Pacific Views

I make so many typing mistakes, I take particular glee in pointing out the mistakes of others.
"It's not Republicans are nuts"?
Love,
elvis56

LOL! Gosh, my English goes out to lunch at 1am in the morning. Thanks for the observation, Elvis56. I hope it is clearer now.

I needed to read this, since it makes me jumpy and agitated. The Christians are seriously on my Shit List.

I think thier behavior in portesting the Iraq war was completely disgraceful. They all said words but when it was really time to tangibly do something they just sat there. George Bush still enjoys a reputation as a Christian, which is just outrageous.

Christians also sit on their ass as tax bills pass that grossly favor the rich and leave no money even for hungry--truly hungry--children. Never mind health care or education.

They're hypocrites. They'll rant forever about abortion but still be mute as tens of thousands of fetuses are flushed down the drain at fertility clinics.

They have no ability to be even marginally self-regulating. There are no social mores among all the Christians that forces them to shut up when they get out of line. Outrageous felons happily claim the mantle of Christians and nobody reputable ever calls them on it.

The funny part is that I'm an offical Christian. I was confirmed an Episcopalian as an adult but I still don't get all this ridiculous Jesus stuff, I just talk to God all the time and listen to my priest. I'm confused by all this and I hate it.

Lastly, what really cracks my ass is this notion that Democrats should be noble and take the high road.

We're facing opponents who play by no rules. None. All this great moral language gets us exactly nowhere as the Republicans exploit a gullible and grossly un-informed public. High-road tools seem useless and it's incredibly frustrating.

This is why I childishly refuse to link Kevin Drum. He's a great generalist and good writer, but he constantly gives Republicans the full benefit of the doubt and insists on being all noble.

If he was a candidate he'd get the holy living shit beat out of him. He simply cannot fight and it highly irritates me. The old days are gone--long gone. If we don't fight we'll lose, period. Taking the fight on a high road to the American public is simply a prescription for losing. LOSING.

I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm saying I need to think about this.

Paradox:

Some suggestions... and no, I won't use a scolding tone... I'll try to, as you said, "be all noble," like Kevin Drum.

First, since you're a Christian yourself (I'm a Catholic who wishes my church had half the stones of the Anglicans for ordaining Gene Robinson the Bishop of New Hampshire), you can't separate other Christians from yourself. Christianity is a communal religion with communal implications, flowing from personal faith relationships cultivated individually on the road with God. The individuality of faith and faith relationships must necessarily give way to communal expression and the sharing of one's faith.

This faith, this Gospel, that all Christians (and I'd use the word AUTHENTIC rather than OFFICIAL, wouldn't you say?) are called to share is a Gospel of life and joy and love. We need to be civil, thoughtful and respectful of opponents and those who disagree with us. Anger won't win elections, and it won't win people's hearts--a much more important reality.

There is a way to speak to the masses and yet be authentic in practicing your beliefs and achieving your political goals. We progressive Christians have to share the authenticity of our witness with others.

Isn't that what you--and I, and the Lutheran neighbor next door, and the Congregationalist who works in the hospice, and the Methodist who volunteers at a soup kitchen, and the Presbyterian farmer 15 miles out of town--all learned in their catechism and religious instruction?

Progressive Christians have to fill this vacuum between raging secular liberalism on the left, and raging (inauthentic) Christian doctrinalism and rigidity from the right.

We must do it with courage and conviction, but we must also do it with civility and REAL compassion.

This seems like as good a place as any to point out that the Methodist church, the one that Dubya claims membership to, came out publicly against the war in Iraq. They even tried to visit him in Washington, but he wouldn't see them.

There are many Christian people who do care about these issues, many who vote for Democrats, or even the periodic Republican who really does give a damn. Al Gore is a Christian, for love of Mike.

I say this as a cheerful heathen who's come to realize that broad indictments of any particular faith are just useless. It's as meaningful as my elderly relatives' rants about the minorities 'ruining' California. As concise as Michael Savage's fulminations against everyone not born into an industrialized western nation. As helpful as Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell proclaiming that Mohammed was a terrorist.

At the end, we're all scrambling to attack or defend generic concepts. And we're all left standing in the absolute mess made of a very complex world that defies such tidy description. Be productive, dammit.

It's always a good feeling to be able to dispense with a person in one aggressive center and that good feeling is a reason to distrust the act, IMHO. I've found myself in a company that makes me uneasy -- they liken George W. Bush to a monkey, say he is stupid, and evil, but do little to describe the vulgar impact of the policies he has pushed through.

There's a temptation on slow news days to go for the quick slam against those we don't like. It attracts a few chuckles from those on our side, but fails to make the case against this man who grinds the oily soles of his feet not only on the precious paper of the Constitution but the Sermon on the Mount as well.

Defeat of this administration and reform of the evils it has introduced takes work. We must explain and explain. Stereotypes and name-calling are nothing more than quick slams that may miss a deft target entirely. The power elite in this country can perform amazing pirouettes in the line of random fire: aim carefully and they cannot escape.

I, too, must time and again come back to me and say "You know, you've been doing it again, Joel. Try to ease off." It's hard to be such a good person and it aches, too.

"aggressive center" should be "aggressive, well-centered, targeted blast"

natasha and commenters,

thank you for the reminder...

here are a couple more examples to inspire...

catholicworkers

quakers, afsc

I needed to read this, since it makes me jumpy and agitated. The Christians are seriously on my Shit List. I think thier behavior in portesting the Iraq war was completely disgraceful.

Most of the Christians in the world opposed the Iraq war. It's only American fundamentalist Christians (and conservative evangelicals who have morphed into fundamentalists in all but name) who supported the war in huge numbers.

--Kynn