No dount in my case; I'm a right-grainer, if not a right-winger!
Left Brain v Right Brain Test | The Courier-Mail
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Monday, October 27, 2008
Faith and Politics
Here is a little piece I wrote for The Communicator, a publication of Christ Church Christiana Hundred:
The Rector has asked me, as a one-time political writer, editor and commentator, to write a few words about faith and the political process for publication as the seemingly endless election campaign draws to a close.
Will I be putting my faith to work when the curtains of the voting machine close behind me Tuesday? My faith in God? My specifically Christian faith?
I’m humbled by the assignment. I have been a political junkie ever since I marched in a demonstration for New York’s Gov. Thomas E. Dewey at the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia 60 years ago. An active Episcopalian since marrying into the church, I remain a theological babe in the woods; the more I study, the less I seem to know.
Perhaps that is an illusion. “Change” seems to be the watchword of this election, and I have learned enough to ask for God’s guidance in matters involving change. In the words of a prayer that has served me well:
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference.
“Thy will, not mine, be done,” I like to add when saying the prayer myself. They are words I have seen appended in only one published version of the prayer, the one in Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, by Bill Wilson, the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous.
I will be remembering that prayer – especially the final words -- when I cast my vote Tuesday at Lincoln Towers, around the corner from the condo Maggie and I are blessed to share in Wilmington’s Trolley Square beighborhood. I will be praying for God’s guidance, as I try to do in any big decision, and many small ones.
But I am not so naïve as to believe that God will direct me to vote for Candidate A as against Candidate B, or Party X versus Party Y. And I have difficulty with the idea that the outcome of the election – any election – is necessarily reflective of God’s will.
I figure God wants me to vote, but that he expects me to use such intelligence and information as he has given me in doing so. He expects me to be, as Jesus commanded, wise as a serpent even if I am also gentle (and innocent) as a dove. I pray that what I choose to do may reflect God’s will, but in the end I suspect that it will be my own too human, willful self that makes the choices.
As for the election’s outcome, I am mindful of Joseph Stalin’s observation: Those who cast the vote decide nothing; those who count the vote decide everything. Cynical, yes. But, as experience has shown, sometimes all too true. It strikes me as anything but un-Christian to have childlike confidence in the system, but serpentine skepticism toward it as well.
After all, the Kingdom of Heaven is hardly a constitutional monarchy, let alone an Athenian democracy or a republic such as we Americans have inherited. It was Moses, an authority figure if there ever was one, who with God’s help led the Israelites out of Egypt. And when Moses turned his back, it was the people themselves – the people! -- who decided that they owed their freedom to the leadership of a golden calf, not Moses, and not his God.
The people’s judgment is the people’s judgment, neither more nor less. The system is what it is. Imperfect as it may be, it seems to be the best that man has ever devised, and I have faith that I am doing God’s will in doing whatever I can to help preserve and enhance it. And that means voting Tuesday – thoughtfully, prayerfully, and, in the Reinhold Neibuhr’s words, courageously.
It means accepting the outcome, as well. There will be losers as well as winners this week. As the winners celebrate, good people who have staked a lot on the election will be nursing bitter disappointment. The wounds of an especially bruising, unpleasant campaign will still be painful.
In Delaware, we have a special way of bringing reconciliation to this ugly divisiveness. As surely as there will be an election Tuesday, there will be a Return Day Thursday in Georgetown. Winners and losers will ride together in horse-drawn carriages and antique automobiles. They will join in the solemn Burying of the Hatchet. It is a ceremony that goes back more than 200 years. It is our way of celebrating the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, not to mention the courage to have changed the things we changed.
The Rector has asked me, as a one-time political writer, editor and commentator, to write a few words about faith and the political process for publication as the seemingly endless election campaign draws to a close.
Will I be putting my faith to work when the curtains of the voting machine close behind me Tuesday? My faith in God? My specifically Christian faith?
I’m humbled by the assignment. I have been a political junkie ever since I marched in a demonstration for New York’s Gov. Thomas E. Dewey at the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia 60 years ago. An active Episcopalian since marrying into the church, I remain a theological babe in the woods; the more I study, the less I seem to know.
Perhaps that is an illusion. “Change” seems to be the watchword of this election, and I have learned enough to ask for God’s guidance in matters involving change. In the words of a prayer that has served me well:
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference.
“Thy will, not mine, be done,” I like to add when saying the prayer myself. They are words I have seen appended in only one published version of the prayer, the one in Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, by Bill Wilson, the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous.
I will be remembering that prayer – especially the final words -- when I cast my vote Tuesday at Lincoln Towers, around the corner from the condo Maggie and I are blessed to share in Wilmington’s Trolley Square beighborhood. I will be praying for God’s guidance, as I try to do in any big decision, and many small ones.
But I am not so naïve as to believe that God will direct me to vote for Candidate A as against Candidate B, or Party X versus Party Y. And I have difficulty with the idea that the outcome of the election – any election – is necessarily reflective of God’s will.
I figure God wants me to vote, but that he expects me to use such intelligence and information as he has given me in doing so. He expects me to be, as Jesus commanded, wise as a serpent even if I am also gentle (and innocent) as a dove. I pray that what I choose to do may reflect God’s will, but in the end I suspect that it will be my own too human, willful self that makes the choices.
As for the election’s outcome, I am mindful of Joseph Stalin’s observation: Those who cast the vote decide nothing; those who count the vote decide everything. Cynical, yes. But, as experience has shown, sometimes all too true. It strikes me as anything but un-Christian to have childlike confidence in the system, but serpentine skepticism toward it as well.
After all, the Kingdom of Heaven is hardly a constitutional monarchy, let alone an Athenian democracy or a republic such as we Americans have inherited. It was Moses, an authority figure if there ever was one, who with God’s help led the Israelites out of Egypt. And when Moses turned his back, it was the people themselves – the people! -- who decided that they owed their freedom to the leadership of a golden calf, not Moses, and not his God.
The people’s judgment is the people’s judgment, neither more nor less. The system is what it is. Imperfect as it may be, it seems to be the best that man has ever devised, and I have faith that I am doing God’s will in doing whatever I can to help preserve and enhance it. And that means voting Tuesday – thoughtfully, prayerfully, and, in the Reinhold Neibuhr’s words, courageously.
It means accepting the outcome, as well. There will be losers as well as winners this week. As the winners celebrate, good people who have staked a lot on the election will be nursing bitter disappointment. The wounds of an especially bruising, unpleasant campaign will still be painful.
In Delaware, we have a special way of bringing reconciliation to this ugly divisiveness. As surely as there will be an election Tuesday, there will be a Return Day Thursday in Georgetown. Winners and losers will ride together in horse-drawn carriages and antique automobiles. They will join in the solemn Burying of the Hatchet. It is a ceremony that goes back more than 200 years. It is our way of celebrating the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, not to mention the courage to have changed the things we changed.
A Battle To Win
Daily Recovery Readings: "All of us have our own battle to win, the battle between the material view of life and the
spiritual view. Something must guide our lives. Will it be wealth, pride, selfishness, greed
or will it be faith, honesty, purity, unselfishness, love and service? Each one has a choice.
We can choose good or evil. We cannot choose both. Are we going to keep striving
until we win the battle? If we win the victory, we can believe that even God in His heaven
will rejoice."
This is a meditation from the little book, Twenty-Four Hours a Day, which many recovering alcoholics like me read daily. I believe that most of the meditations, like many AA precepts, originated with the Oxford Group.
spiritual view. Something must guide our lives. Will it be wealth, pride, selfishness, greed
or will it be faith, honesty, purity, unselfishness, love and service? Each one has a choice.
We can choose good or evil. We cannot choose both. Are we going to keep striving
until we win the battle? If we win the victory, we can believe that even God in His heaven
will rejoice."
This is a meditation from the little book, Twenty-Four Hours a Day, which many recovering alcoholics like me read daily. I believe that most of the meditations, like many AA precepts, originated with the Oxford Group.
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