Synchronicity

Iraq is splintering.

The Bush Administration is showing itself to be a true house of cards.

The Middle East is erupting in pent-up anti-Western anger.

Athletes from around the world are competing for once-in-a-lifetime dreams that no American seems to be watching.

Amateur karaoke talents are competing for the nation's greatest karaoke competition that Americans are watching.

The Derek Trucks Band continues to win over critics and audiences wherever it performs.

And my son continues to experience joy as he learns new words and sounds of his favorite animals.


On a previous post, someone asked for my two cents regarding religion and the public square. A tough one as my political and religious experiences and beliefs have evolved over the last decade, though they have ultimately remained intact. Religion plays a central role in most people's lives in this country and yet the nation is rent over the role religion should play. Are we, as conservatives, to promote the culture, teachings and belief system found in the Bible? Are we, as liberals, to push for a nation whose culture values and includes people of all backgrounds, faiths and politics?
As one who claims to be a Christian, I am appalled by what I see as the shameless use of religion as a divisive tool used by groups, mainly conservative, for their own gain. Wide-ranging "religous" issues such as prayer in school, gay marriage, the teaching of evolution, the "breakdown of family values", Hollywood and drug use are constant bogeymen presented during election years and yet seem to truly be demagogic points thrown about by the Right that immediately lose focus the second votes are counted. Many "religious" people vocal in this country are predominantly Christian as the Jewish vote or Muslim vote or ______ vote are chronically marginalized as not representing "American" values. With this, I believe, religious voters miss the mark with their religious political activity. Their goal of a "Christian nation" can not nor should not be brought about using the political system. The purpose of the political system is for disparate groups to fight for their needs and wants to be represented in government and not the forcing of a religious movement or set of beliefs on an entire nation. If Christians wish to see Christian values be "re-adopted" by a "lost" nation, their efforts are for naught. Christians are free to evangelize and prostelytize to the best of their abilities and convert and help evolve a cultural ethic based on their beliefs; using the government to push upon a people a singular group's beliefs is the misuse of religion. The inane "WWJD" movement from the beginning of the decade did little to convert the non-believer nor truly even change the mindset of the devout; What would Jesus do? In the political realm, that is like asking what Caligula would do at pottery barn. Non sequitor? Definitely. Democracy is a concept so modern, so western and so far removed from the understanding of someone who lived two thousand years ago on the other side of the world. Besides, what would Jesus care about democracy? A church can not function with democratic ideals if its basic tenets are to remain intact. Therefore, people voting "as Jesus would" should either reject or somehow evolve their world view. If trying to capture Jesus's politics and then representing them to one's best at the poll's, there are countless yet important questions one would need to address: would Jesus vote for someone who claims to follow him and yet carry out policies that ultimately reject them? Would Jesus vote for a candidate that uses the military to kill countless people for the best interests of a nation? Would Jesus support the idea that business is infallible and the strongest entity on earth and therefore deserves the greatest amount of protection even over the needs of its poorest citizens? Would Jesus vote for a candidate that serves the wealthy or serves the poor? Would Jesus wish to use politics and the system to unite people or divide them? Would Jesus wish to see wealthy people use their wealth to help others or keep themselves wealthy at the expense of everyone and everything else? Ultimately, we need to all identify our "god" or "gods" in order to figure out what we'd like to see happen using the political system. Methinks the majority of Christians have unconsciously replaced Jesus with Calvin Coolidge, the thirtieth president of the United States, who deftly laid out in the 1920s the same identical platform that most conservative "religious" Americans push for today: "The business of America IS business." "He who builds a factory builds a temple; he who works there worships there." "The love of money is the root of all evil." Oops, sorry, that last quote comes from Trotsky or Castro or some other non-white anti-American person who is probably from the Middle East.

Ramble on, eh?