Religious communities are often contentious communities. One might think that all those people dedicated to loving their neighbors might love their neighbors, and maybe they do, but they do not particularly love each other. Protestants and Catholics in Europe fought bloody wars with each other. Muslims in the Middle East blow each other up on religious grounds. Orthodox and Reformed Jews could just as well be Sunni and Shiite Muslims. Baptists are famous for dividing, and dividing, and scorning each other. Lutherans are like Baptists, but with slow hymns and ponderous prayers.
A clergyman once advised me that when he had a particularly contentious church member, he asked him or her about three things: 1) How is your health? 2) How are things going at home? 3) How's your job? It usually really wasn't about who should mow the cemetery lawn, or whether the kids were learning about sex in Sunday School. It was, almost always, a medical report, or endless squabbling at home, or being a fifth wheel at work: something like that.
Look at what is going on in this country! We are squabbling about who should mow the cemetery lawn! Who should count the Church offerings! Whether sex should be talked about in Sunday School! It isn't really about building a wall between us and Mexico! It isn't really about whether Barack Obama is a Christian or an American! It is not about whether we should raise the debt ceiling! It isn't about the size of government!
Of course Obama is a Christian, and an American! It isn't about that! It is about being a multi-racial nation. It is about the obvious fact that we are not a White, Anglo-Saxon nation, and we never have been. It is about how to think of ourselves as Asian, and African, and Latino and European.
Of course we should raise the debt ceiling! Congress already borrowed the money, and spent the money! It is about what kind of an economy we are. It is about what kind of jobs are not here, any longer. It is about what kind of jobs we should have. It is about what kind of educational system we need to prepare ourselves and our kids for those jobs.
Of course government is a good thing! A people without a strong and effective government is a savage place. It is a dog-eat-dog place. It is a wolf pack dominated by alpha animals, and about learning your subservient place. We need a clear sense of what kind of people we want to become, and how we want to use our resources; a fair and effective way to raise the money we need, and pay the bills.
Tea Party People are cranky parishioners. It is not what they say they are concerned about, but what they are really worried about. What does it mean to have Black and Hispanic neighbors? What does it mean that we are not all Christians, or even religious? What does it mean when you lose your job, or it looks like you might lose your job, and your industry goes overseas? When you might run out of a dependable pension, or health care?
Hating taxes isn't about hating taxes. It is anger about not knowing or having any idea what a fair and equitable society should be, about how resources should be distributed; about what we should expect from each other. Our taxes are actually the lowest they have been for more than fifty years. It isn't about that. Defending a tax system that punishes the middle class and protects the rich is almost insane: it means we don't know what to do, or what we want.
We are a nation, and a world, in enormous transition. And what are we doing? We are like Baptists insisting on baptism by immersion, like Lutherans haggling over doctrinal minutae, like Catholics refusing to allow women into the Sacristy, like Michele Bachmann howling about Gay people, or Birthers whispering that Obama is not an American. We are emasculating the middle class and protecting the filthy rich because we cannot face what the real issues are.
We are becoming a nation we have never been before. We are not all White and European. We are not a nation of small farms, or big factories. Our employers are not going to provide lifetime employment and health care and pensions to us. We have to do it differently.
And we have to think! We have to stop and think about what it is that is making us cranky, and what makes us say stupid things.
How is your neighborhood?
Does it look like you might lose your job?
Are your wages dwindling?
What is your health care costing you?
Who is your daughter's boy friend?
Who is your son's boy friend?
A clergyman once advised me that when he had a particularly contentious church member, he asked him or her about three things: 1) How is your health? 2) How are things going at home? 3) How's your job? It usually really wasn't about who should mow the cemetery lawn, or whether the kids were learning about sex in Sunday School. It was, almost always, a medical report, or endless squabbling at home, or being a fifth wheel at work: something like that.
Look at what is going on in this country! We are squabbling about who should mow the cemetery lawn! Who should count the Church offerings! Whether sex should be talked about in Sunday School! It isn't really about building a wall between us and Mexico! It isn't really about whether Barack Obama is a Christian or an American! It is not about whether we should raise the debt ceiling! It isn't about the size of government!
Of course Obama is a Christian, and an American! It isn't about that! It is about being a multi-racial nation. It is about the obvious fact that we are not a White, Anglo-Saxon nation, and we never have been. It is about how to think of ourselves as Asian, and African, and Latino and European.
Of course we should raise the debt ceiling! Congress already borrowed the money, and spent the money! It is about what kind of an economy we are. It is about what kind of jobs are not here, any longer. It is about what kind of jobs we should have. It is about what kind of educational system we need to prepare ourselves and our kids for those jobs.
Of course government is a good thing! A people without a strong and effective government is a savage place. It is a dog-eat-dog place. It is a wolf pack dominated by alpha animals, and about learning your subservient place. We need a clear sense of what kind of people we want to become, and how we want to use our resources; a fair and effective way to raise the money we need, and pay the bills.
Tea Party People are cranky parishioners. It is not what they say they are concerned about, but what they are really worried about. What does it mean to have Black and Hispanic neighbors? What does it mean that we are not all Christians, or even religious? What does it mean when you lose your job, or it looks like you might lose your job, and your industry goes overseas? When you might run out of a dependable pension, or health care?
Hating taxes isn't about hating taxes. It is anger about not knowing or having any idea what a fair and equitable society should be, about how resources should be distributed; about what we should expect from each other. Our taxes are actually the lowest they have been for more than fifty years. It isn't about that. Defending a tax system that punishes the middle class and protects the rich is almost insane: it means we don't know what to do, or what we want.
We are a nation, and a world, in enormous transition. And what are we doing? We are like Baptists insisting on baptism by immersion, like Lutherans haggling over doctrinal minutae, like Catholics refusing to allow women into the Sacristy, like Michele Bachmann howling about Gay people, or Birthers whispering that Obama is not an American. We are emasculating the middle class and protecting the filthy rich because we cannot face what the real issues are.
We are becoming a nation we have never been before. We are not all White and European. We are not a nation of small farms, or big factories. Our employers are not going to provide lifetime employment and health care and pensions to us. We have to do it differently.
And we have to think! We have to stop and think about what it is that is making us cranky, and what makes us say stupid things.
How is your neighborhood?
Does it look like you might lose your job?
Are your wages dwindling?
What is your health care costing you?
Who is your daughter's boy friend?
Who is your son's boy friend?
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