Is it just me, or is Barack Obama sounding more like George W. Bush every day? This is either because:
a. Obama is giving in to political pressure and changing his ideals
b. Obama is seeing reality much more clearly, and reasonable human beings, given full information, will naturally come to similar conclusions about how America should proceed
I am inclined to believe it is the second one. What do you think?
I write this coming off a hard week of Facebook exchanges with a conservative Christian. Good guy, from what I can tell, with a good heart. Just very conservative. So I now have this picture of myself as a scary, ultra-liberal. I don’t think that’s who I am (and he never used those words), but here, for the benefit of all, I will “come clean” about my views (both political and theological).
1. I believe Jesus Christ is the risen Son of God and that salvation comes through him alone. I also happen to believe that if he is in fact God, then he will unite people with God who do not fit the formula the church has established. People get upset with me for thinking this, but why? Can I not leave it to God to do what God will do?
2. I am pro-life. I just happen to believe God cares as much about the already-born as he does about the unborn, so I believe social justice is critical as well.
3. I am pro free-market. However, because so many people lack internal constraints based on well-grounded moral principles, the market must be regulated to keep individual self-interest from shipwrecking the country (if it hasn’t already).
4. I believe in “Just War” theory. I am not a pacifist, but lean strongly in that direction.
5. I believe that not only are individuals responsible before God, but so are countries and societies.
6. I believe that people who do not believe as I do should have the basic right to live the way they want to live. God grants this right to his children, why should governments not grant it to their citizens? This does not mean redefining marriage, but it does mean making it possible for people to legally live in ways that I personally do not condone.
7. I believe that private citizens and institutions should shoulder the burden for caring for the country’s poor. However, for various reasons they are often unwilling to do so. Until they are willing, the government must continue to do this in some basic way.
Here is another example of the paranoia that is coming so often from the political right these days. This is a great illustration of how we can assign meaning to things that seems to resonate on a visceral level, and yet we can miss the mark completely.
[disclaimer: I realize political paranoia is not the exclusive domain of the right. But with a Democratic president, it just appears to be the right's particular forte at this time]
[another disclaimer: I do not endorse every single thing about the clip below. But I wholeheartedly endorse its general point about the paranoia]
[final disclaimer: comment if you wish, but I will only post comments that are about this clip. I will not post comments that simply want to show how the other side is just as absurd. Until each side takes responsibility for its own absurdity, there can be no progress.]
To skip right to the main point, start viewing at 2:20.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| A Farewell to Arms | ||||
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