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PRAISE FOR AMERICAN PROPHETS
"Storytelling, as [Jenkins] notes, is one of the Religious Left’s favorite tools. Stories give us frameworks of understanding and ballast for difficult times, which might be what makes this book especially useful right now. If people of faith are rising up against injustice, this collection of stories [in American Prophets] might help sustain us through the perils ahead." — Commonweal
"In his fascinating new book, Religion News Service reporter Jack Jenkins documents an impressive array of political organizing and activism from the American religious left since the Obama years. American Prophets will be the authoritative account of this eruption of activity and moral energy." — David Gushee, past president of the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Christian Ethics, writing for the Christian Century
"Jack Jenkins, author of the recent book American Prophets ... consistently emphasizes that the religious left shouldn’t be understood as a mirror image of the religious right. While the latter certainly has had to work to forge alliances between conservative Catholics and conservative Protestants, it remains mostly Christian and mostly concerned with a distinct set of social issues. But the religious left, as Jenkins puts it, is a 'coalition of coalitions'—both more diverse and more diffuse than the religious right.
"Jenkins’s exhaustive reporting in American Prophets bears out his claim that the religious left is 'amorphous' and 'ever-changing' ..." — The New Republic
"Jenkins’s exhaustive reporting in American Prophets bears out his claim that the religious left is 'amorphous' and 'ever-changing' ..." — The New Republic
"'American Prophets' is actually a kind of contemporary “Lives of the Saints”—a series of profiles of admirable leftist activists whose politics are motivated by their faith. ... [Jenkins] is a fine reporter, setting scenes and sweeping his readers across large swaths of geographic, racial, socioeconomic, and religious differences to capture recent political history." — The New Yorker
"In this thoroughly reported and illuminating debut, Religion News Service journalist Jenkins examines issues important to the religious left today. ... This revelatory history about the intersection of progressive politics and religion in America will appeal to political junkies." — Publishers Weekly
"These undeniable political facts [about the Religious Right] have fueled an oversimplified and monolithic assumption about the influence of religion in contemporary politics: that it has operated on only one side of the argument, on behalf of wealth and power. American Prophets is a necessary and highly readable corrective to that assumption ... Probably no one is more qualified than Jenkins to write this book." — The Progressive
"A well-researched and timely work of journalism." — KIRKUS Reviews
"Jenkins demonstrates clearly that the 'religious left' has been central [to modern progressivism] … Jenkins proves an able and engaging guide ... [American Prophets] is in many ways a primer for the 2020 presidential campaign and election." — National Catholic Reporter
"Each chapter is a whole new story, a movement, preacher, or history lesson. I found myself deeply intrigued, and proud of the work the church has done and continues to do, especially now under Trump’s ultra-conservative pro-evangelical administration. I highly recommend picking up a copy and reading it for yourself or your book club." — People's World
"For those who find the Religious Right suffocating, [American Prophets] will be balm to the soul." — Spectrum
"In the publication of books on the religious right, there is no end. White evangelicals have been the most consistent supporters of Donald Trump and the Republican Party, and a cottage industry of authors has emerged to explain their thinking. Journalist Jack Jenkins’s American Prophets: The Religious Roots of Progressive Politics and the Ongoing Fight for the Soul of the Country is one of the rare books that explains the other pole of religion and politics: the progressive faith communities that have made up the religious left and opposed Republican policies. ... [It is] an important work of journalism that documents a crucial movement in U.S. religious life that receives far too little public attention." — Friends Journal (Quakers)
"American Prophets offers a fresh viewpoint that would not likely be noticed without the careful attention and study Jenkins put into his research, and it offers hope to those who may be experiencing dismay at the current political scene in this country." — New York Journal of Books
"Jenkins is an outstanding journalist. His coverage of politics for the Religion News Service is the gold standard among religion reporters. Those skills are evident in the 12 mostly disconnected stories he tells here about religious activists advocating for progressive causes, from Obamacare to the Green New Deal." — Christianity Today
"Jenkins’ prose is as elegant as it is efficient ... Jenkins’ in-depth reporting in American Prophets helps us both identify and appreciate the rich spiritual tapestry that is American religious liberalism in American public life." — L. Benjamin Rolsky, author of The Rise and Fall of the Religious Left: Politics, Television, and Popular Culture in the 1970s and Beyond
"Jenkins is my go-to source when I want a snapshot of what’s happening in the American religious landscape, and American Prophets is a perfect example why. At a time in which it feels like the so-called Religious Right in this country has utterly abandoned all claims to moral superiority in exchange for political expedience, Jenkins demonstrates how a vibrant and undeterred Religious Left has filled the moral vacuum with an unapologetically progressive agenda promoting peace, pluralism, and human dignity for all." — Reza Aslan, author of Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth
"A master storyteller, Jack Jenkins jumps straight into the phenomenon of the Religious Left. Before long you meet many of its major figures and more: you get a feel for what it’s like to be part of this movement that is unfolding right now, at this pivotal moment.” — Brian McLaren, author of The Great Spiritual Migration and A New Kind of Christianity
* * *
Since the ascendancy of the Religious Right in the 1970s, common wisdom holds that it is a coalition of fundamentalist powerbrokers who are the “moral majority,” setting the standard for conservative Christian values and working to preserve the status quo.
But, as national religion reporter Jack Jenkins contends, the country is also driven by a vibrant, long-standing moral force from the left. Constituting an amorphous group of interfaith activists that goes by many names and takes many forms, this coalition has operated since America’s founding — praying, protesting, and marching for common goals that have moved society forward. Throughout our history, the Religious Left has embodied and championed the progressive values at the heart of American democracy—abolition, labor reform, civil rights, environmental preservation.
Drawing on his years of reporting, Jenkins examines the re-emergence of progressive faith-based activism, detailing its origins and contrasting its goals with those of the Religious Right. Today’s rapidly expanding interfaith coalition — which includes Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and other faiths — has become a force within the larger “resistance” movement. Jenkins profiles Washington political insiders—including former White House staffers and faith outreach directors for the campaigns of Barack Obama, John Kerry, and Hillary Clinton—as well as a new generation of progressive faith leaders at the forefront today, including:
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But, as national religion reporter Jack Jenkins contends, the country is also driven by a vibrant, long-standing moral force from the left. Constituting an amorphous group of interfaith activists that goes by many names and takes many forms, this coalition has operated since America’s founding — praying, protesting, and marching for common goals that have moved society forward. Throughout our history, the Religious Left has embodied and championed the progressive values at the heart of American democracy—abolition, labor reform, civil rights, environmental preservation.
Drawing on his years of reporting, Jenkins examines the re-emergence of progressive faith-based activism, detailing its origins and contrasting its goals with those of the Religious Right. Today’s rapidly expanding interfaith coalition — which includes Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and other faiths — has become a force within the larger “resistance” movement. Jenkins profiles Washington political insiders—including former White House staffers and faith outreach directors for the campaigns of Barack Obama, John Kerry, and Hillary Clinton—as well as a new generation of progressive faith leaders at the forefront today, including:
- Rev. William Barber II, leader of North Carolina’s Moral Mondays and co-chair of the nationwide Poor People’s campaign
- Linda Sarsour, original co-chair of the Women’s March
- Rev. Traci Blackmon, a pastor near Ferguson, Missouri who works to lift up black liberation efforts across the country
- Sister Simone Campbell, head of the Catholic social justice lobby and the “Nuns on the Bus” tour organizer
- Native American “water protectors” who demonstrated against the Dakota Access Pipeline in Standing Rock
- Bishop Gene Robinson, the first openly gay Episcopal bishop
- Rabbi Sharon Brous, founding rabbi of IKAR
- Leaders of the New Sanctuary Movement, including immigrants currently taking sanctuary in churches
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Errata: Despite dutiful fact checking, a couple things managed to slip past me that will be amended in future editions.
1. On page 43, Alexia Kelley is listed as affiliated with Common Good Strategies. That's incorrect: she founded Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, a different organization.
2. On page 167, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is listed as a graduate of Boston College. Both Terriers fans and Eagles fans have since informed me of this typo, noting that she in fact graduated from Boston University.
1. On page 43, Alexia Kelley is listed as affiliated with Common Good Strategies. That's incorrect: she founded Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, a different organization.
2. On page 167, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is listed as a graduate of Boston College. Both Terriers fans and Eagles fans have since informed me of this typo, noting that she in fact graduated from Boston University.