Talking to Ourselves

Americans are increasingly close-minded and unwilling to listen to opposing views.

It's not often you see me quoting an outspoken secularist/atheist but this lady's absolutely right.

From The Week, May 2, 2008. (Abridged):

As an atheist who takes a dim view of the influence of religion, said author Susan Jacoby in the Los Angeles Times, I am greeted enthusiastically in nearly all my public appearances. I'm not bragging. It's just that everywhere I appear, "95 percent of the audience shares my political and cultural views - and serious conservatives report exactly the same experience." Indeed, it's getting harder to find anyone who's willing "to give a fair shake - or any hearing at all" to opposing viewpoints. "Whether watching television news, consulting political blogs, or (more rarely) reading books, Americans today have become a people in search of validation for opinions they already hold." So when Gen. David Petraeus testifies before Congress, liberals tune to radio or TV shows that mock him and insist Iraq is lost; conservatives, meanwhile, comfort themselves with echo-chamber pundits who proclaim that victory is at hand. Such close-minded stubbornness is not only lazy; it makes you very vulnerable to being duped or misled. "As long as we continue to avoid the hard work of scrutinizing public affairs without the filter of polemical shouting heads," we have no one to blame for our growing national ignorance "but ourselves."
- Full column

This isn't a new idea on this blog. I've been complaining about this idea - in one way or another - from the first post. Too many Americans have a mentality about political and cultural issues that seems more like blind devotion to a favorite sports team or an ancient ancestry than to any sense of rationality. They don't want to learn. They don't want to think. They want to cheer as their guy trash-talks the other guy.

Here's a breakdown of most talk radio:

"Us good. Them bad. Here am they bad ideas. All bad. Me shoot down all they ideas. Easy shooting. Bang. Bang. No need listen to them. I play sound bite. No need talk to they face. They morons. All truth you need am right here. We pause station identification."

If you're a liberal, would you please pick up a book by George Will or listen to Larry Elder sometime?

If you're a conservative, catch Alan Colmes online or read Jacoby's latest book. Check out her article on defiant ignorance on both sides here, too.

The other side occasionally has some valid points - many based on personal experience and logical thought - that can help this country.

Not perfect. But perfectable. - Pt. 2

Now for the downside of Obama's "More Perfect Union" speech:

He did not satisfactorily answer the questions about his knowledge and tacit approval of Jeremiah Wright's demonizing of America. At all.

I cannot believe that Barack sat for 20 years under that man's preaching and managed to always miss every declaration like the ones shown in the ubiquitous video clips. That is beyond my ability to suspend disbelief. Judging from the kind of response the congregation gave those comments, it is clear that they were used to and applauded such sentiments. I've been around enough preaching to know that Wright knew those statements would get a huge response. He had given them a taste of it in the past and they had enjoyed it. Many had probably approached him after the service to encourage him on that path.

In short, he felt safe making those remarks because there was a history of positive reception in that church. And for Obama to say he somehow missed out on every instance of such sentiment is just not credible.

Obama says he always dismissed it as mere eccentricity or residual bitterness. Now, those concepts (of themselves) are somewhat understandable. I've winced a few times as older pastors made comments they saw as harmless but would be perceived even among conservatives today as being unenlightened or insensitive at best. But those are usually offhand comments that aren't part of the message. One shrugs and moves on.

But, for example, if my pastor were to start saying - nay, screaming - that all married women who don't stay barefoot and pregnant are raging Jezebels, I would leave the church. That's the equivalent of what Wright has done.

I did not stand in the Military Entrance Processing Station in Nashville in June of 1983 and promise to support and defend the Constitution of the USKKK of A. I gladly protected Wright's freedom to say that. But I also expect our presidents, regardless of political stripe, to repudiate any sentiment that would undermine the belief that we are the still the best nation on the planet. If a man doesn't believe that in his gut, he cannot fight for it with all his might.

As the rest of Obama's speech pointed out accurately and eloquently, my country isn't perfect (nor is it above criticism) but it's light years ahead of where it was.

Not perfect. But perfectable. - Pt. 1

Plenty of press has been given to Barack Obama's 'More Perfect Union' speech. After George W. Bush's address to Congress in September 2001, it may be the most important American speech of the decade. If you've not watched or read it in its entirety please do so. I had initially only heard sound bites and read snippets. They leave out many of the most important parts and are used to slant opinions.

I can only give my personal impressions of the speech and I have too many, both approving and ambivalent, to cover in one post. Since it is a speech primarily on race I've decided to first address it from a white perspective. And all I can say is that I've never - ever - heard a black politician show he understands the legitimate concerns and observations of middle-class whites more than Obama did in this passage.

In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don't feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience - as far as they're concerned, no one's handed them anything, they've built it from scratch. They've worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they're told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.

Like the anger within the black community, these resentments aren't always expressed in polite company. But they have helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation. Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism.

Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze - a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many. And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns - this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding.

This is where we are right now. It's a racial stalemate we've been stuck in for years. Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naive as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy - particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own.

But I have asserted a firm conviction - a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people - that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice if we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union.

See the full text at Obama's site - Text

Or watch it now:

Hating Hillary

An excellent editorial from Christianity Today:

Hating Hillary
Getting to the bottom of a cultural trend that has seeped into the church.

Also interesting are the comments. All the editorial says is that we should not be hateful toward Clinton. It does NOT say we shouldn't criticize her. But there are too many who think treating her as a fellow person for whom Christ died is tantamount to endorsement.

Yes We Can

In a sea of talking points and focus group-tested phraseology, Barack Obama is certainly a breath of fresh air.

It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation.

Yes we can.

It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail toward freedom.

Yes we can.

It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness.

Yes we can.

It was the call of workers who organized; women who reached for the ballots; a President who chose the moon as our new frontier; and a King who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to the Promised Land.

Yes we can to justice and equality.

Yes we can to opportunity and prosperity.

Yes we can heal this nation.

Yes we can repair this world.

Yes we can.

We know the battle ahead will be long, but always remember that no matter what obstacles stand in our way, nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change.

We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics...they will only grow louder and more dissonant ........... We've been asked to pause for a reality check. We've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope.

But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.

Now the hopes of the little girl who goes to a crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of LA; we will remember that there is something happening in America; that we are not as divided as our politics suggests; that we are one people; we are one nation; and together, we will begin the next great chapter in the American story with three words that will ring from coast to coast; from sea to shining sea --

Yes. We. Can.

Now, I can see some of my fellow premillenialists reeling from this one. When they see words like, "Yes we can heal this nation. Yes we can repair this world," they recoil in horror.

"No, we can't!" they cry. "We shouldn't even try! It's only going to get worse and worse until Armageddon. We can't postpone that. We should hide in a bunker until the rapture and just let the world fall apart. The sooner the better!"

But if that's the case, then why are you fighting to get your candidate(s) elected? If, deep down, you didn't also believe you could - and should - make a difference, you wouldn't even vote.

Good news: Yes you can!

Jesus and the GOP

As Alabama approaches Super Tuesday, I am reposting my very first entry here. It's still the bedrock of my political feeling at this point.

I must have missed a critical Sunday School lesson somewhere along the way. I know I learned that Jesus loved me. I also remember reading about his kindness to those who were outcasts such as tax collectors and prostitutes. I vividly recall the story of his death and resurrection, his visit to the disciples afterward, and Thomas touching his scars and believing.

But I must have been out the day everyone else read the verse about Jesus registering with the Republican Party and adopting a platform just this side of Barry Goldwater.

It could very well be true. There are plenty of lessons I learned by inference and the example of others rather than in church or from the Bible. This is how I found out God is not too keen on seeing movies at theaters but you can watch them at home anytime. He especially detests smoking but will let gluttony slide. And beer sold on Saturday at 11:59 p.m. is tolerable but on Sunday at 12:01 a.m. it's an abomination.

So it is not altogether unreasonable to deduce - what with the political ads implying so - that Jesus is a Republican. With conservative Christian values, of course.

So, if I'm getting straight what I hear from Christian TV and radio, Jesus is a laissez-faire free-market capitalist who detests government regulation of business. He thinks anyone who considers the environmental impact of manufacturing is a tree-hugging, Birkenstock-wearing pothead. He's never seen a weapons system he didn't like. He figures cutting government contract deals with cronies is just part of doing business. He thinks poor people are only poor because they're lazy and that they could be success-driven yuppies with cookie-cutter clothes and cookie-cutter houses if they'd just get off their butts.

Had enough sarcasm?

My point is that we all say (I hope!) that God prefers neither dominant party or ideology - Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal. But Christians got suckered into acting like He does about thirty years ago, give or take. Before that, evangelicals were largely populists - social conservatives and economic liberals. The Republicans co-opted our vote primarily by opposing abortion and supporting school prayer (without actually doing much about either). We've been a lock for them ever since. But instead of us influencing them, they've influenced us. Evangelicals now support the party line on everything - from the economy to social security to oil policy - simply because the party courted us on two issues, got what they wanted, and comes back wrapped in the flag and God's name every two years to get more.

Should we tell injured parties that corporations must operate unchecked and that over the course of decades market forces alone will eventually make these businesses public benefactors rather than threats? Doubtful. Do we really want to tell our children that we take little thought of the environment they will inherit or the resources we squander? I don't think so.

Yet we do it every time we support politicians who make corporations immune to lawsuits in exchange for campaign support, future board positions, and exotic travel opportunities. We send that message every time we defend energy policies that foul our air and avoid new power sources strictly out of blatant subservience to huge oil conglomerates. And we repeat it every time rights and liberty are eroded in the name of security.

It is wicked and abominable that we allow them to use us in this way.

Am I a Democrat? No way. Their capitulation to the abortion industry and militant secularism is abhorrent. But I refuse to make the blanket judgment that anything that comes out of any Democrat's mouth is wrong. Or, conversely, that everything a Republican says is right. That's utter foolishness. Wisdom is in a multitude of counsel, not in a gang of people who already agree with me.

We should not be married to any party or political ideology. Read the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). Can you honestly say - without qualification - that Jesus would be completely endorsed on every count, in practical application, by either side of our system? Not in a million years. And that's because He isn't about warring philosophies or beating the other guy or proving He's right. He's just Himself.

He is the truth - take Him or leave Him. But don't try to graft Him onto your politics. He transcends your ideology. And in many ways He will contradict your ideology. Please remember that the next time a politician tells you he's a God-fearing across-the-board conservative. Sometimes those two things are mutually exclusive.

Please leave comments

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Please weigh in on this clip of Tony Campolo on a Canadian talk show.

Operators are standing by.



I think Tony's been reading my blog!
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