Anniversary Lost; Anniversary Regained

When we suddenly notice highway signs out of the corner of our eye, having been so focused on what is right in front of us, we have to turn our heads quickly to see what it says.  

In a similar way it is easy to lose the markers of time in the blur of it all.  

That must be how I almost didn’t notice that we are coming up on the Third Anniversary at Talk to Action -- even though it was an event that changed my life and that of most, if not all of those who have participated in this innovative project.

After some initial conversations between Bruce Wilson and I that led to the basic idea, we called around and invited some friends and colleagues to help us get it started.  We took the opportunity to announce the then-still-forthcoming Talk to Action group blog at a conference on the Religious Right sponsored by the Open Center and the Graduate Program of the City of New York, April 29-30th, 2005. Soon thereafter, several of us launched a temporary blog:  Bruce Wilson, Chip Berlet, Pastordan, Jonathan Hutson, and Bruce Prescott.  

It took us until November ‘05 to get the current Scoop-based site up and running -- and running is what we have mostly been doing ever since. We added more front page contributors; some of whom are now emeriti, (and we miss them!) But we found new writers to join and widen the conversation and to help us keep the site fresh. We have also had many distinguished guest front pagers -- and you can expect more to come. Talk to Action has certainly evolved over three years, as has our subject -- the death of which is so often and so greatly exaggerated that we could probably spend all of our time dissecting the obituaries and not run out of things to say.  

Some of us came out the blogosphere, others were journalists, academics, think tankers, activists-- and sometimes more than one of those categories. There are too many people, too many important posts and too much remarkable impact on the blogosphere, and on the national conversation about these things to get into here. (Another time.)

Meanwhile, there are other measures worth noting:  the site meter records about 1.6 million visitors and almost 3.2 million page views since then. I don’t know the exact number, but we have also had several thousand posts. Traffic has had its spikes and valleys, but these days hovers around 2,000 visitors a day. Not bad for an all volunteer blog.

We had little idea what would happen when we took on this ambitious endeavor. No one had done anything like it before.  And although there are many fine blogs and organizations out there, none have our particular focus of reporting and analysis on the religious right in its many manifestations, and an open ended conversation about what to do about it. We have made a point of not being proprietary either. You can visit some blogs or web sites and never know that there are any other organizations, blogs, and valuable resources beyond. That is one reason why people who want a broader view of what is going on and the many useful perspectives on it, come to Talk to Action to find out about them.

As I look back to the beginning, one important element of our effort was that we took the view that the culture of name calling and demonization of the religious right and it leaders and followers was silly, confusing and counter productive. We were and remain determined to ratchet down the shrillness, and try to use terms that make conversation, possible. We don’t use meaningless epithets like "American Taliban", or PR-shopped labels like "religious political extremists."  The use of these terms and their predecessors had obviously backfired for a generation while the religious right was on the rise. (At least it was obvious to us.) The people who used them often came across as bigots. Sometimes they were, in fact, bigots.  

Coherent political or intellectual conversation among people who most needed to be able to discuss it was difficult and often impossible for years due to ignorance of the Religious Right and its constituent parts and ideologies, and no commonly understood terms with which to describe it; and hobbled by terms of demonization as a substitute for actual knowledge and real terms. (How can one contend with a movement that you don’t understand and only have spiteful, definition less terms with which to describe it? )  

We decided that it was not only necessary but possible to challenge this aspect of the prevailing culture in liberal politics, as well as the blogosphere and the media. Talk to Action would be not an oasis, but a stronghold of well-informed and thoughtful, but clear and forceful writing and political thinking about the Religious Right and what to do about it.

Meanwhile, pollsters found that a lot of people viewed Democrats as hostile to people of faith; and that this was a very wet stinking blanket on the party’s image and electoral prospects. Some leading Democrats and liberals said they were surprised  (Doh!) and have been out on a hell of a pander ever since.

Some significant progress has been made, thanks to some excellent books, and others that are in the works. There is a noticeable shift in the culture to valuing knowledge about the religious right instead of merely dismissing it. That’s is one of the many reasons why this site was needed, and still is.  

We mark three years together on May 6th. We had no idea how long it would last or where it would take us. But here we are. There is much that is a blur as we zoon along, but we have sustained a clear vision, and we are going forward.

Full speed ahead!