Let me tell you about the Christ I know. He was conceived by an unmarried woman. He was not born into a family of privilege. He was a radical. He said, “It was said an eye for and eye and a tooth of a tooth, but now I say love your enemies and bless those who curse you.” He said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.” (Mattew 5: 3-9) He said, “All those who are called by my name will enter the kingdom of heaven." He said, "People will know true believers if they have the fruit of the spirit--love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self control.“
Check the rest out here: Common Dreams
Thursday, November 04, 2004
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I wish I had discovered it earlier, but today I found this "Prayer on Election Day" in Stanley Hauerwas' book "Prayers Plainly Spoken":
"Sovereign Lord, foolish we are, believing that we can rule ourselves by selecting this or that person to rule over us. We are at it again. Help us not to think it more significant than it is, but also give us and those we elect enough wisdom to acknowledge our follies. Help us laugh at ourselves, for without humor our politics cannot be humane. We desire to dominate and thus are dominated. Free us, dear Lord, for otherwise we perish. Amen."
Keep in mind that Hauerwas is definitely a radical. He pretty much said that the first Bush ought to have been excommunicated for his war in Iraq (I haven't heard him talk about the current Bush), which is what he says about any war. But here he also has this wonderful ability to put his (and our) intense feelings over these matters into a bigger perspective.
Anyway, as I was looking through your blog I was thinking about these conversations I had last summer about how Christians should relate to politics. The only conviction I think I can stand by is that we should do politics somehow different from "the world." I think you rightly expressed outrage at the idea of "moral values" as they have been used in this election. The use of "moral value" in this context is usually pretty immoral, because the supposed issues that are influencing votes are these terribly unstoried principles on which we presume to place the world.
I found it pretty hard to support either candidate from a moral standpoint; that's why I find the Hauerwas prayer meaningful. Maybe both liberal and conservative Christians have simply bought too much into the Constantinian ideal in which we look to the state to fulfill religious goals.
Does this make me sound apathetic or cynical? I hope I'm not, but that's the atmosphere surrounding everything in Hungary, so it'd be no surprise.
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