BRIEF HISTORY OF THE AMERICA

CrossWalk America embraces no particular political ideology, and seeks to explore and articulate the theological principles behind both faith and politics from a distinctly moderate/progressive Christian perspective. While our organization is joyfully and unapologetically Christian, we welcome the participation of Christians and non-Christians alike, from all walks of life.

CrossWalk America (CWA) is both a brand-new organization, and an organization that has been around a number of years:

In 1998, a group of Christian clergy gathered in a Phoenix coffeehouse, concerned about the increasing marginalization of moderate and progressive voices within the public sphere of Christianity. These clergy came from several traditionally “mainline” denominations - United Methodist, Presbyterian, United Church of Christ, and Lutheran.

The ministers' original vision was to speak on a wide variety of topics, offering an alternative voice to that of radical fundamentalism. They also felt it would be important to include laypeople in their membership. However, at the time, there was so much controversy over gay and lesbian issues, largely propagated by Christian ministers, they decided to focus on this single set of issues for the time being, and to do so specifically as Christian clergy.

Thus, No Longer Silent : Clergy for Justice (NLS:CFJ) was formed as a clergy-only group dedicated to offering an alternative voice to Christian fundamentalism, strictly regarding glbt issues.