Tuesday, June 26, 2007
'Politics of conscience'
Sen. Barack Obama, speaking before the General Synod of the United Church of Christ:
But somehow, somewhere along the way, faith stopped being used to bring us together and started being used to drive us apart. It got hijacked. Part of it's because of the so-called leaders of the Christian Right, who've been all too eager to exploit what divides us. At every opportunity, they've told evangelical Christians that Democrats disrespect their values and dislike their Church, while suggesting to the rest of the country that religious Americans care only about issues like abortion and gay marriage; school prayer and intelligent design. There was even a time when the Christian Coalition determined that its number one legislative priority was tax cuts for the rich. I don't know what Bible they're reading, but it doesn't jibe with my version.
Read it all.
--ER
But somehow, somewhere along the way, faith stopped being used to bring us together and started being used to drive us apart. It got hijacked. Part of it's because of the so-called leaders of the Christian Right, who've been all too eager to exploit what divides us. At every opportunity, they've told evangelical Christians that Democrats disrespect their values and dislike their Church, while suggesting to the rest of the country that religious Americans care only about issues like abortion and gay marriage; school prayer and intelligent design. There was even a time when the Christian Coalition determined that its number one legislative priority was tax cuts for the rich. I don't know what Bible they're reading, but it doesn't jibe with my version.
Read it all.
--ER
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"But somehow, somewhere along the way, faith stopped being used to bring us together and started being used to drive us apart."
I have tried to think of an example that "faith" brought such diverse groups as Senator Obama later enumerated together. "Faith" does bring together groups of like types, but always excludes unlike types. Religious "Faiths" are by definition exclusionary not inclusive. That is why Sen. Obama had to list the the various groups at the end of his speech.
Now ethics brings people together for ethics knows no religious test. But
"Faiths" as used here are by nature devisive and it has been so through out the history of humans.
Now you might not be able to separate the faith of a person from their own actions, but you don't have to let their "faith" intrude on public laws and public policy that they sponsor. Ethics would be enough in that arena. And if we had ethical behavior there, maybe we would understand that our various relgious faiths are redundant in the political realm.
Obama has lost points on my score card. I hear an echo of Midland ,Texas in his words.
I have tried to think of an example that "faith" brought such diverse groups as Senator Obama later enumerated together. "Faith" does bring together groups of like types, but always excludes unlike types. Religious "Faiths" are by definition exclusionary not inclusive. That is why Sen. Obama had to list the the various groups at the end of his speech.
Now ethics brings people together for ethics knows no religious test. But
"Faiths" as used here are by nature devisive and it has been so through out the history of humans.
Now you might not be able to separate the faith of a person from their own actions, but you don't have to let their "faith" intrude on public laws and public policy that they sponsor. Ethics would be enough in that arena. And if we had ethical behavior there, maybe we would understand that our various relgious faiths are redundant in the political realm.
Obama has lost points on my score card. I hear an echo of Midland ,Texas in his words.
Maybe. But my point, I guess, is that if everybody's gonna be wearing their dang faith on their sleeve this time, and being all Jesusy, then I'm gonna be more inclined to go with the one whose views are most like my own, and I feel obliged to help get the word out. The bigger point is this: Liberals are not all the godless heathen that James Dobson and his ilk pretend they are -- and THAT word needs to get out, too.
But I'm still for that good Catholic boy, Senor Bill Richardson. Wouldn't it be just American as tarta de la manzana if the first Hispanioc presidente had an Anglo name like Bill Richardson!
But I'm still for that good Catholic boy, Senor Bill Richardson. Wouldn't it be just American as tarta de la manzana if the first Hispanioc presidente had an Anglo name like Bill Richardson!
ER, you know how I feel about this in a kind of "meta" way, but there is no disputing that Obama hit all the right notes, and they are in tune.
I guess my problem with it is summed up better by drlobojo, whose larger point I might find fault with - the right-wing knew instinctively that appeals to "faith" and "religion" would "wedge" voters, creating clear lines and easily defined categories. It worked well for the right for a quarter century. I am not happy with the idea of those of us on the left doing the same thing - "We are the real Christians and the real Christians who understand what it means to be real Americans" - because, in truth, we are better than that. That is part of the appeal of truly progressive faith for me. I truly love those Christians to my right both theologically and politically, want to engage them, talk to them, sit and have dinner with them, etc., and I refuse to right them out of the family because I happen to disagree with them. The battle is political - it's about power - and part of my own faith is that Jesus demonstrates that, in the end, God's love is about forswearing power for love of the other.
That's where my head is at, at least today. Tomorrow, I might read some moronic column or comment that will make me change my mind. I am about as rock steady on this as sand in an hourglass.
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I guess my problem with it is summed up better by drlobojo, whose larger point I might find fault with - the right-wing knew instinctively that appeals to "faith" and "religion" would "wedge" voters, creating clear lines and easily defined categories. It worked well for the right for a quarter century. I am not happy with the idea of those of us on the left doing the same thing - "We are the real Christians and the real Christians who understand what it means to be real Americans" - because, in truth, we are better than that. That is part of the appeal of truly progressive faith for me. I truly love those Christians to my right both theologically and politically, want to engage them, talk to them, sit and have dinner with them, etc., and I refuse to right them out of the family because I happen to disagree with them. The battle is political - it's about power - and part of my own faith is that Jesus demonstrates that, in the end, God's love is about forswearing power for love of the other.
That's where my head is at, at least today. Tomorrow, I might read some moronic column or comment that will make me change my mind. I am about as rock steady on this as sand in an hourglass.
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