>SPEAKING TO POWER: A NOW with Bill Moyers Special Edition
>Friday, December 26 at 9PM on PBS
>(Check local listings at http://www.pbs.org/now/sched.html)
>
>=============================================================
>SPEAKING TO POWER - a NOW with Bill Moyers special edition
>
>* From one of America's most historic churches a resounding voice
>speaks to power. NOW profiles a unique Christian vision.
>
>Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, leaders of America's
>religious right have filled the airwaves with calls denouncing Islam
>as a religion, promoting a belligerent American foreign policy, and
>advocating closer ties between church and state. To much of the
>press and country, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and their
>fundamentalist brethren are the face of American Christianity and
>their drumbeat of Biblical literalism has become the most familiar
>refrain of the Christian gospel.
>
>But a different Christian voice is challenging the monolith of the
>religious right and speaking to America and its leaders in language
>reminiscent of the Hebrew prophets and on behalf of a vision of
>social justice that many Christians trace to the teachings of Jesus
>himself. That voice belongs to an African-American son of
>Pentecostal parents who grew up in the segregated south and rose to
>occupy one of the most preeminent pulpits in the country-the very
>church, as paradox would have it, started by John D. Rockefeller Jr.
>
>"Speaking to Power" traces Riverside's theological roots and its
>history and architecture, revealing a church dedicated to the
>revolutionary notion that science, learning, and faith can co-exist
>happily under the same vaulted roof with a religiously diverse
>congregation. Riverside's commitment to its ecumenical mission was
>challenged when it hired Forbes to be its senior minister. Some
>church members were uncomfortable with a man whose style mixed
>fervor and learning, and they feared he would turn Riverside into a
>southern black church, or a "holy roller" church.
>
>Under Forbes' leadership, worship continues unabated at Riverside.
>The services are packed and the 2400-member congregation carries on
>active lay ministries throughout the city and the world, from
>offering showers to the homeless every Monday morning to working for
>social justice in Central America. Operating from a tradition that
>has never fled from the conflicts of the time, Forbes' belief that
>religion does not stand above politics but should speak to politics
>offers a Christian view of public issues that is markedly different
>from the fundamentalist dogmatists often seen on television. And
>when they speak of religion as a polarizing force, Forbes sees a new
>theology of religion that strengthens, rather than divides,
>democracy.
>
>"The new reality is, that nobody in today's world can be truly
>mature in their religion without making space for respect for all of
>the other religious traditions," he tells Moyers. "There will be no
>wholesale dismissing of every group other than my own Christian
>tradition. This doesn't smell like the spirit of Christ."
>
>=============================================================
>NOW WITH BILL MOYERS continues online at PBS.org (www.pbs.org/now).
>Log on to the site for a history of the progressive religious
>movement in the United States; for a look at current religious
>efforts to influence American public policy from the Christian right
>as well as the Christian left; for a compendium of NOW's past
>coverage of faith issues; for a history of the separation between
>church and state; for an explanation of faith-based initiatives and
>the legislation behind them; for statistics on where Americans put
>their faith; for a brief profile of Forbes and of the Riverside
>church; and more.
>
>Preview this program at http://www.pbs.org/now/press/forbes_video_large.html
>
>=============================================================