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{"id":292,"date":"2014-11-27T21:59:00","date_gmt":"2014-11-27T21:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/11\/what-the-ferguson-protests-mean-for-religious-progressive-activism.html"},"modified":"2014-11-27T21:59:00","modified_gmt":"2014-11-27T21:59:00","slug":"what-the-ferguson-protests-mean-for-religious-progressive-activism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/11\/what-the-ferguson-protests-mean-for-religious-progressive-activism.html","title":{"rendered":"What the Ferguson Protests Mean for Religious Progressive Activism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Why are authorities responding to the protesters in Ferguson with tanks and tear gas, as if they are a threat to the American way of life?<\/span><\/p>\n

Well, perhaps because they are.<\/p>\n

I believe that the protests in Ferguson show the way forward for progressive religious activism\u2014a true challenge to a broken system.<\/p>\n

The civil rights movement of the 1960s drank deeply from religious wells. This energy was vital to the movement against racism because it was a claim to truth in the face of racism\u2013that fundamental lie that runs through American history. In the Jim Crow era the false claim that some people matter more than others was proclaimed from every drinking fountain, voting booth, and restaurant counter.<\/p>\n

Religious communities sustained the civil rights movement because they proclaimed a deeper truth that could not be undone by the lies of American culture. But the religious grounding of progressive social action has faltered since the 1960s.<\/p>\n

Read the rest here<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"