On March 10, leaders of the Sanctuary Movement hosted a lecture by Pastor Walter Coleman of Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago, which since September has been providing sanctuary to a Elvira Arellano, an undocumented immigrant and mother of a U.S.-born son, as well as a lay leader of the church. The March 10 event was held at St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Detroit where Pastor Coleman was joined by clergypersons from four different metropolitan Detroit congregations. Meneses explains that the Sanctuary Movement is intentionally partnering with clergy to push for immigration reform. After all, Meneses says, "Many of the Latino immigrants are persons of faith from different denominations."

On March 19, as over 100 peace activists carried white crosses and marched on the Federal Courthouse in downtown Detroit to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq war. They prayed at the courthouse in silence, having begun their march down the street at the Fort Street Presbyterian Church. The reading of the names of dead American soldiers and dead Iraqi civilians took on the quality of religious ritual, a litany, a call on a higher power to stop an unjust war.

Detroit-based peace activist Bill Hickey was among the marchers at the Courthouse. Hickey frames his activism as an expression of his Christian beliefs. He says, "I?speak out for peace and oppose the US invasion and occupation of Iraq because I believe in a Jesus who proclaimed that we?are all children of the same God and so are brothers and sisters.?How can we kill our Iraqi brothers and sisters?"

Hickey continues, "I believe in a Jesus who said, 'Love your enemies' and 'Do good to those who hate you.' I?believe in a Jesus whose suffering and death is the definitive 'No' to the notion that violence?of any kind—let alone the illegal and unjustified violence our military has unleashed on Iraq—can ever redeem us or save us. To the contrary, our?trust?in?'precision' bombs, depleted uranium, torture, helicopter gun ships and secret prisons, does not save us. It condemns us."

The struggle for economic and environmental justice is a catalyst for persons of faith to involve themselves in radical causes. Dr. Charles Adams, senior pastor of Hartford Memorial Baptist Church in Detroit, states, "If you read the bible right, you will see a concern for the poor." Adams leads a congregation with a long history of radical organizing. Hartford was a center of the labor movement for much of the last century and Adams fondly speaks of the era when Hartford gained notoriety for inviting radical Paul Robeson to speak.

Unfortunately, radical and progressive activists have not always welcomed persons of faith into their communities. Whether it has been the institutional racism, misogyny or homophobia that have sometimes characterized organized religion, or a general distrust religious people, the left has sometimes viewed faith-based political action with skepticism. That attitude may be changing. Here in southeastern Michigan, social justice causes ranging from environmentalism to the peace movement have begun to reach out to persons of faith to join them in fighting for justice. Likewise, area faith-based groups have begun to incorporate progressive causes into their agendas.

"Evangelical environmentalism is a stunning development that all people of faith ought to nurture and support, especially since environmentalism has the potential to be ecumenical and trans-national and politically bi-partisan to boot," says Angela Dillard, associate professor of Afroamerican and African Studies at the University of Michigan. Dillard, author of Faith in the City: Preaching Radical Social Change in Detroit, points to the unlikely relationship between environmentalism and evangelical Christianity as a model of cooperation between disparate forces to accomplish positive social change in metro Detroit.

"Both nationally and locally, the answer [to questions of best to harness the power of faith-based activism] seems to be environmentalism, environmental sustainability and justice, and, of course in Detroit, environmental racism," Dillard says, adding that the inter-mingling of faith and progressive politics is "gaining a new momentum and I think, I hope, destined to grow and evolve in the near future."

Dillard's optimism springs in part from the Greening of Detroit as well as initiatives to promote sustainability through urban gardening—programs that she says have benefited from a significant spiritual component. These local movements parallel developments at the national level such as the formation of the Evangelical Environmental Network (EEN), which calls on its members to heed the "biblical call to reduce pollution and environmental degradation."

EEN is part of a coalition of faith-based—primarily Christian evangelical—groups that last year called on the federal government to demand that corporate America reduce carbon emissions and the reliance on fossil fuels. That coalition, dubbed the Evangelical Climate Initiative, gained mainstream media attention thanks in large part to the involvement of best-selling author and outspoken evangelical Rick Warren. Dillard noted, "It takes a Pastor Warren to be able to call for the Bush administration to take the problems of global warming, global poverty, and global sustainability seriously."

For the last two decades, the presence of organized religion in American electoral politics has centered on so-called "family values" issues, as conservative Christians have opposed abortion and gay rights in their social agenda. But in the last three years, a more inclusive and multi-faceted morals platform has begun to coalesce.

Another example of a growing faith-based initiative fighting for a progressive social cause is the burgeoning Sanctuary Movement, an interfaith group taking common cause denouncing the practices of the Department of Homeland Security and specifically its Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The Sanctuary Movement claims that ICE is engaged in racial profiling as well as raids and deportations that are separating families and ignoring basic human rights. Sanctuary has found support among a wide array of religious communities in Metro Detroit including the Nation of Islam and the Shrine of the Black Madonna as well as congregations of Catholics and Episcopalians.

These faith-based activists fighting for immigration reform partnered with Latinos Unidos/United de Michigan (LUUM) in calling for a National Boycott on May 1. LUUM and its partners from the clergy organized a temporary economic boycott. "We asked progressives to not go to work, not to buy anything or sell anything for one day," says Ignacio Meneses, a co-coordinator at LUUM.

Theology, Adams says, provides social movements a "holistic view of the world" and serves as an impetus for practical action. Speaking at the University of Michigan Dearborn last month, Adams suggested that "The exaggeration of our differences" prevents such action, which is why he prefers to emphasize "shared beliefs like justice for the poor."

Like Adams, recently retired Roman Catholic Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Gumbleton is an icon in the Detroit metro area because of his unwavering support for progressive political causes. Gumbleton has been an outspoken critic of the invasion and occupation of Iraq, unchecked corporate malfeasance, and the repressive teachings of the Catholic Church regarding homosexuality.

There is much to be excited about as southeastern Michigan's faith-based groups take on increasingly public roles fighting for justice, while figures like Adams and Gumbleton remind us that Detroit has a history of progressive politics mingling with organized religion.