WASHINGTON (ABP) — A new left-leaning advocacy organization wants to carve out a niche for itself in an increasingly crowded field of groups trying to counter the Religious Right's rhetoric.
Leaders of the Christian Alliance for Progress held a formal launch event for the group, which is headquartered in Jacksonville, Fla., at a June 22 press conference in Washington. Aiming to “bring gospel values back into the political sphere in the United States,” co-founder Tim Simpson said the group had its origins four months ago, among a group of progressive Christians in the Jacksonville area. Simpson, a Presbyterian minister, is also the editor of the Journal of Political Theology.
Patrick Mrotek, a Jacksonville businessman and an Episcopalian, said the group is intended as an explicitly Christian response to the politics and policies of some of his more conservative brothers and sisters in Christ.
“We're here because the language spoken by the Religious Right is Christian,” he told reporters. “This requires a uniquely Christian response.”
Noting the alliance's mission “is to reclaim Christianity” from outspoken religious and political conservatives, Mrotek said that his group would also differ from already existing groups in other ways. Although organizations like the Interfaith Alliance and the Clergy and Laity Network also aim to provide a faith-based response to the theopolitical right, he said, his group would be a grass-roots movement.
“I am not a thought leader,” he said, pointing out that the alliance was started outside of Washington, in a conservative part of a Southern state.
Kathleen LeRoy, the organization's vice president for operations, said the alliance would work on establishing a “grass-roots field force” and would cooperate with other progressive groups in publicizing progressive religious ideas in communities across the country. The group would operate as “a collaboration between progressive 'think tanks' and feet on the streets,” she said.
LeRoy also said the three were the group's board members and that it had already hired a staff of seven and established an office in Jacksonville.
Mrotek, who grew up in Montgomery, Ala., during the civil-rights era, said the group would be non-partisan and follow Martin Luther King Jr.'s model for political involvement. “We speak to the government as conscience; we do not seek to be the master of government,” he said.
Nonetheless, Mrotek added, the group would not “shy away” from sensitive issues. The group's website, www.christianalliance.org, lists six general policy positions. They include advocating for “equality for gays and lesbians” in the civil sphere, “effective prevention vs. criminalizing abortion,” calling for “health care for all Americans,” and “pursuing economic justice.”