A morning out
Mr. Tldz graciously agreed to look after the little guy for a bit this morning while I went off to church for a “Lunch & Learn” session on St. Paul in honor of the Pauline year the pope has announced. It was a good session and really got me looking forward to the resumption of Thursday night Scripture study. Hopefully I’ll be able to work that into the schedule regularly.
One little off topic point of annoyance came up. We were conjecturing as to how Paul may have come to have Roman citizenship. One woman in the class said, “Well, it could be like the politicians of today who say ‘You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.’ Like George Bush and Exon, financing his campaign.” Really now. As a conservative, it would never occur to me in a setting where we’re discussing St. Paul or something similar to say, “Well, maybe it was like Barack Obama and that outrageous Jeremiah Wright.” I just wouldn’t think of throwing my politics into something like that. Why do liberals feel so free to do so? Mr. Tldz speculates, and I think he may be right, that liberals act on the assumption that everyone in any group they’re in agrees with them.
July 11th, 2008 at 2:58 am
1) I wouldn’t limit that to liberals. I know an outspoken conservative at work who assumes that everyone either agrees with him or doesn’t agree with him and is flat out wrong. If he says something I disagree with, and I keep my mouth shut, he’s convinced that I’m in complete agreement with him. If I say that I’m against his opinion, he simply restates his opinion in the hopes of persuading me. I don’t in any way think this is a trait of one particular party. I think it’s a general short-sightedness that says, “If you love Jesus, then you must also love Jesus’s candidate…” God’s candidate depends on which side you’re on, I suppose.
2) I do think liberals tend to make political decisions through religious beliefs. They may feel more than conservatives do that our understanding of Christianity should influence our citizenship. Conservatives may believe in religion and believe in government and do not believe the two have to mix.
3) I must say that I personally would never relate a biblical passage to a modern day political battle. I agree that there’s something unpleasant about that. For one thing, I’m not sure I can appreciate the vast difference in culture between then and now, so how could I equate the two? I’d have to relate it to personal experience, not something I read about in the media.