The Moral Minority: Blog and Book

Paul Harvey

In the midst of finishing the semester and moving, I wanted to sneak in a couple of quick posts here to alert you to some good stuff to check out. So, first, congratulations to David Swartz, who studied with George Marsden at Notre Dame and now teaches at Asbury University, on the new blog accompanying his forthcoming book of the same name Moral Minority: The Evangelical Left in an Age of Conservatism (University of Pennsylvania Press, forthcoming in September). This is a much-anticipated book that should get a lot of discussion. In one of his initial posts, David explains his plans for the blog, so click over there, bookmark it, put it on your blogrolls, etc.

Welcome! The immediate purpose of this site is to publicize my upcoming book, Moral Minority, which will be released in September by Penn Press. If you continue to visit (and I hope you do!), you’ll see updates as the publication date approaches, and I’ll let you know when and where the book is on sale.

I’ll also use this space to introduce characters–such as Sharon Gallagher, Samuel Escobar, Richard Mouw, Ron Sider, and Jim Wallis–who appear in the book. Many of them continue to work on behalf of peace, the environment, immigrants, women, and the poor. I’ll periodically make note of their activities, as well as those of a vibrant set of younger moderate and progressive evangelicals, such as Rachel Held Evans, Jonathan Merritt, Matthew Soerens, Shane Claiborne, and many others. And as the 2012 election nears, I’ll offer general commentary on the ever-intriguing role of faith in American culture and politics. But I’ll focus primarily on non-rightist sectors.

So stay tuned for links, book excerpts, photos, videos, and the like. Please feel free to interact by commenting and following the activity here via Facebook, email, and Twitter. You can link and follow and like in the panel on the right.