[Sosfbay-discuss] Spiritual Progressives

[alexcathy at aol.com]

Dear Eric,

My coincidence, the topic this morning at my church, Sunnyhills United 
Methodist Church in Milpitas, was the question of "Progressive 
Christianity."  Our guest speaker was Rev. Glenn Fuller.  He's retired 
now, but he was the minister at Sunnyhills back in the early Sixties.  
Fuller is a very distinguished clergyman who worked for many, many 
years in Asia.  He was one of those visionaries from "The Greatest 
Generation" during the civil rights era of the Sixties.

Having grown up in the Black church in the South in those years (what 
Taylor Branch calls "the King years") I have never had a problem 
squaring my faith with progressive, Green, and even "Lefty" values.  
Without getting carried away, this might be yet another way to 
differentiate ourselves from Democrats and Republicans who just want to 
play cynical games about "values" they pretend to admire, but in fact, 
despise.

By the way, Michael Lerner is going to be in Santa Cruz in a couple of 
weeks.


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MICHAEL LERNER IN SANTA CRUZ, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 16TH

Rabbi Michael Lerner, who the Washington Post once called "the guru of 
the Clinton White House", will speak Thursday, February 16, at the 
Veteran's Hall in Santa Cruz at 8 PM, introducing ideas from his new 
book The Left Hand of God: Taking Back our Country from the Religious 
Right. Tickets are $5-$20 donation, sliding scale, with no one turned 
away for lack of funds. Purchase tickets in advance from the Resource 
Center for Nonviolence (RCNV), 423-1626. Receive a free ticket when you 
purchase the book from RCNV or Bookshop Santa Cruz. Tickets and books 
will also be available at the door.

.  .  .

His visit will also inaugurate the newly-formed Santa Cruz County 
chapter of the Network of Spiritual Progressives, the national 
interfaith movement co-chaired by Lerner with Princeton 
author/professor Cornel West and Benedictine Sister Joan Chittister. 
The NSP works to unite Jews, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, 
and spiritual activists of broadly diverse practices/faiths, in social 
and political action that expresses the core values of justice, peace, 
nonviolence and environmental health found in all religions. His Santa 
Cruz visit is cosponsored by the Resource Center for Nonviolence, now 
in its 30th year working for these same values and commitments, and 
Inner Light Ministries.

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Alex Walker


P.S.: Many registered Greens in Santa Cruz.  Tian could probably pick 
up some petiton signatures.