[12-23-03]

SPEAKING TO POWER: A NOW with Bill Moyers Special Edition Friday, December 26 at 9PM on PBS (Check local listings at http://www.pbs.org/now/sched.html)

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SPEAKING TO POWER - a NOW with Bill Moyers special edition

* From one of America's most historic churches a resounding voice speaks to power. NOW profiles a unique Christian vision.

Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, leaders of America's religious right have filled the airwaves with calls denouncing Islam as a religion, promoting a belligerent American foreign policy, and advocating closer ties between church and state. To much of the press and country, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and their fundamentalist brethren are the face of American Christianity and their drumbeat of Biblical literalism has become the most familiar refrain of the Christian gospel.

But a different Christian voice is challenging the monolith of the religious right and speaking to America and its leaders in language reminiscent of the Hebrew prophets and on behalf of a vision of social justice that many Christians trace to the teachings of Jesus himself. That voice belongs to an African-American son of Pentecostal parents who grew up in the segregated south and rose to occupy one of the most preeminent pulpits in the country-the very church, as paradox would have it, started by John D. Rockefeller Jr.

"Speaking to Power" traces Riverside's theological roots and its history and architecture, revealing a church dedicated to the revolutionary notion that science, learning, and faith can co-exist happily under the same vaulted roof with a religiously diverse congregation. Riverside's commitment to its ecumenical mission was challenged when it hired Forbes to be its senior minister. Some church members were uncomfortable with a man whose style mixed fervor and learning, and they feared he would turn Riverside into a southern black church, or a "holy roller" church.

Under Forbes' leadership, worship continues unabated at Riverside. The services are packed and the 2400-member congregation carries on active lay ministries throughout the city and the world, from offering showers to the homeless every Monday morning to working for social justice in Central America. Operating from a tradition that has never fled from the conflicts of the time, Forbes' belief that religion does not stand above politics but should speak to politics offers a Christian view of public issues that is markedly different from the fundamentalist dogmatists often seen on television. And when they speak of religion as a polarizing force, Forbes sees a new theology of religion that strengthens, rather than divides, democracy.

"The new reality is, that nobody in today's world can be truly mature in their religion without making space for respect for all of the other religious traditions," he tells Moyers. "There will be no wholesale dismissing of every group other than my own Christian tradition. This doesn't smell like the spirit of Christ."

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NOW WITH BILL MOYERS continues online at PBS.org (www.pbs.org/now). Log on to the site for a history of the progressive religious movement in the United States; for a look at current religious efforts to influence American public policy from the Christian right as well as the Christian left; for a compendium of NOW's past coverage of faith issues; for a history of the separation between church and state; for an explanation of faith-based initiatives and the legislation behind them; for statistics on where Americans put their faith; for a brief profile of Forbes and of the Riverside church; and more.

Preview this program at http://www.pbs.org/now/press/forbes_video_large.html