Liberal clergy want to challenge the religious right's power in politics

Anthea Butler

It was too much to resist: the media lure of prominent clergy members like the Revs Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson visiting Ferguson, Missouri, a moment about to become a movement. But real change to the conditions they went there to highlight and decry – real movement – can only come from local organizers, like the St Louis Clergy Coalition. That coalition has been instrumental, though less talked about on the news, by walking the streets of Ferguson two weeks of protests, by organizing prayer services for its people.

And, like their parishioners, some have even been shot at and teargassed by the police for the peaceful expression of their civil rights. This is a religious organizing moment reminiscent of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. This is a representative moment of the religious left reminiscent of little we have ever seen before.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/24/liberal-clergy-religious-right-power-politics-ferguson