He’s definitely Also a Christian.
Posted by DLW in Uncategorized at 12:22 pm | 
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Bob over at I am a Christian Too has a number of good recent posts. His most recent one nominates U2 singer Bono for president of the World Bank. It brings attention to Bono’s organization Debt, AIDS and Trade in Africa(DATA) that seeks to raise awareness of Africa’s problems and lobby governments to help solve them. He makes the important point that Bush will be having a lot of say-so over the selection of the next World Bank president and that the US’s rep will be affected by who he selects. This clearly is an issue that deserves some concerted activism in the future. It might also be good to lobby for a public confession and disavowal of using economic hitmen in the future and to take other measures to realign the principals of the World Bank so that it will be more for the world and less of a bank in the future.
Bob also shares some reflections on Wallis’s growing movement associated with his book “God’s Politics”. Herein Bob shows that he knows God in that he displays the spirit of truth, rather than error(1 John 4:6), in his willingness to listen to his fellow believer and his conviction over his own past crass partisanship. He points out how the media too easily passes over nuance and compromise in favor of entertaining controversy. He also relates a story told by Wallis about how his attempt to meet with Dobson to discuss finding common ground on the matter of gay-rights was vetoed by the fundraising department of Focus on the Family. It seems the special interests that benefit from our political polarization have gained the upper hand in our politics, at the expense of the rest of us.
At the root of Wallis’ movement is the concern to root out the cultural wars from continuing to poison our democratic process so that more priority can be given to the poor, the environment and more alternatives to state-based violence to deal with our int’l problems exacerbated by our growing inter-connectedness through globalization.
I could nitpick Wallis, reitarating my own ideas for compromise on the cultural wars issues, but it seems to be more important to point to the fruits of his ministry in that he has given hope to others, like Bob and I.
dlw
The 6th of March, 2005 at 1:39 pm
Wallis has ideas diverging from much of both conservative and liberal theological persuasions. I am often surprised to see both sides write critical statements in SOJO mail, though most DOES come from the conservative side of issues.
When James Dobson first started Focus on the Family, I don’t remember his being so right wing and conservative. It is probable that he was; but I simply remember his calling for responsibility and discipline in the home and between couples.
My first surprise was to read some statements in their magazine that essentially called for a “underling” status for the wife in marriage relationships based on one way of theologizing about relationships, and based mostly on PART of a biblical statement that “Wives” should submit to their husbands. No room is given for context, the preceding statement about Christians being submissive to one another, nor the likelihood that this was describing the way marriage operated in that distant day and comparing it to the way the church ought to operate with Christ as head.
Right now I am disappointed with the way even liberal media is tending to start to praise some of what the Bush administration is doing. Even positive things about his potential destruction of Social Security (likely followed by more destruction of Medicare).
I do not believe government social programs solve everything, or even that they can permanently solve anything. OTOH, these social protections are important to those who have the smallest voices in today’s national situation. As big media becomes bigger, big business becomes bigger (and more of our stuff comes from countries where freedom does NOT reign at all), and money is buying votes to an even greater degree I wonder how much longer what freedom we have left will be worth?
So how do you and I discuss these issues with those who say about the Bible, “God wrote it. I believe it. That settles it.”?
The 8th of March, 2005 at 12:45 am
I think its good to empathize as much as possible with the person, while denying that the base for their belief about what is right conduct is truly the bible as it was meant to be understood literally in its original context. It also is good to try and describe the facts as simply and accurately as possible without condescending to the other.
My understanding is that a large part of the heresy of US Christianity is the way so many of us protestants are not cognizant of how we read our “traditions” into scripture and then errantly proclaim them inerrant.
We too often interpret scripture allegorically as if it literally was written to address the exact questions we are posing to it today. This elevates what is not, per se, of God and leads to much acrimonious divisions among Christians as we hold to not-so-essential stuff with the same fervency we should hold to scripture.
I agree that the cumulative effects of our inability to reduce the faith-based political acrimony has indeed had a terrible impact on our politity-economy-society.
dlw
The 14th of June, 2005 at 2:15 pm
Have a question, DLW. You speak of gay rights–in other words, partitioning off a select group of people based on their sexual preference for specified rights (I personally believe in human rights-period). Would you advocate the same for pedophiles? They are a small percentage of the population who, scientifically speaking, are more tied to their sexuality than even homosexuals are.
Just wondering…
-Jack
The 16th of June, 2005 at 1:00 pm
Jack, apples and oranges. there is scientific evidence that supports the notion of us having homosexual or heterosexual orientations that, while not immutable, are not chosen and affected very much by events that happen prior to when we are born.
You´ll need to cite scientific evidence that would suggest that such is similar for pedophiles. I have heard of absolutely no such evidence.
dlw