There’s a story about a new, young preacher whose first sermon
at his new parish was well received. The next week, he repeated the same
sermon.
The people weren’t too worried. After all, he was young and
probably nervous. They spoke among themselves, “We just need to encourage him,”
which they did.
But when he repeated the same sermon on the third consecutive
Sunday, the elders took him aside. “We understand that you’re young and new and
inexperienced. What can we do to help you develop other sermons?”
The young preacher replied, “Oh, I have other sermons ready;
and, as soon as I see evidence that you’ve heard this one, I’ll move on to the
next one.”
Boy, Howdy! Have I been tempted to do the same thing!
There’s an issue before us as Americans and as citizens of the
Earth, that needs to be addressed over and over and over. I’m not arrogant
enough to believe I have the definitive Word on the subject, even though I have
addressed it many times in this blog and in other venues.
This time I thought I’d broach the subject with several quotes
from another, more influential source. Jim Wallis[1] is founder, editor, and publisher
of Sojourners magazine. I abandoned a major writing project on
the subject when I discovered Wallis’ writings, because he says exactly what I
feel, and does so in a manner much less adversarial than my own efforts have
been (ironically, my campaign against adversarial partisanism could not avoid
adversarialism!)
Wallis’ passion, like my own, is for bipartisan collaboration for
the common good. His presupposition, like my own, is that both the right and
the left have important gifts to offer in the pursuit of the common good,
and that the ideological warfare[2] that has replaced civil
debate is perhaps history’s greatest barrier to that common good.
The quotes that follow are from two of his books:
·
Jim Wallis, On God’s Side: What Religion Forgets and
Politics Hasn’t Learned About Serving the Common Good (Grand Rapids,
Michigan: Brazos Press, a division of Baker Publishing Group) 2013.
·
Jim Wallis, Conservatives, Liberals and the Fight for
America’s Future (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Brazos Press, a division of
Baker Publishing Group) 2013.] This little book contains excerpts from On
God’s Side, listed above.
I use a Kindle, which gives “Locations” instead of page numbers.
“The day after the
2012 presidential election brought a great feeling of relief. Most of us, no
matter whether our candidates won or lost, were so weary of what elections and
politics have become that we were just glad the process was over. Many were
disappointed with how the dysfunctional and bitterly partisan politics in
Washington had undermined their deep desires for hope and change. Politics has
severely constrained those possibilities by focusing on blame instead
of solutions, and winning (ideological confrontations) instead of governing [italics
and parenthetical mine]. … But the election results produced neither the
salvation nor the damnation of the country, as some of the pundits on both
sides seemed to suggest. Instead, they called us to go deeper.” [Opening words
of the Preface of On God’s Side, Location 165].
* * *
“Man’s capacity for
justice makes democracy possible; but man’s inclination to injustice makes
democracy necessary.” ~ Reinhold Niebuhr [from Conservatives, Liberals
and the Fight for America’s Future, Location 39].
* * *
“I am a democrat
[proponent of democracy] because I believe in the Fall of Man. I think most
people are democrats for the opposite reason. A great deal of democratic
enthusiasm descends from the ideas of people like Rousseau, who believed in
democracy because they thought mankind so wise and good that everyone deserved
a share in the government… The real reason for democracy is just the reverse.
Mankind is so fallen that no man can be trusted with unchecked power over his
fellows…. I reject slavery because I see no men fit to be masters.” ~ C. S.
Lewis [from Conservatives, Liberals and the Fight for America’s Future,
Location 44].
* * *
“Perhaps the greatest
loss is to the common good—because I believe that both conservative and liberal
insights and commitments are necessary for it to exist. In short, I am
convinced that the common good requires us to be both personally responsible
and socially just (italics his). These are the two best big ideas of
conservatism and liberalism respectively.” [from Conservatives,
Liberals and the Fight for America’s Future, Location 52.]
* * *
“The 24/7 news
coverage today… doesn’t really “cover” the news but rather fuels the audience’s
already-held prejudices about what is happening. Almost all of it is biased,
much of it is distorted, some of it is just plain lies, and too much of it is
downright hateful. Unfortunately, we are losing genuinely important ideas that
the other political side has, which are often critically needed to find more
balanced answers to our complex social, political, and economic problems. We’ve
lost our integrity in the public arena, substituting ideological warfare for
genuine and rigorous political debate, replacing substance with sound bites…
“In such a
polarized, paralyzed and increasingly poisonous political environment, it is
very difficult to find or even discuss the common good. But I believe that both
the conservative and liberal philosophies have critical contributions to make
in solving our problems and that the best ideas from both are essential for
reestablishing a serious public discourse about the common good.” [from Conservatives,
Liberals and the Fight for America’s Future, Location 73.]
Most of my political exposure, other than the virtually
universally biased media, is on Facebook, where some of my friends complain
constantly about the “liberal press” or the “leftist media,” etc., with virtually no critical evaluation of the biases
of their favored conservative sources. At the same time, other friends
continuously point out the inconsistencies of the conservative media without critical analysis of their favored liberal
sources.
I can think of few Facebook friends who share my own passion for
trying to find balance and bipartisan collaboration—for seeking reconciliation
and healing of our land. Most just want to win the fight, and for their side to
prevail.
I recommend—no, I implore my readers (both of you!) to read
carefully the writings of Jim Wallis referenced in this blog, as well as his
earlier book, God’s Politics: When the Right Gets it Wrong and the Left
Doesn’t Get It. I also recommend Parker Palmer’s Healing the
Heart of Democracy as a call to healing, reconciling collaboration to
replace the current culture wars.
That’s
the way it looks through the Flawed Glass that is my world view.
Together
in the Walk,
Jim
[1] Since I first published
this blog, Wallis has become virtually a persona non grata among
conservatives, and many conservatives categorically dismiss and refuse to read
or hear anything they anticipate will be counter to their own ideological
cocoon. But that’s precisely the point and is the reason I quote him here. It
is so crucial that we read and listen to all perspectives. No single person—no
human group of any size—is totally right or totally wrong about anything.
Every person, and every human group, has something of value to contribute to
the common good, and to cut them off without a hearing is to abandon the common
good to a closed ideology.
[2] Since this blog was
published the first time, the ideological referenced above has become so
pervasive that now it has its own label: “culture wars.”
