[Book review]God's Politics : Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It

this has unintended consequences since I write here quite a bit!

 

This guy is an amazing person. I used to live with somebody who worked for Call to Renewal, his organization, and I've had a number of chances to meet and talk to him (I've even grilled him fajitas before). The thing I like about Jim is that he's obviously a very religious man himself, as a reverend, but he makes you feel like you're one of his. As a spiritual, but nonreligious person myself, I sometimes find highly religious people intimidating or overbearing. I truly wish that the evangelical movement in America was led more by kind folks who are always opening their arms, rather than by the exclusionary Fallwell types.

(To be fair, I base this only on what I see in the papers and hear on TV. I'm not too familiar with the positive, pleasant sides of the evangelical movement)

 

To be honest...there are lot more out there like that than like Falwell. They're obviously, naturally not as loud as Falwell.

Great comments.

 

Better stop dreaming of the quiet life -
Cos it’s the one we’ll never know
And quit running for that runaway bus -
Cos those rosey days are few
And - stop apologising for the things you’ve never done,
Cos time is short and life is cruel -
But it’s up to us to change
This town called malice.
Rows and rows of disused milk floats
Stand dying in the dairy yard
And a hundred lonely housewives clutch empty milk
Bottles to their hearts
Hanging out their old love letters on the line to dry
It’s enough to make you stop believing when tears come
Fast and furious
In a town called malice.

Struggle after struggle - year after year
The atmosphere’s a fine blend of ice -
I’m almost stone cold dead
In a town called malice.

A whole street’s belief in sunday’s roast beef
Gets dashed against the co-op
To either cut down on beer or the kids new gear
It’s a big decision in a town called malice.

The ghost of a steam train - echoes down my track
It’s at the moment bound for nowhere -
Just going round and round
Playground kids and creaking swings -
Lost laughter in the breeze
I could go on for hours and I probably will -
But I’d sooner put some joy back
In this town called malice.

 

Interesting. I coincidentally (I don't see the show much) saw Obama on the Charlie Rose Show last week and he basically said the same thing. Obama, apparently, is open about his spirituality.

 

I only know this guy from the one short Daily show interview but wow, he has a very interesting tact. I'm agnostic and that won't change but I have always thought that Christian tenets had a lot more to do with socialism and populism than with the demogogary of the American right. It seems to me that the big money has hijacked the Christians of this country exploiting the polarizing issues of abortion and gay rights to elect their big money politicians despite the dichotomey between their self interested focus and the tolerance and charity I see as the basis of Christ's teachings.

Tolerance, human rights and social services will always take a back seat to self-preservation in times of strife. But I can see a day coming when there is a Christian led leftward swing of the pendulum in this country.

 

This guy was just on the Daily Show. Wow. Tremendous guy.

 

They've been doing it for a while now. Always show the night before's episode @ 7 E the next day.

Saw it last night. I will definitely be stopping by Barnes and Noble this weekend. The book sounds very interesting.

 

I appreciate the poking at Kerry as a definite loser from rhetoric and coincidental appearance by the Daily Show...

 

Christ's teachings have been the same for well over 2000 years. The church and the perceptions of the church have, unfortunately, not been. I agree wholeheartedly that there needs to be more balance...in reality and in perception.

 

Interesting:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/ma..._urges_use_of_faith_based_initiatives?mode=PF

Sen. Clinton urges use of faith-based initiatives
By Michael Jonas, Globe Correspondent | January 20, 2005

On the eve of the presidential inauguration, US Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton last night embraced an issue some pundits say helped seal a second term for George W. Bush: acceptance of the role of faith in addressing social ills.

In a speech at a fund-raising dinner for a Boston-based organization that promotes faith-based solutions to social problems, Clinton said there has been a "false division" between faith-based approaches to social problems and respect for the separation of church of state.

"There is no contradiction between support for faith-based initiatives and upholding our constitutional principles," said Clinton, a New York Democrat who often is mentioned as a possible presidential candidate in 2008.

Addressing a crowd of more than 500, including many religious leaders, at Boston's Fairmont Copley Plaza, Clinton invoked God more than half a dozen times, at one point declaring, "I've always been a praying person."

She said there must be room for religious people to "live out their faith in the public square."

The issue of faith in politics has been at the center of debate following the presidential election, with some arguing that Bush's strong identification with religious values was a key to his victory over Senator John F. Kerry.

The dinner was a fund-raiser for the National TenPoint Leadership Foundation and the Dorchester-based Ella J. Baker House. Both youth outreach programs are directed by the Rev. Eugene F. Rivers 3d, a leader of the clergy-based efforts to stem youth violence in Boston in the 1990s that has become a national model for community-police partnerships.

The minister has often criticized established black leaders and liberal politicians, saying they have failed to deal honestly with the problems of youth violence.

Rivers said he hoped Clinton's appearance last night would build broader support for an issue on which some Democrats have been skittish.

"She is in a position to articulate a progressive vision around this issue of faith and values," Rivers said.

"The Clintons, on faith-based solutions, have always been way ahead of the curve," said Rivers, citing President Clinton's support of a 1996 law banning the federal government from discriminating against religious organizations seeking funding available to groups delivering social services.

In her speech, Clinton praised the efforts of Rivers and others working to curb youth violence, saying those of faith are often most willing to walk the streets of the country's most dangerous neighborhoods to try to reach young people. Where others "see trouble," she said, Rivers and faith-based soldiers "see God's work right in front of them."

Although the senator has insisted that she is focused only on her work in the Senate and constituents in New York (she faces reelection in 2006), talk of another Clinton seeking the White House seems to be a topic of speculation wherever she goes.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino got the ball rolling with his introduction of Clinton last night, calling her "the first first lady to be a US senator and maybe the first woman to be something else."

"I don't know who the right person will be in 2008, but Hillary is certainly one of the most compelling political figures on the horizon," said Alan Solomont, the former finance chairman of the Democratic National Committee, who attended last night's event. '

Clinton wasn't the only would-be candidate generating buzz at the dinner. Seated prominently at the head table was Deval Patrick, a former assistant attorney general in the Clinton administration who said last week that he is considering a run for Massachusetts governor in 2006.

"I'm interested and I'm exploring," said Patrick last night. "I'm trying to cast a wide net and talk to a lot of people."

The 48-year-old black attorney from Milton said he will decide in the next several months whether to seek the Democratic nomination for the state's highest office. Patrick, who was in charge of the Justice Department's civil rights division from 1994 to 1997, left his position last month as chief legal counsel to Coca-Cola Co., where he worked for nearly four years.The event was billed as the Ella J. Baker Awards Dinner, and four leaders were honored for supporting the youth outreach efforts of the Baker House.

Receiving awards were Boston Police Commissioner Kathleen M. O'Toole; Sylvia R. Johnson, associate director of the Hyams Foundation; former US attorney Donald K. Stern; and Roxbury District Court Judge Edward R. Redd.