Whether they vote blue, red, or green, a majority of Americans still affiliate themselves with one organized religion or another. Even many of those who don’t - the "spiritual, not religious" among us - admit to some breed of belief in, or direct experience of, a higher power. God. G-d. Goddess. god. Allah. The Way. The Tao. The One. The Universal Life Force. Whatever you want to call It, It matters to folks. A lot. And increasingly, spirituality is inspiring Americans to engage in inter-faith dialogue about ways to build a more sustainable and just future in this country and around the world.

Next Saturday, an estimated five-hundred people will attend the first Midwest Conference of Spiritual Progressives at Wesley United Methodist Church in downtown Minneapolis. Their task will be to discuss just such a future. The conference is being organized and hosted by Minnesota’s chapter of the Network of Spiritual Progressives – a project of Boston’s Tikkun Institute, which has spawned some 80 NSP chapters around the country since its first national conference in Berkeley in 2005.

From a business leader devoted to sustainable development to a Qigong Master concerned with personal healing, the list of local presenters at Saturday’s meeting highlights the array of issues with which the NSP concern itself. The chair of the local chapter is Bruce Peterson, a Hennepin County judge by profession. He explained to me the impetus behind the conference:

“All the major social change movements had a spiritual center, “ he said, “The child labor movement, civil rights. One of the reasons this [NSP] movement is interesting is because it’s an approach that transcends the various issues we’re facing. We have to stop thinking of people as limited, economically, and recognize that they have souls, and they have needs, and they have capacity. We have to think of ourselves in bigger terms. We have to give ourselves more credit.�

The conference is being co-sponsored by nearly forty other spiritual-minded organization from around the Twin Cities, including The Cathedral Church of St. Mark’s, Westminster Presbyterian Church, United Theological Seminary, Friends School of Minnesota, and the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center.

The “New Bottom Line� is something that one sees written often in the NSP literature. I asked Peterson to elaborate on why NSP has co-opted the language of economics to express the purpose of their movement.

“The New Bottom line is shorthand way of saying that we need to get beyond thinking of ourselves as if we were just economic produces and consumers. What really matters is what institutions can contribute to our spiritual health. We need a different analysis.�

This different analysis, he told me, begins with the meeting of not just minds, but hearts as well.

“Change comes from consciousness raising,� he said. “You need ideas first; after that, change will come. You begin by meeting, talking, helping each other clarify what we all find unsatisfying in the culture.�