Can our nation survive politics?

The House of Representatives passed a health care bill late last night. The lone Republican who voted YES was Rep. Anh Cao from Louisiana. No matter how anyone feels about the bill in particular, or the general movement toward universal health care, EVERYONE should be disgusted at the following sentence from a post on Newsweek - "It's unclear whether Republican leaders will discipline Cao for breaking ranks and allowing Democrats to claim the bill had 'bipartisan support.'"

Why should any of the people's representatives be "disciplined" for voting his or her conscience? Talk about loving the party more than the country, or more than one's principles. UGH!

Nobel Peace Prize

Did Barak Obama receive the Nobel Peace Prize because he deserved it or for political reasons? I certainly don't know and I don't care. He was honored with it. Why dump on him? He didn't ask for it.

Even if it was for political purposes, what's so bad about that? EVERYTHING in the public sphere is done for political purposes. Politics doesn't have to be a dirty word. One thing that the President has done during his short time in office is to change the way much of the world looks at the United States. That's no small accomplishment. What's wrong with us that so much of the world affirms the President while so many of our fellow citizens hold him in such disregard?

The old saying by Scottish poet Robert Burns comes to mind: "O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us to see oursels as others see us. In "American English" that would read: "O would some Power give us the gift to see ourselves as others see us!"

I pray that "The Power" would give our nation such a gift.

HOW SPIRITUAL ARE WE?

That is the question asked on the cover story of today's Parade Magazine. It reports on various indices of religiosity such as beliefs, church attendance, frequency of prayer, etc. Since Jesus said that the world would know we are his disciples by the love we have for each other (John 13:35); and that "a good tree bears good fruit and a bad tree bears bad fruit," (Matthew 7:17) it seems to me that the better measure of how "spiritual" we are as a people is by looking at the kind of lives we lead.

St. Paul outlines a rather straightforward measure of spirituality: "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." (Galatians 5:22) If that's the measure of "how spiritual are we?" then all the noise in our nation and world today would tell us that the answer is a resounding "not very." UGH!

STICKS AND STONES

Thomas Friedman's syndicated column today (October 1, 2009) is very sobering indeed. I wish everyone would read it and take its warnings seriously. I won't try to summarize what he said, only encourage you to "google" it and read it for yourself. The article is called, "Where Did 'We' Go?"

Remember the childhood saying, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me." Not so. Names can be just as destructive. The Letter of James says that the tongue is capable of "great exploits". It's like a small rudder that guides a boat through the water. It's like a small fire that can set ablaze a forest. Wild animals have been tamed, but no one has ever tamed the human tongue! It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. (James 3:1-12)

The tenor of communal discourse in our nation has sunk far below civility. Our tongues just might be our undoing.

The "NO NO" Party

Thank God the US has abandoned plans to build a missile defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic. I thought it was a dumb idea in the first place. No wonder Russia felt threatened. Why would they believe us when we said it was not a threat to them any more than we believe Iran when it says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.

The President said he was acting on the advice of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs (Admiral Mike Mullen) and Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates (who I believe is a registered Republican and also served in the same position during the administration of George W. Bush). Yet the Republicans are all a twitter, claiming Obama has sold out to the Russians and that he has weakened our defense. Would they prefer that the President ignore his military advisors?

Are the Republicans ever FOR anything? It always seems as if they are AGAINST everything. Maybe they'd prefer to go back to the days of the cold war. Well, I'm for this move. It shows that the United States is confident about its strength. It should help the world know that we don't want to be an empire after all. And it reflects a more Biblical theology (God forbid that we should mix a little religion and politics). "A king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength. The war horse is a vain hope for victory, and by its great might it cannot save." (Psalm 33:16-17)

Why the fuss?

Now that our children have been "exposed" to the President, maybe people will be able to reflect more seriously about all the furor. It has not been one of our finer hours as a nation. Thank God for Laura Bush who spoke up and said it was most appropriate for the President to address school children. She had better say that -- her husband and father-in-law both did during their time in office. I saw on the NBC Nightly News that one group of parents, where the school would not allow the speech to be shown and heard, kept their kids home so they COULD watch the speech live. Kudos to such reasonable people.

In today's edition of SOJO, the e-mail version of SOJOURNERS Magazine, Brian McLaren has a powerful piece that begs for more moderate and reasonable Republicans to stand up and take leadership. You may want to check it out at this link -

blog.sojo.net/2009/09/08/a-plea-for-a-new-generation-of-republican-leadership

(I just checked this link and for some reason it doesn't work. Sorry about that. But if you type it into your browser, it should work -- at least it does for me!)

While going over some material that I wrote years ago, I found this quote from Madeleine L'Engle. It addresses the issue of faith, but I think it also speaks an appropriate word for the times in which we live as a nation: "All I have to know is that I do not have to know in limited, finite terms of provable fact that which I believe. Infallibility has led to schisms in the Church, to atheism, and to deep misery. All I have to know is that God is love, and that love will not let us go, not any of us."

God deliver us from the "know-it-alls" and let us learn the fine art of dialogue and real conversation.

A nation divided

Today's Sarasota Herald-Tribune reports on the President’s plan to address the nation’s students in their classroom so he can challenge them toward excellence in their studies. I can’t believe this has met with such a political firestorm. It sounds like a great idea to me. What a powerful statement it makes to our children and youth that the President of the United States wants to take the time to speak to them a word of encouragement at the beginning of the school year. Some parents in Sarasota and Manatee counties and other locations throughout the nation, are objecting and threatening to keep their children home lest they be exposed to the President’s “socialist” views. Give me a break. Are we so divided as a nation that we would teach our children such disrespect for the Presidency? Some parents and educators want to see the text of the speech before it is delivered so they can approve or disapprove. Is there no such thing as trust left among us? Is not this the land of free speech? I was never a fan of George W. Bush and his policies, but I never hated him and I can’t imagine keeping my children home if I learned he wanted to speak to them while they were in the classroom. Like him or not, he was still the President. Of course, George W. Bush did address our children, soon after September 11, 2001. His father also addressed the nation’s children in 1991. I wonder if their speeches had to be approved beforehand. I am increasingly uneasy about the future of our nation, not because of the threat of foreign enemies but because of the enemy within. To paraphrase the familiar words of Pogo, “We have met our enemies and they are we.”