Reason in The Season

In that I’ve been mixing religion and politics lately, I’m going to direct your attention to this article in The New York Times. It’s a little bit deep for me. Philosophy has never been my strong point. It does, however, touch on all the major points that interest me these days.

The Conservative-Christian Big Thinker

”Alarmed at the liberal takeover of Washington and an apparent leadership vacuum among the Christian right, the group had come together to warn the country’s secular powers that the culture wars had not ended. As a starting point, George had drafted a 4,700-word manifesto that promised resistance to the point of civil disobedience against any legislation that might implicate their churches or charities in abortion, embryo-destructive research or same-sex marriage.“

“George” is Robert P. George, “a Princeton University professor of jurisprudence and a Roman Catholic who is this country’s most influential conservative Christian thinker.” The article is about his influence and his attempt to fill the leadership void in what I call The Religious Right, since their defeat at the polls in 2006 and 2008.

The battle -- for me -- was pretty well summed up in one extraordinary paragraph. Like I said, I’m not a deep thinker in this area. But I was rather shocked at this.

”Last spring, George was invited to address an audience that included many bishops at a conference in Washington. He told them with typical bluntness that they should stop talking so much about the many policy issues they have taken up in the name of social justice. They should concentrate their authority on “the moral social” issues like abortion, embryonic stem-cell research and same-sex marriage, where, he argued, the natural law and Gospel principles were clear. To be sure, he said, he had no objections to bishops' “making utter nuisances of themselves” about poverty and injustice, like the Old Testament prophets, as long as they did not advocate specific remedies. They should stop lobbying for detailed economic policies like progressive tax rates, higher minimum wage and, presumably, the expansion of health care — “matters of public policy upon which Gospel principles by themselves do not resolve differences of opinion among reasonable and well-informed people of good will,” as George put it. “

The representatives of churches -- presumably the forces for good in our world -- should not fight for the poor. They should only concern themselves with sex. That’s the way I read it. I encourage you to read it for yourself.

And if you’re not a Christian, you might want to read this for some reference on those that claim they are:

”34 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’“

I don’t see a thing in there about sex -- but that’s just me. I’m a Christian and I fail to see how George’s words match up with Christ’s. I consider myself “reasonable” and I can reason.

Addendum: As I was proofreading this, I saw Mike Huckabee -- former minister, Governor and Presidential candidate -- speaking to a crowd in Nebraska on CNN. Read this article to capture the crux of the matter.

”That didn't stop about 2,000 pro-life people from rallying in Omaha over the weekend.

There, former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee joined pro-life advocates to condemn Nelson's "sellout" of the pro-life perspective on the massive abortion funding in the health care bill.

Huckabee compared Nelson to Judas in the story of Jesus' betrayal saying this deal merely had more money than the 30 pieces of silver that exchanged hands in setting up Christ's death.

“Senator Nelson obliterated the hope of pro-life Americans who saw him as the last man standing," Julie Schmit-Albin of Nebraska Right to Life added. “

No word about the 30 million people this law will provide with health insurance. Just abortion. Straight out of George’s play book. Merry Christmas.

Don Brown
December 21, 2009