I wrote a post about a month ago which dealt with the FOCA and Obama and such.
I was surprised how many people read it and still read it. People have even made many off of this blog comments about it. but no one has commented on the post itself. As a returning blogger passionate about something political I figured I rub a few people wrong and get some feedback, but all of it has come off-blog. Which is a little frustrating, I’d rather have the comments out there in the public forum for debate, than in my inbox or my ear for only my response.
But I digress.
Today a coworker of mine pointed out a new article on cnn.com. She said “as a catholic, i find it really frustrating that we are wasting our time and resources on this activity.” What is this activity? the FOCA, the same piece of legislation I was trying to show doesn’t exist. Fear Uncertainty and Doubt still are crippling the religious right. How are we to change this?
Please post your ideas in the comments.
(@SOCOACH)
I, too, am a Catholic. I consider myself to be an engaged one, actively involved in my local parish community, including the school that is associated with it.
One of the things I like most about being a Catholic is that it seems to be one of the few Christian denominations that give me credit for being able to think for myself. The parameters are wider and we are far freer to challenge doctrine.
The Religious Right’s support of the FOCA battle, if you will permit me the analogy, is like a boxer who has been beaten badly, staggering about the canvas, eyes swollen shut, too blind to see that the fight is over and that the crowd is thinning, heading for the parking lot and the bar. He continues to lunge at his opponent because he is on autopilot, doing the only thing he understands – lashing out. The fact that his opponent has been declared a victor and is already in the locker room talking with the press means nothing to the punch-drunk fighter. He is there to maintain the credibility of the few fans that still believe that he is the Great Last Hope.
Since the election there have been scores of articles written about the death of the Religious Right. I do not believe that the movement is dead; it has been sorely tested and found wanting as the nation makes another attempt to return to whatever remains of the \middle.\ We have been polarized for so long, and few movements deserve more scorn for the division than the Religious Right.
But is the movement dead? Not hardly. It draws its strength from confrontation and combat, even if it is against a mythical opponent. I won’t sully the spirit of Cervantes by saying they are tilting at windmills. They are not worthy of the comparison. While it may draw the ire of some, I’d compare the Religious Right’s need for iconic, evil opponents to that of Nazi Germany’s targeting of Jews – hated and handy.
Yes, it is \really frustrating that we are wasting our time and resources on this activity.\ There are so many truly noble battles to be waged in this nation and the world: poverty, disease, hunger … But we must have learned from history that we dare not turn our backs on ignorance, arrogance, and intolerance. If we do not defeat those evils, we stand little chance of defeating the rest.
from the article referenced:
“In some respects, President Obama has only himself to blame for the current controversy. As a presidential candidate, the then Senator himself pointed a spotlight on the legislation he co-sponsored when he told the Planned Parenthood Action Fund in 2007 that ‘the first thing I’d do as President is sign the Freedom of Choice Act. That’s the first thing I’d do.’”
(@namtrok)
Dave,
True he did say that, but how many promises to politicians make repeatedly in the run up to an election? This “Promise” was made only once and not even in a well thought out speech.
To me, as we’re approaching the 30 days of President Obama’s term and we haven’t seen the FOCA entered in to either side of congress makes me wonder why the church is still fighting.
Like one of Bob’s analogies, Why is the church, religious folk, fighting a bill that doesn’t exist. Consider it a win for now and be on the watch, but don’t picket/advertise against and spend too much time on legislation that doesn’t exist.
One statement made years ago by the now president, who is allowed to change his mind, should not cause us to keep fighting a phantom piece of legislation.
Bob,
I am not sure what you mean by “we dare not turn our backs on ignorance, arrogance, and intolerance” I know many in the church who think tolerance is a tool of the Devil. The more we just tolerate the less we look like Jesus.
Are you suggesting that the church fight arrogance like it should fight poverty? If so please enlighten as I have missed that one. The old testament speaks over and over and over again about who we are to care for: the widow, the poor, the oppressed, the fatherless, the alien. I can see how ignorance in the middle/upper classes about these categories of people could be an issue, but arrogance? And people who tolerate the homeless in the Heartside district… are they to be considered the good people?
(@SOCOACH)
By “we,” I speak first of Americans and then of American Christians. Fighting ignorance is best done through education, and Christian churches have the means to educate members on the many challenges that face God’s less fortunate, be they starving in Africa or homeless on Division Avenue.
Yes, many Christians see tolerance as Satan’s tool; I’ve seen their letters in the Public Pulse. But I see them as the prizefighter in my original analogy – incapable of facing things they don’t understand with anything but belligerence, caustic mockery, even violence.
The more we tolerate the less we are like Jesus? That sounds like a confusion of tolerance with blind acceptance or total apathy. You have to have an understanding of something in order to be tolerant of it. So many Christians, Biblical literalists, have only a black/white perspective of the world around them. That makes it easy to go through life – too easy, actually. My way or the highway, with us or against us … life was not that simple in Christ’s time and it is certainly not that simple now.
Arrogance is rooted in pride, a fault taken to task by the prophets of the Old Testament and the evangelists of the New Testament. Arrogance makes it impossible to see the value in others, impossible to comprehend the suffering of others, impossible to reach out to those who are truly in need.
An ignorant Christian passes a homeless woman on South Division and doesn’t see her. An intolerant Christian sees her yet refuses to accept the fact that she is also a child of God. An arrogant Christian sees her and berates her for being the cause of her own suffering.
So when I write “we dare not turn our backs on ignorance, arrogance, and intolerance,” I mean exactly that. For if we do not battle these, we may never win the battle against war, famine, poverty, disease and all the other ills the world suffers beneath.