I’m Buying a Book 2
I haven’t bought many books lately.
Not since I learned about Project Gutenberg.
But today Chris Satullo wrote about one that piqued my interest in his “Center Square” column in the local rag:
That voice in the wilderness, getting closer?
It’s the voice of people coming home from the desert of political irrelevance.
It’s the voice of Americans who are Christian, but not conservative.
You can hear the voice on the Web. You can hear it in journals of opinion that now find space for essays that critique fundamentalist politics, yet treat faith with respect.
And you can hear it amid the shelves at Borders. Books such as Bart D. Ehrman’s Misquoting Jesus and Jim Wallis’ God’s Politics have become best-sellers, their authors invited to appear on Fresh Air and The Daily Show.
For decades, the dominant voice of religion in the public square has been authoritarian, either traditionalist Catholic or the “God said it; I believe it; that settles it” school.
All along, other Christians worried that these camps were getting an important question wrong: “What would Jesus do?” They suspected He’d reject much of what was being done in His name.
I just got back from ordering Misquoting Jesus. I opted for the Super Saver, so there’s no shipping charge, but I’ll probably have it on Tuesday (there’s an Amazon dot com warehouse just down the road).
Of course, in a gesture to my mispent youth, I also ordered this.
April 9, 2006 at 10:02 pm
While this is all fine and well with me, I still wouldn’t recommend any Christian deviate too far from the “God said it, I believe it, that settles it” camp!
Seriously, though, the problem with the “Religious Right,” as the media likes to portray my type, is that too many of us have broken the first commandment by making politics our primary god. For the Religious Left to eclipse the Right by doing the same thing would mean none of us have learned anything.
April 10, 2006 at 7:54 pm
You said:
Seriously, though, the problem with the “Religious Right,� as the media likes to portray my type, is that too many of us have broken the first commandment by making politics our primary god.
I say, “Well said!”
Leaning right and and being religious is not the same thing as being “religious right.” As I think I’ve said before, having one’s beliefs inform one’s votes and positions is one thing; requiring that others believe the same things that oneself does is quite another.