Today is the second installment of a weekly series that explores the connections between religion and progressive politics and offers a warm bowl of soup, too.
Leaders from various religious organizations will speak throughout the quarter on the topic Proclaiming a Progressive Faith as part of United Campus Ministries' Soup For the Soul discussion series.
The Soup for the Soul program began eight years ago and is sponsored by the United Campus Ministry Center for Spiritual Growth and Social Justice, 18 N. College St. The series was originally a forum for professors to talk to students about their personal religious experiences, said Melissa Wales, the interim program director for UCM.
The idea was to bring primarily faculty to come and speak with students about issues of faith that they might not be able to speak about in the classroom
Wales said.
Since then, the program has expanded into a six-week quarterly series that centers around a different theme each quarter. Now the speakers range from professors to students. OU senior Sarah Michelson, UCM's spiritual growth intern, said that last quarter's racism theme was popular among students, especially because OU President Roderick McDavis was one of the speakers.
This quarter's topic, Proclaiming a Progressive Faith includes speakers from such diverse organizations as Hillel Foundation of OU, the Muslim Students Association and the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Athens, among others.
We don't restrict anyone as far as what we want their topic to be Michelson said. We give them the theme and a couple of questions
and they can kind of elaborate on that.
The program's topic, said Wales, is addressing the challenges and struggles of people of faith who grapple with their religious institutions and progressive politics.
Michelson said gaining an understanding of the Progressive faith is one of the program's goals.
The definition isn't that clear
but progressive to me means being inclusive and open-minded
working for civil rights and social justice in some way and using the religion to bring about those qualities
Michelson said.
Athens resident Janet Kelsey Werner has been attending Soup for the Soul discussions since she moved to Athens nearly a decade ago and said she is still hooked on the program.
I think I went to probably one of their very first ones
she said. I liked the series and I liked the presenters and I like every time that it's presented. Each quarter is enough different that I keep going to the next one.
