Progressive Faith Con Blog

I spent most of yesterday driving down from upstate New York, so I forgot to post the Carnival. Better late than never, so here we go:

We start out looking at the nature of reality. Then we taste a bit of Georgia reality. We wonder what will happen when reality becomes unreal.

Next door, we peek in to see the rhetoric of war, and some rhetoric on faith and reason. It is easy to find the rhetoric of division, much harder to remain open to reconciliation. This is especially true when challenging power structures filled with injustice.

The Feminarian sends us ahead with a look at a heretical statement - at least for some. But we are reminded that it is our actions towards our enemies that screams of injustice. We are reminded that it is through the eyes of others that we often see ourselves most clearly.

On down the road, we are asked for an accounting of our desires for life. Bill O’Reilly is asked for some self-examination - no word from Mr. O’Reilly yet. But we do hear from Ben Stein - and he isn’t happy. American generals cut-and-run. Running towards peace, however, is nothing in which to find shame.

Further still, we find a restless faith. New Baptist leaders wrestle with this idea. Such changes take time to be felt. Isolation only makes efforts more necessary.

Our next stop speaks of forgotten summer reading and a reminder of the gift of self. Also, that sometimes what we want is not what we want. The order of things is hard to change - even when it cries out for change.

We move along to find a dead-end created by our hard-heartedness. Yet the good news remains that if the problem is our heart, then our heart is also the answer. Such is our ability to reach each other - even when we come from different backgrounds.

Then we are moving back out the gates, wondering where we will find ourselves the next time we gather.

I just made a fairly lengthy post over at my own blog about the process of planning the Friday evening erev Shabbat service for the blog con (which is coming up pretty soon — just three weeks away!)

Among other things, I wrote:

Ideally the service ought to be inclusive enough to make outsiders comfortable, traditional enough to make insiders comfortable, ordinary enough to make regular shul-goers happy, unusual enough to keep people interested, enough of a teaching tool to give people some understanding of Jewish worship and liturgy, and enough of a "real service" to let the Jews (and others) in attendance feel they’ve fulfilled the obligation to pray.

Read the whole thing here, and please chime in if you have thoughts on this!

Good news, all: I’m delighted to announce that we’re able to offer some modest scholarship money to folks who want to attend the Progressive Faith Blog Con but aren’t able to afford it comfortably.

Please use your own discretion in deciding whether or not to apply for scholarship funding. Our funds are limited and we’re creating the con on the proverbial shoestring budget, so if you’re able to pay your own way, please do. (You might even consider adding a small donation to help subsidize others!)

By the same token, if finances won’t permit you to join us, please don’t hesitate to put in a request for funds. We’d hate to miss the pleasure of your company just because money is tight. Funding will be disbursed on a first-come, first-served basis, and priority will be given to bloggers whose travel expenses are high and who will benefit greatly from the conference experience. (Yeah, we know, that’s everyone. Use your own discretion, right?)

The scholarship application is available here.

Thanks to everyone who’s registered thus far! It’s really exciting seeing registrations start to roll in.

Almost everyone who’s registered thus far has offered to help with a panel or two, which is awesome. We’re working on the panel distribution — making sure that every panel has at least a few panelists; seeking balance among and between bloggers from different faith-traditions, and so on — and we intend to have a definitive list of who’s on what panel by June 30th.

So if you offered to lead a panel, thank you; we’ll be in touch by the end of the month to let you know where we think you’d be the best fit.

Thanks, too, to all of y’all who’ve mentioned the con on your own blogs. Please keep doing that; we have zero advertising budget, so we’re depending on word-of-blog to get the word out.

Meanwhile, check out the growing attendee list — and if you haven’t registered yet, please do!

Technorati tags: religion, politics, progfaithblogcon.

We’ve had a bit of growing pains here lately. Updating the blog meant that we lost the archives for the old carnivals, but I think that they have probably served their place and we’re moving full speed ahead.

I start off by looking at a tale of racial bias. Woodmoor Village looks at another kind of bias. Fortunately, Velveteen Rabbi finds no room for bear bias - as long as they stay outside.

Pearlbear fights bias by looking for similarities. Elsewhere, the lack of diversity cripples progress.

Baraka speaks about finding new leaders. Our next stop finds us meditating on meditation. Then we move on to pondering the effects of discontent. Maybe we’ll consider if "relativism" is relative.

It’s a paradox that freedom must be codified. Such struggles are not new to our generation, though. As surely as night follows day, battles we thought we’d won are re-opened. An ongoing battle for any organization is communication.

It’s enough to cause tears, especially when progress is stymied and obfuscated. But faith refuses to give up.

Changes are afoot among Southern Baptists. Apparently, the WH press corps is changing, too - but not necessarily for the better. But when a follower of Christ can’t be a Christian, what do you expect?

Of course, we also have to remember today is Father’s Day. Happy wishes for all the blogging dads and, of course, those who don’t.

Drumroll, please: the Progressive Faith Blog Con has a new website!

The site includes a FAQ page, which answers questions like "where is the con again?" (Montclair, NJ) and "where should we stay?" (we have an official con hotel) and "how about bloggers who are shomer Shabbat and can’t drive on Saturdays?" (we’ve arranged for some rooms on-campus for those who need them, and are also looking into homestays with local community members).

Maybe even more exciting, we now have a registration page! When you register, you can choose which aspects of PFBC programming you want to help out with; we’re actively seeking volunteers to help us shape the con, so if you’re interested, let us know. Advance registration costs $25 (which will go up to $45 the weekend of the con — incentive to register early.) The registration fee will cover most of the conference meals, along with conference packets and printed materials. If this poses a genuine hardship, let us know; we need that income to make the con run smoothly, but we don’t want to bar anyone from attendance.

Anyway, registration is now open! We’re maintaining a list of bloggers we know are coming, which we’ll update pretty regularly so y’all can see who you’ll have the pleasure of hanging out with.

The con website describes what we think the weekend will entail:

During the first annual Progressive Faith Blog Con we’ll talk about the intersection of religion and politics; the roots and branches of our faith traditions; ecumenical and interfaith blogging engagement; and the challenges and blesssings of pluralism. We’ll have breakout sessions around faith-tradition, and around meditation, liturgy, and scripture. We’ll talk about justice and poverty, about progressive faith activism, and about the religious right…

The conference will be led by and for our community, and it will be shaped by each of us who attends. Join us!

Technorati tags: religion, politics, progfaithblogcon.

We’re working on a FAQ ("frequently asked questions") page for the Progressive Faith Blog Con. The FAQ will answer questions like "what is this thing again?" and "where do we stay?" and "how about bloggers who are shomer Shabbos?" and so on.

That FAQ is here. Feel free to check it out and weigh in with suggestions and questions, if you’ve got ‘em.

Behind the scenes, we’re making a few final adjustments, and we plan to open up registration very, very soon. Stay tuned; we’ll keep you posted!