Faith at Yearly Kos

This morning I'm leaving for Chicago to participate in part of the second annual Yearly Kos Convention. This event is an outgrowth of the large community of progressive political bloggers that have become a significant force in new American media. The term "netroots" has been coined to describe this Internet/grassroots movement, and while the popular Daily Kos blog is at the center of this event, it's just one large star in a whole constellation of voices working for political and social change.

While preparing for my trip this morning, I've come across a thread of bloggers discussing the role of faith in politics. While many activists simply want to stop the religious right, an increasing number are looking beyond conservative Christians to see that there are many progressive people of faith working on causes that they support.

For example, there is nearly a whole track of sessions about the religious right, but only one of these seems to acknowledge the religious left. Pastor Dan at the blog Street Prophets describes session he's leading at Yearly Kos:

I'll be speaking about the American "religious ecology" and introducing the panel. Barbara intends to talk about religion as a problem, from her own Buddhist perspective. Mik will discuss the difficulties religious and secular netroots activists have had in working together. Bill is going to look at the political situation and offer some suggestions for coalition building. Don will offer a "how-to" guide of the nuts and bolts of creating those coalitions. And of course, we'll leave plenty of time for questions and answers.
- Street Prophets: Faith or No, 7/31/07

Another blog to watch is that of my friend Zack Exley who is a talented political strategist and online activist. He has been chronicling the recent political shift in evangelical Christian communities in particular. Zack says:

There is a revolution going on inside American evangelical Christianity — a radical return to the spirit of the earliest Christian communities. Its fundamentals are love, community and multiculturalism. It’s true that those values in one form or another have guided every Christianity. But this new revolution preaches — and organizes — explicitly against consumerism, sexism, racism and even “imperialism” (their word choice, not mine!) in a way that feels more than a little leftwing. And yet, their appeal is mind bogglingly broad, already deeply involving millions of mainstream Americans in a way the left could never hope to.
- Revolutionary Evangelicals at ZackExley.com, 5/4/2006

I'm looking forward to learning more and engaging in this discussion at Year Kos!