I’m a Blog Prophet!
Posted by DLW in Uncategorized at 10:44 am | 
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I’ve started doing some repostings over at Street Prophets.
One thing I’ve found interesting is Kos’s post where he introduced the site. He describes himself as a militant atheist whose political views are driven by his utilitarian world-view. But then he goes on to describe how he was blown away by a presentation by Jim Wallis.
Wallis urged his Democratic audience to speak of values when on the campaign trail. And not “values” as the word has been hijacked by the Right. Rather, to explain to voters the moral foundation upon which their decision making was based. This didn’t mean inserting religion into government, but giving voters a sense of how they personally arrived at their decisions.Voters don’t want a spreadsheet with a candidate’s position on every single possible issue. They simply want to know what powers the candidate. If it’s the Bible, then great (the Bible, as Jim Wallis’ book vividly illustrates, is actually an extremely liberal document). If it’s another religious text, wonderful. If it’s something else, then they should talk about that something else.
It is just as important to talk about why we are Democrats as it is to talk about what it means to be a Democrat. People hunger for that knowledge. It’s why Obama’s DNC speech was such a hit. And whether that ethical foundation comes from religion or somewhere else doesn’t matter. Either way, we need to feel more comfortable talking about it.
This repeats Jim Wallis’s sin of idealism. I think it’s also important to acknowledge that a lot of gov’t is business/economics driven and politicians on both sides are very much swayed by the influence of K Street. That’s not to say that they do not have personal convictions on matters, but they are inevitably limited in their capacity to exercise them by the pressures of getting into power and staying in power.
But if we can overcome people’s cynicism and get them to see why deepening their deliberation on how they act politically, going beyond the labels of conservative and liberal, then we should be able to have a more healthy democracy where the power of K Street is checked.
dlw
The 27th of November, 2005 at 3:19 am
[…] My criticism of Wallis in the past has centered on his idealism. He writes that we need to change the direction of the wind in the US gov’t. However, he doesn’t write as much about how we should relate to our extant political system as we seek to change the direction of the wind politically. So far for Wallis, he ahs had more success in changing the direction of the wind politically by providing more room for religious leftists to have voice in the Democratic Party. He has helped inspire people to advocate more openly and aggressively for a faith-inspired economically liberal agenda. He has inspired foot-soldiers like me to send emails, or to make phone calls, to my congressman and Senators on pressing issues. And he has inspired many non-religionists, like Mickey Kaus, to be more open to the intersection of faith and politics, as evidenced by his support for Street Prophets. […]