Day three at the Wild Goose Festival and I have already observed almost every issue on the liberal side of the political spectrum represented in a workshop or lecture (except abortion advocacy – no need to alienate young Evangelicals that festival organizers hope to co-opt). Sometimes liberal themes were sandwiched within otherwise benign presentations, like Faith and Sustainability Network Founder Pamela Wilhelms’ “Soul of the Next Economy” talk, in which she cheerily declared “we [the United States] are the biggest problem on the Earth when it comes to everything.” Wilhelms also assured her workshop that “all the businesses who want to do good are desperate for regulation.”
By Saturday afternoon, I had finished yet another session on pacifism (more on that in another posting) and sauntered over to the “Exodus” tent for a presentation on public education by historian Tim Tyson of United Methodist Duke Divinity School. I hoped for a good discussion, knowing that many political liberals are interested in education reform and no longer unquestioningly accept the teachers’ unions’ insistence that what is good for their self-preservation is simultaneously what is best for America’s children.
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