It's interesting, I've started writing another novel that I've been planning for a while (think tolkien's "subcreation") and its almost as long as all of "Days in the Cold" already and I've only been doing the actual writing on it for two weeks now.
Not much else to report. Mom and dad are still doing well in Alaska, they went bike riding and saw a moose recently.
I finished Jim Wallis' "God's Politics" not a bad book, though I don't think he really answered "Why the American Right gets it wrong and the left doesn't get it" he gives lots and lots of examples of folks getting it wrong or not getting it, but all he can say as to the why is that the Right is full of bad theology and secular fundementalists on the left dislike theology.
Wallis' view of a godly centerism would be pro-peace, anti-abortion, pro-family, anti-tax cuts for the rich, and pro-third world debt relief. Also it would be for implimenting policies instead of getting elected. The parts of his book I liked best was his concrete examples, witnesses you could call them, of Godly people who put their faith into action. Examples included Desmond Tutu, the 6 point solution for the Iraq conflict people, all those who contributed to the 2000 Jubilee year, and future Labor Party leader Gordon Brown.
Another shining part of this book is the chapter entitled "Dangerous Religion" in which Wallis picks apart Bush's religious rhetoric. He of course hits on the words "evildoers", "mission" "calling" and so on, but he also contextualizes this into a bigger picture, that Bush sees America as a proxy for God! In a 9-11 comemerative speech Bush showed this in the most blatent way, he refered to America as "a light shining in the darkness, yet the darkness will not overcome it." I felt quite insensed by this one and have to say to the Presient. Sorry, as for me and mine we worship the Lord, and that's Jesus, not the home of the free and the brave, the land of military might and high ideals, but a lowly carpenter's son born in the corner of the Roman Empire, a preacher of love and compassion, justice and humility, killed by his own people and by Rome, raised by God.
Peace,
Chris
No comments:
Post a Comment