"Barack is charismatic and sincere!"
"McCain is flinty and strong!"
"Barack is a socialist/elitist/reverse-racist!"
"McCain is OLD!...I mean, REALLY, REALLY OLD!"
I hinted in my Augustine class that maybe America isn't a Christian nation and that the 10 Commandments aren't universal principles for a good society. In fact, they aren't even universal moral "rules." Incidentally, I suggested that they are the conditions of a covenant between God and a community of His chosen. This went over like a lead balloon.
"But if our nation is based on Christian principles, then..." Don't worry kids. It's not.
I've taken to listening to the Focus on the Family radio show when I go to pick my parents up from BART as an act of cultural research. I'd forgotten that there is this whole sub-culture of people who are incredibly certain about their "world view" and are trying to rally the troops to do battle in the culture wars.
"If we don't stop those homosexuals/liberals/socialists/activist judges/terrorists, we'll lose this nation to those who don't share our biblical values."
and on the other side the "liberals" are filling in the blanks w/ a different set of reactionary push button terms.
Isn't anyone else just disastrously confused about the immensity of our worlds problems? Can't anyone get in front of a camera and say so? because it might make things a little scary for the rest of us who are only sure about one thing:
We don't trust either side. We don't trust anyone who ignores relevant questions and pseudo-speciates their opponents.
If you can't answer the question "How do you know you know?" you can't really defend anything you have to say. You've just picked it
All of that to say, lately I've been walking around very sad in my soul. I need faith that the Spirit acts even when we aren't paying attention.
Godspeed....we'll need it.
2 comments:
Interesting. I like your thoughts on the Ten Commandments. I think you're probably right.
There's something inside of me that's a little resistent to the idea that America never was a Christian nation (incidentally, that "something" is probably the fact that I was raised on Focus on the Family and World magazine), but I certainly appreciate the argument. And I most definitely agree that America is not currently a "Christian nation." It's almost as if America has invented its own religion and called it Christianity - an amalgamation of capitalism and romanticism and democracy and yes, Jesus is in there somewhere but He's been so muddled ... he's almost unrecognizable.
Oh Jon...unbridled capitalism is a "Christian" thing! So is rampant materialism + consumerism. Even better, Christianity idealizes the individual instead of the community!
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