimby said. She stressed that they don’t want to “use” religious leaders to create a front for social issues -- but rather incorporate their voices into the public dialogue...
The participants also include members of the Christian, Jewish, Buddhist and Native American communities. In a letter penned to media, a dozen religious leaders said they look forward to speaking on “critical moral issues facing our communities, our nation and our world.”
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For full text of this article, please go to:
SBNR: Religious Summit
Hoping to dispel the myth that Democrats aren’t religious -- and that the religious only care about abortion and gay marriage -- clergy and liberal politicians will come together for an unprecedented summit this weekend in Goleta.
The event, coordinated at the request of the California Democratic Party, is the result of more than a year of informal conversations and roundtable discussions with local clergy.
Democrats, in part, want to learn lessons from the 2004 presidential election -- in which the Religious Right successfully captured the language of the religious and lobbied conservative voters using polarizing social issues, said Karin Quimby, a Democratic activist who helped organize the summit...
Santa Barbara City Councilman Das Williams, an evangelical Christian, is also participating in a panel discussion on poverty. The other workshops will look at issues such as the environment, foreign policy, healthcare, immigration and “politics from the pulpit.”
The issues to be discussed were selected by clergy members through a poll conducted by Quimby over the last several months. She asked religious leaders to identify their top concerns...
“Our No. 1 goal is to create a space inside the Democratic party where religious leaders feel they have a place to speak out,” said Jonathon Saur, a Westmont College graduate who is helping organize Sunday’s event at the Goleta Valley Community Center.
“The Religious Right has been much more vocal when it comes to faith language, but it’s a myth that there’s no faithful Democrats out there,” Saur added.
As Democrats head into the 2008 Presidential Election, the religious moderates and progressives will be a crucial voice, Quimby said. She stressed that they don’t want to “use” religious leaders to create a front for social issues -- but rather incorporate their voices into the public dialogue...
The participants also include members of the Christian, Jewish, Buddhist and Native American communities. In a letter penned to media, a dozen religious leaders said they look forward to speaking on “critical moral issues facing our communities, our nation and our world.”
-------------------
For full text of this article, please go to:
SBNR: Religious Summit
Labels: leadership, religion
Posted by Malcolm on
6/04/2007
1 Comments
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