b.c. said:
I only offer the information as an indication that there are perhaps some who might have an alternate point of view as to what constitutes a "moral imperative" as it relates to social injustices. Perhaps the way to unseat the "religious right" is to beat them at their own "game".
On the other hand,
this is what I think
progressive religious activism looks like. Don't get the wrong idea. This is what I am leaning towards very strongly. It resonates very strongly with my 60s heritage and also my "devout" secular humanist heritage. It also resonates with my teenage experience growing up in the civil rights movement which cemented in me the image of religious activism as something that works for social justice.
I think if Mme Zora and jake and I were in the same town, we would be marching on city hall for gay rights and the homeless, and making sure there were no pictures of Jesus in the courthouse.
Looking at their posts, Mme Zora says run for Congress, and jake says do that, not as a Christian, but as a child of the Enlightenment, which is exactly how one should approach being a congressman.
But then there is that damn NT. What I get from it is the same sense of alarm about misery, suffering, and social injustice. And I also get from it a call to action. The NT is clear that we, ourselves, and the church are to be a blessing to the world. Noone walks around in the NT agonizing over being saved or worrying about their personal "faith walk" and that kind of bullshit. The NT demands that your focus be outward as much as it is inward.
What I am conflicted about, though, is the NT's prescription for the malady. Not because I am a Christian robot, but because I am actually considering that Jesus is sending an important message on how someone might best treat the world's maladies.
So my question is, in the very long run, who best serves the world in its maladies? Congressman or people like the male nurse in "Angels"? (And I am talking about every aspect of that including the hopelessness of AIDS at the time, and the fact that he is nursing Roy Cohn, and the fact that he, too, is victimized by what he is). The congressman route is easy to understand. Its a very American pragmatic take charge and fix it kind of approach that appeals to our sense of economy of scale. I think it is easy for us to justify that kind of action, but I am not sure it is very different than justifying a "just war" in the name of Jesus, either.
On the subject of politics and "just war", I think if you asked Jesus he would say, "So how's that working for ya so far?" Then he would suggest the most outrageously countercultural thing you could imagine. I do think he would praise the basic principles of our government (which at their core ask for social justice) and he would say that its not an issue of what is good or bad, but what is best.
I have read Boyd on other matters and he is a very thoughtful and pragmatic guy. I think his recent statements are consistent with what I was just saying. He is not just concerned only about saving souls at the expense of politics. He is wondering, like I am, where a Christian should best put their energies in the service of the world.
So this is on my mind at the moment in terms of soul searching, but as always, we almost never do WWJD, because it asks us to give up too much of our selves towards a greater good in a way that seems impractical and almost never feeds the ego. I don't think anyone in the NT liked the answer they got when they asked Jesus what to do. It made them so angry, in fact, they put out a contract on him.
Don't worry about me though. In the meantime, I am reading my Sojourners, my Harper's, my NYTimes (when I can find one of those few contraband copies that get into my county in Ohio) and getting righteously indignant, and I am organizing local groups and calling my representatives about things. At the same time, I am doing the "soup kitchen" kind of stuff and even very personal one on one kind of stuff.
Thanks to Mme Z, jake, bc, DC, Andrew, and the others in this thread for having this conversation. It has been helpful to articulate this and hear it reflected back in different ways.