progressivechristianity
Originally Posted on Crossleft.org on Fri, 07/29/2005 - 17:37 — Looks like Obama saw that the country desperately needed hope and ran his campaign promising to deliver on that need.
In my last post I spoke about the need for vision. For any hopes of vision we need hope.
I must admit, in the early morning hours of election night 2004, I was devoid of hope. I was driving back from Boston after 2 days of doing my small part by campaigning in Philadelphia. I had told myself that I would get back to Boston in time for a victory celebration. A little after 1 am, I was somewhere between Hartford and Boston, when NPR seemed pretty sure that Ohio was going to Bush. I was nothing short of devastated.
How could a man who had:
- stolen the last election through absolute fraud,
- been asleep at the wheel on the terrorism threat leading to the greatest ever attack in our country,
- led the country into war based on lies and fabrications
- cut taxes to the rich
- cut services to the poor
- balooned the federal deficit to record high levels
- eased common sense environmental restrictions
- acted with wanton disregard of historical alliances and friendships between the US and European nations
- given no bid contracts in the order of many billions to a company that the vice-president was still getting a pay check from in deferred income to rebuild the country he blew up
- so viciously and unethically attacked political opponents starting with Ann Richards, moving onto speaking at a segregationalist college to attack John McCain in South Carolina, to the Swift Boat stuff with John Kerry
- limiting speech and privacy through the Patriot Act
- claim God and the flag, in the name of all of his work
BE RE-ELECTED!?!
What were the America people thinking? What was middle America thinking? So many people had worked so hard to unseat the evil that this administration had imposed. So many people beared their souls to speak the truth in the face of long odds. The anti-war protests, the blogs, the email campaigns, the postering, the knocking on doors. So much effort was seemingly wasted. For a few weeks, I lost hope, lost faith.
And that's when i realized...I had to pick myself up. There was little time for despair. I had to join with other to decide what we progressives stand for. We had been talking largely to ourselves throughout all of this and we had been largely negative, attacking Bush and saying what we're not. If we were going to have any hope in the future we would need to engage Christians from across the spectrum to reclaim the Word that inspires hope in each of us.
Hope implores us to put forward a positive vision of the world that inspires even further hope. Hope demands that we can define that vision in practical terms that are atttainable over the long term. Hope is nourished by the faith that we share.
And this, in my estimation, is what CrossLeft is about. Defining vision, inspiring hope, relying on faith.
More on faith next time.
Originally posted on Crossleft.org Sun, 07/17/2005 - 18:57
In 2005, the American left finds itself in disarray. The loss in the 2004 elections resulting in continued conservative dominance of the federal government seared the political souls of progressives Americans. The progressive movement once again finds itself adrift in a malaise of irrelevance within the halls of power and perhaps more importantly, amongst the average American citizen.
This irrelevance is not a result of any tactical error in an electoral or activist campaign. Its certainly not a result of our ability to express our views articulately or fight passionately for what we believe. Indeed, the progressive movement has fought hard against conducting an unjust war, reducing taxes for the rich while we cut needed programs for the poor, and the appointing of those activist conservative judges. The irrelevance is a direct result of an inability to articulate an overarching progressive vision and its accompanying ideology and specific policy recommendations. With continued insistence on simply providing a contrarian view to conservatives, progressives can only hope to continue with a clouded vision, and thereby a minority position in American politics.
Historically, the political entity that can best articulate a vision for the future and stand firm by the policies contained therein, attract the majority support of the people. The founding fathers were able to explain how a break with England would create new opportunities and an example democracy that the world would look to as a model. The abolitionists stated not just their opposition to slavery but institutions and programs of upliftment for newly freed African Americans. The progressive at the turn of the last century promoted labor and health standards that addressed a rapidly industrializing nation. The New Deal provided a social compact between the government and people for a generation. And within the last 30 years, the conservatives' vision of smaller government, social conservatism, and projection of American military might rules the day.
In our time, we look to our faith as Christians to go back to the drawing board, in a sense, challenging our long-held assumptions in order to give rise to creative tensions and dialogue to arrive at shared vision for what the world will be. Americans will not respond solely to attacks on the actions of Karl Rove or the policies of a Republican dominated Washington. Americans need to see not only what we're against, but what we're before. And progressives need to articulate that vision just as passionately as they decry the war or the further destruction of the environment. That's what CrossLeft is all about. We want to establish the public spaces and promote the dialogues that will allow our community to bring clarity to a shared view of a better tomorrow. Subsequently, CrossLeft will build the movement and its accompanying structures to push for the change that will realize, nourish, and continue to clarify our vision for our country and the world. Come, help shape this positive vision for a better tomorrow.
Originally posted Fri, 08/05/2005 - 09:09 in the middle of some of the worst days in Iraq.
One of my best friends from high school just sent an email to me. He apologized for the rant, but he needed to vent. He is so frustrated with the situation that he just needed to spout.
Y'see. He's in Iraq. He's a Marine reservist. He was one of the last to go. He was against going into war with Iraq, but all his buddies had already been there. He felt like he needed to be there, a brother in arms.
In the last week, 21 marines have perished, all from his regiment. This includes the 14 marines from the same Ohio town. So many midwestern towns have proudly sent their young men and women into battle, but this seems entirely too heavy a price to pay for one small town to bare.
My buddy is frustrated with the bravado of the administration and their friends in the media saying that we are winning the war. We're simply not winning, from his view in the Al-Anbar province in western Iraq. Its unclear how we could win or what victory looks like.
...
My buddy always wanted to be in the military. He has a high degree of honor and respect for this country and for our forefathers who often had to fight and die for the freedoms we enjoy today. In high school we would frequently discuss the world wars. Sometimes, I would visit him at his Civil War re-enactments. We share this comment respect for the country, for our history, and for what yet needs to be done.
After high school, he went off to Virginia Military Institute and then into the Marines. I went off to Cornell and then into the inner city. And through these different paths, our feelings about the world, our politics have actually grown closer.
I've asked him to share his thoughts and frustrations directly to a broader audience through CrossLeft. We'll see if he feels at liberty while he's still over there.
...
I often think back about our conversations over the last 15 years. When they haven't been about family, love and heartbreak, they've tended to history and politics.
In the Civil War, leaders like Abraham Lincoln and Robert E. Lee were necessarily close to the violence before them. They approached war with a heavy heart. There was little bravado, no "Bring It Ons", no "wanted dead or alive". There was a job to do, and both men led their men through understanding and compassion for the common soldier. There was no room for arrogance in something as awful as war.
Christians can and should debate whether war is ever justified. Warding off a colonial power, freeing enslaved Africans, and confronting Fascism all seem to be worthwhile endeavors, and in my estimation worthwhile enough to fight and die for. But pre-emptive war and bringing democracy by force seem be against anything that Jesus taught. Certainly the arrogance and jingoism of the current administration does not fit either the teachings of Jesus, or the tradition of American military and political leaders in times of war.
Fighting men and women don't brag, don't encourage more terrorists to come out and fight, but rather do their jobs methodically and professionally in honor to their country and its ideals. If any of our current leaders had ever put themselves in harm's way, had ever fought in the military, maybe they would know and understand that. Maybe then they would be real with the American people, admit their mistakes, and find a way to get our men and women out of this quagmire.
Its up to us to push for this change. As hard as it is sometimes, we must pray for our leaders and pray for a change of a heart. We must also continue to protest this war, to vote for candidates who pledge to get us out of war, and to convince others who still support the war that we have erred in our ways and its time now to end this terrible mistake.
As Christians, its also falls upon us to pray for the safety of my buddy and all of our armed forces, and the well-being the innocent Iraqi citizens who have suffered through a dictatorship, a 12 year embargo, US bombings, and are now caught in the cross-hairs of an occupation and insurgency.
God Bless Them.