Listening to the Spirit

Broad-based community organizing (BBCO) is perhaps the most widely used form of political participation supported by American religious institutions today. As organizing groups become more religiously diverse, however, so do the conceptions of sacred value that ground organizing in the first place. In today's political climate what we hold most dear, those sacred values such as human life, a land, or a natural resource may seem to only further entrench us in our enclaves and threaten the solidarity of any constituency. This book tells a different story. People organize to protect and fight for what they hold most dear. Using auto-ethnography from over a decade of interfaith BBCO experiences, Listening to the Spirit makes a case for the political role of sacred values in BBCO, especially as they show up in two organizing practices: the