I can't get these lyrics out of my head, from Coldplay's new album - so poignant to a fallen empire...
Viva La Vida
I used to rule the world
Seas would rise when I gave the word
Now in the morning I sleep alone
Sweep the streets I used to own
I used to roll the dice
Feel the fear in my enemies eyes
Listen as the crowd would sing:
"Now the old king is dead! Long live the king!"
One minute I held the key
Next the walls were closed on me
And I discovered that my castles stand
Upon pillars of salt, and pillars of sand
I hear Jerusalem bells are ringing
Roman Cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field
For some reason I can not explain
Once you know there was never, never an honest word
That was when I ruled the world
* * *
please read more about my thoughts on the evolution of Christianity at www.EmergingChristian.com
Visit Me At...
Monday
"World-Thumping" vs. "Bible Thumping"...
So in high school, I got called a "Bible Thumper" a couple of times. It bugged me. And no, I wasn't one of those constantly-Jesus-spouting-goody-two-shoes Bible Club kids. In fact, I wanted to be liked so much (most of the time) that I made fun of the Bible Club. And threw parties and drank beer.
But for a brief, 6-month "sin-hiatus" during my senior year, I did my share of "thumping." After an all-too-common youth group road trip to some homeless shelters in Los Angeles, I thought I'd finally discovered what Christianity was supposed to feel like. It was a constant, exhilerating high, every day. For six months. And I didn't want to sin. I wanted to quote Bible verses in class and tell everyone how "easy" Christianity had become. And it was. For six months.
Then the new car smell started to fade. The Skid Row L.A. honeymoon became a distant memory. Drinking and swearing and masturbation became really attractive again, and I learned that my relationship with God could be a lot like relationships with girls: big initial high, lots of butterflies, a little poetry... eventually followed by boredom, disillusion, and "greener grass" spotted across the fence.
I don't want to be a Bible-Thumper any more, as much as I love and cherish Scripture. I want to be a "World-Thumper." I want to point to the people around me - around all of us - living next door - whose lives are singing the truth: the truth of who they are; the truth of what they need; the truth of what the church is not; the truth of how short we come up. World-Thumping is Christianity looking in the gigantic, truth-telling mirror the world is holding up in front of us, and being brave enough to admit: "that's me? Then it's time to change."
* * *
please read more about my thoughts on the evolution of Christianity at http://www.emergingchristian.com/
But for a brief, 6-month "sin-hiatus" during my senior year, I did my share of "thumping." After an all-too-common youth group road trip to some homeless shelters in Los Angeles, I thought I'd finally discovered what Christianity was supposed to feel like. It was a constant, exhilerating high, every day. For six months. And I didn't want to sin. I wanted to quote Bible verses in class and tell everyone how "easy" Christianity had become. And it was. For six months.
Then the new car smell started to fade. The Skid Row L.A. honeymoon became a distant memory. Drinking and swearing and masturbation became really attractive again, and I learned that my relationship with God could be a lot like relationships with girls: big initial high, lots of butterflies, a little poetry... eventually followed by boredom, disillusion, and "greener grass" spotted across the fence.
I don't want to be a Bible-Thumper any more, as much as I love and cherish Scripture. I want to be a "World-Thumper." I want to point to the people around me - around all of us - living next door - whose lives are singing the truth: the truth of who they are; the truth of what they need; the truth of what the church is not; the truth of how short we come up. World-Thumping is Christianity looking in the gigantic, truth-telling mirror the world is holding up in front of us, and being brave enough to admit: "that's me? Then it's time to change."
* * *
please read more about my thoughts on the evolution of Christianity at http://www.emergingchristian.com/
Saturday
Not Offended, Just Annoyed...
I don't get offended by "Christian-bashing" anymore. Probably because I'm guilty of it myself, too often.
Last night I was hanging out with a group of people - one of whom I had not met before. Sometime during dinner at a Mexican joint, she made some disparaging comment about Christians. Eh, no biggie. They piss me off too, I thought.
Then a little later someone was talking about taking a religion class at school, and the requirement to read the Gospel of Luke.
The same young woman said, "Yeah, it's a nice story..." and that didn't seem too malicious either. But both comments, coupled with a third later in the evening, all carried an arrogant, mocking militance I had not heard in awhile. It reminded me of... hmmm... a miltant fundamentalist Christian, I guess. The other side of the flipped coin. And so it goes.
Fundamentalists come in all shapes and sizes, and usually someone burned on one extreme will jump to the other: burning to freezing.
I have a lot of compassion for the "burned" and the "frozen," and I get it. It's what this worldspeak concept is all about. Compassion, listening, loving, healing. But the arrogance of absolute beliefism, whether religious or atheist, isn't just uncomfortable to be around: it's sickening. God help me if my disillusion leads me to a New Kind of Fundamentalism (NKOF) - becoming a fundamentalist of any kind makes one just like any other.
Some might still accuse me of fundamentalism because I'm very ENTHUSIASTIC... but I have changed a lot... and here's the big difference: I'm not angry anymore.
* * *
please read more about my thoughts on the evolution of Christianity at www.EmergingChristian.com
Last night I was hanging out with a group of people - one of whom I had not met before. Sometime during dinner at a Mexican joint, she made some disparaging comment about Christians. Eh, no biggie. They piss me off too, I thought.
Then a little later someone was talking about taking a religion class at school, and the requirement to read the Gospel of Luke.
The same young woman said, "Yeah, it's a nice story..." and that didn't seem too malicious either. But both comments, coupled with a third later in the evening, all carried an arrogant, mocking militance I had not heard in awhile. It reminded me of... hmmm... a miltant fundamentalist Christian, I guess. The other side of the flipped coin. And so it goes.
Fundamentalists come in all shapes and sizes, and usually someone burned on one extreme will jump to the other: burning to freezing.
I have a lot of compassion for the "burned" and the "frozen," and I get it. It's what this worldspeak concept is all about. Compassion, listening, loving, healing. But the arrogance of absolute beliefism, whether religious or atheist, isn't just uncomfortable to be around: it's sickening. God help me if my disillusion leads me to a New Kind of Fundamentalism (NKOF) - becoming a fundamentalist of any kind makes one just like any other.
Some might still accuse me of fundamentalism because I'm very ENTHUSIASTIC... but I have changed a lot... and here's the big difference: I'm not angry anymore.
* * *
please read more about my thoughts on the evolution of Christianity at www.EmergingChristian.com
Wednesday
Dobson: Political Puppet...
I'm not blind enough to pretend the Democrats don't have their own religious puppets (they just have far fewer than the Republicans) but here is another gross example of religio-political attack dogs imposing a narrow (and uninformed) fundamentalist biblical view - not for the sake of Christ, but for the edification of the GOP.
I'm reminded of Len Sweet saying, "Focus on the Family? Jesus wouldn't 'Focus on the Family.' He told his disciples to die. To leave everything behind. He said, 'If anyone wants to follow me he must hate his father and mother'!"
But what really gets me is that Dr. James Dobson is not a theologian (admitedly, neither am I... only a student and an amateur), he's a family counselor. Focus on the Family ministries has rapidly deteriorated in the last decade, from a merely conservative counseling and family resource ministry, to a hyper-political, pseudo-theological military arm of the Religious Right.
So here's the scoop...
(CNN)— Sen. Barack Obama said Tuesday night evangelical leader James Dobson was “making stuff up,” when he accused the Illinois senator of distorting the Bible and taking a "fruitcake interpretation" of the U.S. Constitution.
“Any notion that I was distorting the Bible in that speech, I think anyone would be hard pressed to make that argument,” Obama told reporters on board his press plane Tuesday night.
Obama's past comments came front and center Tuesday when Dobson criticized the presumptive Democratic nominee’s June 2006 speech on his Focus on the Family radio show.
In the speech, Obama suggested that it would be impractical to govern based solely on the word of the Bible, noting that some passages suggest slavery is permissible and eating shellfish is disgraceful.
"Which passages of scripture should guide our public policy?" Obama asked in the speech. "Should we go with Leviticus, which suggests slavery is OK and that eating shellfish is an abomination? Or we could go with Deuteronomy, which suggests stoning your child if he strays from the faith? Or should we just stick to the Sermon on the Mount — a passage that is so radical that it's doubtful that our own Defense Department would survive its application?"
Obama responded Tuesday saying the speech underscored the notion he is a man of faith and highlighted the importance that people like him who find faith important “try to translate our concerns in a universal language so that we can have open and vigorous debate.”
Responding to the comments, Tom Minnery, senior vice president of Focus Action, said "There is no need to 'make stuff up' as it relates to Sen. Obama's interpretation of Scripture and the role of religion in the public square."
"His statements and record make clear his questionable perception of both. To argue that the Sermon on the Mount invalidates the Defense Department — as if Jesus Himself didn't have anything to say about the existence of good and evil and the need to combat evil — is about as deep as anyone needs to go to understand where the senator is coming from," Minnery also said. "He is editing God's word to fit his liberal worldview, and the more exposure his views on these matters get, the more obvious this will become to American Christians."
* * *
please read more about my thoughts on the evolution of Christianity at www.EmergingChristian.com
I'm reminded of Len Sweet saying, "Focus on the Family? Jesus wouldn't 'Focus on the Family.' He told his disciples to die. To leave everything behind. He said, 'If anyone wants to follow me he must hate his father and mother'!"
But what really gets me is that Dr. James Dobson is not a theologian (admitedly, neither am I... only a student and an amateur), he's a family counselor. Focus on the Family ministries has rapidly deteriorated in the last decade, from a merely conservative counseling and family resource ministry, to a hyper-political, pseudo-theological military arm of the Religious Right.
So here's the scoop...
(CNN)— Sen. Barack Obama said Tuesday night evangelical leader James Dobson was “making stuff up,” when he accused the Illinois senator of distorting the Bible and taking a "fruitcake interpretation" of the U.S. Constitution.
“Any notion that I was distorting the Bible in that speech, I think anyone would be hard pressed to make that argument,” Obama told reporters on board his press plane Tuesday night.
Obama's past comments came front and center Tuesday when Dobson criticized the presumptive Democratic nominee’s June 2006 speech on his Focus on the Family radio show.
In the speech, Obama suggested that it would be impractical to govern based solely on the word of the Bible, noting that some passages suggest slavery is permissible and eating shellfish is disgraceful.
"Which passages of scripture should guide our public policy?" Obama asked in the speech. "Should we go with Leviticus, which suggests slavery is OK and that eating shellfish is an abomination? Or we could go with Deuteronomy, which suggests stoning your child if he strays from the faith? Or should we just stick to the Sermon on the Mount — a passage that is so radical that it's doubtful that our own Defense Department would survive its application?"
Obama responded Tuesday saying the speech underscored the notion he is a man of faith and highlighted the importance that people like him who find faith important “try to translate our concerns in a universal language so that we can have open and vigorous debate.”
Responding to the comments, Tom Minnery, senior vice president of Focus Action, said "There is no need to 'make stuff up' as it relates to Sen. Obama's interpretation of Scripture and the role of religion in the public square."
"His statements and record make clear his questionable perception of both. To argue that the Sermon on the Mount invalidates the Defense Department — as if Jesus Himself didn't have anything to say about the existence of good and evil and the need to combat evil — is about as deep as anyone needs to go to understand where the senator is coming from," Minnery also said. "He is editing God's word to fit his liberal worldview, and the more exposure his views on these matters get, the more obvious this will become to American Christians."
* * *
please read more about my thoughts on the evolution of Christianity at www.EmergingChristian.com
Monday
Suicide? Surrender? Or just lazy?
Question: does following Jesus mean surrendering not only to Jesus, but surrendering to our enemies? Is that the surrendered life? Does loving our enemies mean surrendering to them? Does that surrender mean we allow them to be victorious? Does dying to ourselves mean laying down and dying? Do we stop trying to win?
I think maybe it means all those things, but I'm curious if it sounds like heresy. Or evangelistic laziness. Or suicide...
* * *
please read more about my thoughts on the evolution of Christianity at www.EmergingChristian.com
I think maybe it means all those things, but I'm curious if it sounds like heresy. Or evangelistic laziness. Or suicide...
* * *
please read more about my thoughts on the evolution of Christianity at www.EmergingChristian.com
Wednesday
Obama...
Here's my confession - last Friday my wife and I cut in front of 7,000 expectant voters and Barack Obama fans to get into Eugene, Oregon's MacArthur Court!
We knew it was wrong. We knew it was a sin. But we can't repent. The truth is, if we had to go through it all again, we would. It was worth it...
When we arrived on the University of Oregon Campus at 6:00pm on Friday, there were already over 10,000 people waiting in two endless lines. We parked several miles away and rushed back to the stadium, undaunted (and not knowing whether we'd make it in or not).
As we approached the building, we noticed the line was just beginning to move. "Quick, start walking alongside it," Jen said. Like Eve with the apple... we did, and casually talked to each other, doing our best to appear intent on a purpose, and unaware of our transgression.
Pretty soon we had sneakily been absorbed in the midst of several groups of people who were naturally unaware of who belonged to each other's party. And in 2o minutes we were inside. In fact, after passing through the metal detectors, we were among the first few thousand to enter. We got great seats on the 2nd floor directly opposite Senator Obama's stage.
The evening was electric. Obama is even more captivating in person than on television - his presence is at once commanding and warm. Yes, I have a little man-crush. Few personalities are able to excite the imagination of millions, especially among jaded and overstimulated Generations X and Y!
We felt a little guilty when we later learned that 3,000 individuals weren't able to get inside. Yes, the blood was on our hands - and it smelled like change I could believe in!
On a side note, I was reading Brian McLaren's blog on Sunday. He has several posts about Senator Obama, celebrating his campaign, leadership and vision. In truth, I'm right there with McLaren, but a little part of my gut remains clenched, wondering if we've sold ourselves too easily - so starved for an attractive alternative to the Christian Right.
I can't answer that yet.
* * *
please read more about my thoughts on the evolution of Christianity at www.EmergingChristian.com
We knew it was wrong. We knew it was a sin. But we can't repent. The truth is, if we had to go through it all again, we would. It was worth it...
When we arrived on the University of Oregon Campus at 6:00pm on Friday, there were already over 10,000 people waiting in two endless lines. We parked several miles away and rushed back to the stadium, undaunted (and not knowing whether we'd make it in or not).
As we approached the building, we noticed the line was just beginning to move. "Quick, start walking alongside it," Jen said. Like Eve with the apple... we did, and casually talked to each other, doing our best to appear intent on a purpose, and unaware of our transgression.
Pretty soon we had sneakily been absorbed in the midst of several groups of people who were naturally unaware of who belonged to each other's party. And in 2o minutes we were inside. In fact, after passing through the metal detectors, we were among the first few thousand to enter. We got great seats on the 2nd floor directly opposite Senator Obama's stage.
The evening was electric. Obama is even more captivating in person than on television - his presence is at once commanding and warm. Yes, I have a little man-crush. Few personalities are able to excite the imagination of millions, especially among jaded and overstimulated Generations X and Y!
We felt a little guilty when we later learned that 3,000 individuals weren't able to get inside. Yes, the blood was on our hands - and it smelled like change I could believe in!
On a side note, I was reading Brian McLaren's blog on Sunday. He has several posts about Senator Obama, celebrating his campaign, leadership and vision. In truth, I'm right there with McLaren, but a little part of my gut remains clenched, wondering if we've sold ourselves too easily - so starved for an attractive alternative to the Christian Right.
I can't answer that yet.
* * *
please read more about my thoughts on the evolution of Christianity at www.EmergingChristian.com
"I'd Rather Not Be Golfing..."
"If Jesus didn't raise himself from the dead on the third day, I'm off to the golf course."
I've heard the nuts and bolts of that view shared by three different evangelical pastors in the last couple of months. At the heart of it, it sounds pretty faithful and pious, doesn't it?
"Jesus' resurrection is so central to my faith, that if he didn't raise from the dead the way Scripture says he did, then nothing else matters..."
But there are troublesome streams of thought that go along with that. Foremost, it says if my Christianity is historically invalidated, then the life I've lived in faith is a lie, the service I've done for my neighbors is worthless, and I'm off to serve myself [go golf].
Really? Your relationship with Christ is so one-dimensional that a piece of historic evidence would completely crush all of it? Faith in God? Call to service? If Jesus didn't rise from the grave, you'd be at strip clubs and smoking reefer? [my words, here]
I only asked these questions of the first pastor who shared his convictions. He was so upset that I would ask - and suggest a personal relationship with Christ might not be totally shattered [wounded, yes] upon proof of a dead-and-buried Jesus - that I not only lost credibility in the discussion, I lost credibity in his eyes as a Christian.
Now don't get me wrong here: I believe in a resurrected Christ. I believe that resurrection is central to my salvation. It is central to my faith.
But I also believe that the wisdom of God is foolishness to mankind. I believe my wisdom is foolishness to God.
More importantly, I believe I experience, daily, an undeniable relationship with the creator of the universe.
If I live to 126, married to my wife for 100 years, and on our 100th anniversary she looks me in the eye and says, "Peter, I have to confess something. My name isn't Jennifer. But I've loved you my whole life, and everything we've experienced together has been true." I won't suddenly believe my marriage was a lie. Because I know the one I love.
And I know the God I love, and that God knows me.
This is all hypothetical, because I don't believe a historian, archaeologist or geneticist will ever prove that Christ is not risen. I don't think it would even be possible. But if it were possible, then my faith falls back, not to the arguments I've heard or the theologies I've learned and believed, but to the experience I have known and the relationship I have engaged in... to the One I have loved.
If the wisdom of mankind makes Jesus Christ seem a fool, I will follow the fool.
But by all means, the disillusioned faithful can enjoy those 18 holes. Better make them last, and lookout for the sandtrap on number 9.
* * *
please read more about my thoughts on the evolution of Christianity at www.EmergingChristian.com
I've heard the nuts and bolts of that view shared by three different evangelical pastors in the last couple of months. At the heart of it, it sounds pretty faithful and pious, doesn't it?
"Jesus' resurrection is so central to my faith, that if he didn't raise from the dead the way Scripture says he did, then nothing else matters..."
But there are troublesome streams of thought that go along with that. Foremost, it says if my Christianity is historically invalidated, then the life I've lived in faith is a lie, the service I've done for my neighbors is worthless, and I'm off to serve myself [go golf].
Really? Your relationship with Christ is so one-dimensional that a piece of historic evidence would completely crush all of it? Faith in God? Call to service? If Jesus didn't rise from the grave, you'd be at strip clubs and smoking reefer? [my words, here]
I only asked these questions of the first pastor who shared his convictions. He was so upset that I would ask - and suggest a personal relationship with Christ might not be totally shattered [wounded, yes] upon proof of a dead-and-buried Jesus - that I not only lost credibility in the discussion, I lost credibity in his eyes as a Christian.
Now don't get me wrong here: I believe in a resurrected Christ. I believe that resurrection is central to my salvation. It is central to my faith.
But I also believe that the wisdom of God is foolishness to mankind. I believe my wisdom is foolishness to God.
More importantly, I believe I experience, daily, an undeniable relationship with the creator of the universe.
If I live to 126, married to my wife for 100 years, and on our 100th anniversary she looks me in the eye and says, "Peter, I have to confess something. My name isn't Jennifer. But I've loved you my whole life, and everything we've experienced together has been true." I won't suddenly believe my marriage was a lie. Because I know the one I love.
And I know the God I love, and that God knows me.
This is all hypothetical, because I don't believe a historian, archaeologist or geneticist will ever prove that Christ is not risen. I don't think it would even be possible. But if it were possible, then my faith falls back, not to the arguments I've heard or the theologies I've learned and believed, but to the experience I have known and the relationship I have engaged in... to the One I have loved.
If the wisdom of mankind makes Jesus Christ seem a fool, I will follow the fool.
But by all means, the disillusioned faithful can enjoy those 18 holes. Better make them last, and lookout for the sandtrap on number 9.
* * *
please read more about my thoughts on the evolution of Christianity at www.EmergingChristian.com
The Economy of Hotness...
***be careful with links in this post if***
****you struggle with sexualized images****
****you struggle with sexualized images****
This post is only partially thought-out at this point, but I'll probably be following up.
The more I look at sites like Facebook, MySpace and Youtube, and the more I see general advertising and reality TV behavior (trust me, I don't intentionally watch reality TV) the more I'm coming to believe that the ultimate goal in our society is HOTNESS. Attaining HOTNESS is the highest achievement in Gens X/Y/Z America.
And we're not talking about beauty. This is dirty-grinding-on-the-frat-floor HOTNESS.
Go log into MySpace or check out your Facebook friend list. You're probably already aware of this reality, but are you aware of how quickly it's happened? This is barely as old as online social networking - barely older than 2003 as MySpace climbed in popularity.
I remember hearing Dr. Drew Pinsky on Loveline talk with a 13 year-old-girl who was sexually active. He asked her, "what do you dream of doing?" trying to get her to think beyond the unhealthy behavior she was engaged in.
She giggled, "Honestly, I really want to be on Girls Gone Wild." So much for more women presidential candidates. And that's not me woman-bashing. These girls are trying to survive in an absentee-parent, predatorial society that has hypersexualized the bodies of pre-adolescent girls.
On the Superbowl Half Time show, the cameras kept cutting from Tom Petty to 18 year-old girls who didn't know the words to his songs. Every one of their movements was either seductive, erotic or just overtly, crassly sexual. As excited as they were to be on national television (one of the largest televised events in the world) their first thought wasn't, "Hi Mom and Dad!" It was to imitate the movements and motions of a late night Girls Gone Wild TV commericial. Seduce the camera. LOOK HOT.
Man, I sound old and lame.
And it's not just the girls. Facebook and Myspace are filled with suburban high school guys and college frat boys with their shirts pulled up, or off, flexing their abs, yanking down their beltlines... desperate for HOTNESS.
I'm really not a prude. Really. My wife and my close friends consider my humor to be vulgar by their standards. But this quest for HOTNESS is nothing less than web prostitution - not just of one's body through images and attached innuendo in comments boxes - but prostitution of identity. We're selling our humanity in exchange for a numeric rank, evaluating - not our beauty - but our HOTNESS...
please read more about my thoughts on the evolution of Christianity at www.emergingchristianity.blogspot.com/
Thursday
Some Folks Who Have Already Been Let Down...
My last post was filled with optimism (yes, even naive political optimism, by golly) but it's important - for better and for worse - to remember that we live in a time of extreme angst, sorrow, cynicism and darkness. People are lonely. The gap between the very poor and the very wealthy widens, and those in the middle are fewer and fewer.
I've been listening to a lot of Rufus Wainwright in the last few months, and his song Going to a Town off the Release the Stars (2007) album is beautiful, heartbreaking and fills me with the loneliness and frustration I see all around me.
I'm going to a town that has already been burned down
I'm going to a place that is already been disgraced
I'm gonna see some folks who have already been let down.
I'm so tired of America
I'm gonna make it up for all of the Sunday Times
I'm gonna make it up for all of the nursery rhymes
They never really seem to want to tell the truth
I'm so tired of you America
Making my own way home
Ain't gonna be alone
I got a life to lead America
I got a life to lead
Tell me do you really think you go to hell for having loved?
Tell me and not for thinking every thing that you've done is good
(I really need to know)
After soaking the body of Jesus Christ in blood I'm so tired of America
(I really need to know)
I may just never see you again or might as well
You took advantage of a world that loved you well
I'm going to a town that has already been burned down
Today's generations are starving for hope. I guess, so am I... yes, yes, yes: I have Jesus. I have hope. But I want to feel hope. I want to see reasons why I should. I want hope to grow, blossom and pollenate the places in me that are let down and disgraced.
Come, Holy Spirit...
please read more about my thoughts on the evolution of Christianity at http://www.emergingchristianity.blogspot.com/
I've been listening to a lot of Rufus Wainwright in the last few months, and his song Going to a Town off the Release the Stars (2007) album is beautiful, heartbreaking and fills me with the loneliness and frustration I see all around me.
I'm going to a town that has already been burned down
I'm going to a place that is already been disgraced
I'm gonna see some folks who have already been let down.
I'm so tired of America
I'm gonna make it up for all of the Sunday Times
I'm gonna make it up for all of the nursery rhymes
They never really seem to want to tell the truth
I'm so tired of you America
Making my own way home
Ain't gonna be alone
I got a life to lead America
I got a life to lead
Tell me do you really think you go to hell for having loved?
Tell me and not for thinking every thing that you've done is good
(I really need to know)
After soaking the body of Jesus Christ in blood I'm so tired of America
(I really need to know)
I may just never see you again or might as well
You took advantage of a world that loved you well
I'm going to a town that has already been burned down
Today's generations are starving for hope. I guess, so am I... yes, yes, yes: I have Jesus. I have hope. But I want to feel hope. I want to see reasons why I should. I want hope to grow, blossom and pollenate the places in me that are let down and disgraced.
Come, Holy Spirit...
please read more about my thoughts on the evolution of Christianity at http://www.emergingchristianity.blogspot.com/
Wednesday
A New Landscape...
Today Brian Williams of NBC Nightly News wrote a beautiful essay on the Clinton and Obama campaigns, on New Hampshire and the expectations and surprises there. This year I've found myself excited about America - for the first time since leaving the Republican Party six years ago (at age 23, a burned out, disillusioned ex-Alex P. Keaton).
The soaring speeches we're hearing in 2008's Democratic Primaries are moving me from cautious cynicism to genuine hope about our future, our freedom and the potential of the American people to do something good and redemptive in the world.
Williams' article is worth reading: HERE
Williams Writes, On Clinton...
Hillary Clinton was bloodied in New Hampshire. The people of New Hampshire saw it and didn't like it. They saw assumptions forming and didn't like them. Some felt they were being told what to think: the race was decided, Hillary was desperate and inauthentic. Worst of all — and this was made very clear to me by more than one person — when some in the media quietly doubted that Hillary Clinton's emotions at that roundtable were real (there was quiet snickering about an "acting job" born of an urgent need to seem normal) it was proof to them that cynicism had taken hold of the politics/media realm, and they simply refused to believe that.
And On Obama...
That day, I saw people embrace Obama the way people embrace loved ones returning from foreign battlefields. I saw people with small children, brought along simply so their parents could years later tell them, to the point of predictable annoyance, "You were there." Losing in New Hampshire may well make Obama a better candidate. While it's the kind of thing that is always said at times like these by those of us whose names have never appeared on a ballot, I think it might just be true in this case.
please read more about my thoughts on the evolution of Christianity at http://www.emergingchristianity.blogspot.com/
The soaring speeches we're hearing in 2008's Democratic Primaries are moving me from cautious cynicism to genuine hope about our future, our freedom and the potential of the American people to do something good and redemptive in the world.
Williams' article is worth reading: HERE
Williams Writes, On Clinton...
Hillary Clinton was bloodied in New Hampshire. The people of New Hampshire saw it and didn't like it. They saw assumptions forming and didn't like them. Some felt they were being told what to think: the race was decided, Hillary was desperate and inauthentic. Worst of all — and this was made very clear to me by more than one person — when some in the media quietly doubted that Hillary Clinton's emotions at that roundtable were real (there was quiet snickering about an "acting job" born of an urgent need to seem normal) it was proof to them that cynicism had taken hold of the politics/media realm, and they simply refused to believe that.
And On Obama...
That day, I saw people embrace Obama the way people embrace loved ones returning from foreign battlefields. I saw people with small children, brought along simply so their parents could years later tell them, to the point of predictable annoyance, "You were there." Losing in New Hampshire may well make Obama a better candidate. While it's the kind of thing that is always said at times like these by those of us whose names have never appeared on a ballot, I think it might just be true in this case.
please read more about my thoughts on the evolution of Christianity at http://www.emergingchristianity.blogspot.com/
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