By Ben Fleisher

Maddie and I have been engaged in progressive religious work for over a decade (to some of our parents’ great dismay). Over the years, we have met countless people of different religions and creeds who pursue progressive goals with and within their communities. And yet, there is a prevailing narrative that all religious people support conservative policies, and that all progressives are secular. This myth allows one ideology to hold a harmful monopoly over our national discourse on morals and values. 

The fact is, there are religious progressives across the United States doing incredible work. These groups often work in isolation from each other however. So we created this platform as a first step towards fostering a diverse community of religious progressives empowered to create change.

We had a few goals in creating this blog. We wanted to learn more about how different religious traditions attempt to create a more just world (and to have an excuse to talk to cool people). We also wanted to share what we learned with others so that different communities could learn from each other and explore areas of agreement and difference. In doing this, we hope to help activists learn from and connect with each other, and to conspire together to create a world in which progressive values and policies are realized. 

There are three main things you’ll find on our blog. First, we’ll have interviews with academics, activists, and other leaders in this work. We’ll try to discuss everything from what their religion means to them to what their office filing system is like so that others can learn about both different traditions and best practices in the field. Next, we’ll pull together news clippings and job postings about religion and politics from around the web. This is something we would be doing anyway (#nerds), so you might as well benefit from it. And finally, we will publish essays about specific topics. With these three things, we hope to empower other religious progressives to more effectively pursue a more just world, together.