Faith and Politics
I just finished watching the Democratic presidential forum sponsored by Sojourners. Sooprise Sooprise. Each of the major candidates has robust religious faith that they take very seriously and that has helped them through many a personal struggle. The don't know what they would do without their faith. Heck, if they could they would get naked with it right here. Really.
Someday, we may have a day in American politics when this type of faith based fashion show is unnecessary.
I was hoping this forum would focus a little more on the role faith can play in social policy (like adressing how anyone can call themselves a christian and vote Republican) and be a little less of an opportunity for the candidates to show off their religious faith like a 12 year old shows off his Transformers. Non the less, there were some moments worth watching.
A few random notes:
Credit John Edwards for admitting he sins multiple times every day. Its nice to see a wee bit of humility in someone looking for the office. It seems to many christians, sin is something other people do.
Hillary Clinton says that she comes from a tradition that is "sometimes too suspicious of those who wear their faith on their sleeve." I don't think you can ever be too suspicious of such people.
I liked Barak Obama's appeal to the common good and I thought Clinton did a good job of stating the obvious -- if we want a just society some of us are going to have to sacrifice. No one likes to hear this and I don't think we talk nearly enough about the sacrifies the blessed of us need to make for the rest of us. Like it or not if we want fewer homeless, fewer criminals, fewer dropouts, fewer abortions, and fewer people without health insurance, we may just have to pay for those things with money we now use for consumer goods. Overall, I think Obama did the best job of articulating a vision that balances our traditional mythology of self reliance with the reality of our interdependence. Hone that and he may have something.
Clinton ran from her Iraq vote and her bit on abortion was the worst sort of pandering. (Notably, the NYT Magazine's piece on her decision making process before her vote to authorize the use of force makes her position more -- not less -- problematic.)
Edwards got a little long in reciting his resume on poverty issues. Ironically, the fact that he is the candidate with the longest record on this issue worked against him.
Credit Obama's statement that too often we use religious faith as a tool to bolster our self image instead of a tool for questioning our motives. This cannot be said enough. Unfortunately, religious folk in America are better than you and will tell you so.
Update
You know, I may have been a little harsh in my assessment of the Sojo event. With a few hours of distance, there was something a bit more there. Broadly speaking my experience is that the majority of religious folk use religion as a device to make the world small, to emphasize the differences between them and others, to create all sorts of artificial pseudo moral boundaries (and political litmus tests) on what constitutes the good life, make complex things simple, and to carefully contain our potential and tell us what cannot be done. A smaller group use their faith to enlarge the world, erase social differences, engage injustice, and remove the limits to human potential. Overall, the Dems who spoke last night fall into the latter category. Their willingness to recognize that none of us are in a position to cast the first stone (Edwards), and their recognition that the practical maintenance of our common humanity sits at the middle of the game (Obama) is commendable and maybe a little inspirational.
I still do not need to hear about Hillary's "Prayer Warriors" though. Tell me that eradicating poverty is a biblical imperative and I can get behind that. Tell me about your prayer warriors and you are just some freak from the 700 Club.
Someday, we may have a day in American politics when this type of faith based fashion show is unnecessary.
I was hoping this forum would focus a little more on the role faith can play in social policy (like adressing how anyone can call themselves a christian and vote Republican) and be a little less of an opportunity for the candidates to show off their religious faith like a 12 year old shows off his Transformers. Non the less, there were some moments worth watching.
A few random notes:
Credit John Edwards for admitting he sins multiple times every day. Its nice to see a wee bit of humility in someone looking for the office. It seems to many christians, sin is something other people do.
Hillary Clinton says that she comes from a tradition that is "sometimes too suspicious of those who wear their faith on their sleeve." I don't think you can ever be too suspicious of such people.
I liked Barak Obama's appeal to the common good and I thought Clinton did a good job of stating the obvious -- if we want a just society some of us are going to have to sacrifice. No one likes to hear this and I don't think we talk nearly enough about the sacrifies the blessed of us need to make for the rest of us. Like it or not if we want fewer homeless, fewer criminals, fewer dropouts, fewer abortions, and fewer people without health insurance, we may just have to pay for those things with money we now use for consumer goods. Overall, I think Obama did the best job of articulating a vision that balances our traditional mythology of self reliance with the reality of our interdependence. Hone that and he may have something.
Clinton ran from her Iraq vote and her bit on abortion was the worst sort of pandering. (Notably, the NYT Magazine's piece on her decision making process before her vote to authorize the use of force makes her position more -- not less -- problematic.)
Edwards got a little long in reciting his resume on poverty issues. Ironically, the fact that he is the candidate with the longest record on this issue worked against him.
Credit Obama's statement that too often we use religious faith as a tool to bolster our self image instead of a tool for questioning our motives. This cannot be said enough. Unfortunately, religious folk in America are better than you and will tell you so.
Update
You know, I may have been a little harsh in my assessment of the Sojo event. With a few hours of distance, there was something a bit more there. Broadly speaking my experience is that the majority of religious folk use religion as a device to make the world small, to emphasize the differences between them and others, to create all sorts of artificial pseudo moral boundaries (and political litmus tests) on what constitutes the good life, make complex things simple, and to carefully contain our potential and tell us what cannot be done. A smaller group use their faith to enlarge the world, erase social differences, engage injustice, and remove the limits to human potential. Overall, the Dems who spoke last night fall into the latter category. Their willingness to recognize that none of us are in a position to cast the first stone (Edwards), and their recognition that the practical maintenance of our common humanity sits at the middle of the game (Obama) is commendable and maybe a little inspirational.
I still do not need to hear about Hillary's "Prayer Warriors" though. Tell me that eradicating poverty is a biblical imperative and I can get behind that. Tell me about your prayer warriors and you are just some freak from the 700 Club.
posted by Jack Reed at 8:30 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home