Entry tags:

politics, religion

Paper begone! Also, politics and piety.
I think I've won a small victory in my ongoing battle against the junk paper that's cluttering up my life (especially my apartment and office). Did a major cleanup of my bedroom last night, which culminated in my throwing away the junky inkjet that's been taking up way too much space on my desk. (It couldn't be trusted to print anything of importance, like a resume, and the last cartridge is empty. And there's no point in blowing another $30 on a new cartridge, since I'll be getting a laser printer in about six weeks.) I'd really like to get a shredder at home however--I'm still shredding all those pre-approved credit card deals with my trusty scissors. Very tedious.

This morning: balanced checkbook, paid bills, cleaned up the living room and kitchen, and received Peapod groceries. But the highlight was breakfast, because I made myself chocolate chip pancakes. Mmm. And tonight my friends are making sushi. Double mmm. A good food day.

* * *

In my last (friends-locked) entry, I linked to Camassia's post on Stanley Hauerwas's lecture on abortion. At the end of the lecture, Hauerwas was asked what he thought would be the best abortion law for the United States. His response follows:

The church is not nearly at the point where she can concern herself with what kind of abortion law we should have in the United States or even in the state of North Carolina. Instead, we should start thinking about what it means for Christians to be the kind of community that can make a witness to the wider society about these matters.

This rings so very true to me. When I see pro-life and anti-same sex marriage activists, my heart sinks. Not because I necessarily disagree with them--I waffle on abortion, but I think the US government should offer the same rights to same-sex couples that it offers to heterosexual couples--but because I think they're missing the point. Christ didn't come to free Israel from the power of Roman imperialism. He didn't change the world through politics and government and nations. But he did change the world through how he lived.

Yet can we interpret that as a call to be apolitical? I don't know. I've been struggling with what it means to be a relatively theologically conservative Christian with rather liberal political leanings during an election year. The rhetoric on both sides makes me sick. I hate the intolerance of some liberals who flaunt their so-called tolerance, and I hate the utter lack of compassion in so-called compassionate conservatism. Christians in both parties are spectacularly failing to be "a witness to wider society."

But that's hardly a productive sentiment. Sursum Corda recently blogged : "[M]y experience has been that toughest part about being Catholic is the person sitting next to you on Sunday morning. And the toughest part for them about being Catholic is you." Yes, the hardest thing about identifying yourself with any group is having to deal with the failings of the other members of that group, which reflect upon and affect you, whether it's within a committee in your particular church or within society as a whole.

So I need to stop obsessing over the failings over my fellow Christians, who would probably see plenty of failings in me, and think more about what it really means to make my life a public witness in all things--even in my participation in the civic institutions of my society. Hauerwas suggests that one step is learning how to reframe debates, and that's a big part of it. But what else can I as an individual do? The answer to that is still a big work in progress.