City of Dignity illuminates how liberal Protestants quietly, yet indelibly, shaped the progressive ethics of postwar Los Angeles.
 
Contemporary Los Angeles is commonly seen as an American bulwark of progressive secular politics, a place that values immigration, equity, diversity, and human rights. But what accounts for the city’s embrace of such staunchly liberal values, which are more hotly contested in other parts of the country? The answer, Sean Dempsey reveals, lies not with those frequent targets of credit and blame—Democrats in Hollywood—but instead with liberal Protestants and other steadfast religious organizations of the postwar era.

As the Religious Right movement emerged in the 1970s, progressive religious activists quietly began promoting an ethical vision that made waves worldwide but saw the largest impact in its place of origin: metropolitan Los Angeles. At the center of this vision lay the concept of human dignity—entwining the integral importance of political and expressive freedom with the moral sanctity of the human condition—which suffused all of the political values that arose from it, whether tolerance, diversity, or equality of opportunity. The work of these religious organizations birthed such phenomena as the Sanctuary Movement—which provided safe haven for refugees fleeing conflict-torn Central America—and advocacy for the homeless, both of which became increasingly fraught issues amid the rising tides of neoliberalism and conservatism. City of Dignity explores how these interwoven spiritual and theological strands found common ground—and made common impacts—in the humanitarian ecosystem of one of America’s largest and most dynamic metro areas.

Sean T. Dempsey is a Jesuit priest of the California Province and associate professor of history at Loyola Marymount University.
 

Introduction City of Dignity
One Trials by Fire: Father George Dunne and Social Justice in Postwar Los Angeles
Two Prophets of the Secular City: The Churches and the Urban Crisis in 1960s Los Angeles
Three Making the Global Grassroots: Church-Based Community Organizing in 1970s Los Angeles
Four Human Rights and Religious Pluralism in Multicultural Los Angeles
Five City of Refugees, City of Sanctuary
Six Time of Visitation: Social Christianity and Economic Justice in Post-1992 Los Angeles
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Notes
Bibliography
Index