Well, now here's a chance to mix my political blogging and my religious blogging! Newsweek has an article profiling former Senator, Ambassador to the U.N. and Episcopal Priest John Danforth. An exerpt from the article:
Jack Danforth once stood at the intersection of religion and politics. He was a moderate Republican, three-term senator, diplomat. He is also an Episcopal priest, so pious that his Senate colleagues called him "St. Jack." With his new book "Faith and Politics," in stores next week, Danforth—now 70 and retired—positions himself as an outsider. He takes his own beloved party to task for allowing itself to be hijacked by the Christian right.
I'm going to be interested in reading this book. In addition to adding it to my ever-growing library of books on the religious right in America, I'd like to see what he has to say, if anything, about movements like Sojourners and some of the resurgent "religious left" organizations that are springing up.
My suspicion is that he won't say much. In part because these incipient movements are still pretty feeble, and have yet to prove themselves to be a genuine social or political force. But I also suspect that to spend much time on them would detract from his larger point, which will be something like "Can't we all just get along."
I say this because I had the chance to hear Danforth speak last year at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. The event was a conference on progressive Christianity that featured not only Danforth but also Jim Wallis. Wallis gave the usual speach that I've heard him give in one way or another for about 10 years now. But apart from his editorial a few months earlier in the New York Times I didn't know much about Danforth. Unfortunately, his speech that night didn't add much light.
You see, Danforth was angry at some of the organizers of the conference, who had aparently made some connections between the Bush administration and the aftermath of Huricane Katrina (go figure!). Danforth thought he was being set up to endorse an agenda far more radical than he was prepared to, so he came in, spoke for about 15 minutes. Took a very few questions and then abruptly left. The overall tone was pretty hostile, but the message of his talk was pretty much what I suggested above: "Can't we all just get along."
Of course, I'm in favor of getting along. But getting along isn't a political strategy. And this is where my interests as a political person run up against my inclinations as a Christian. I find myself being double-minded about these things. On the one hand, I want reconcilation and a constructive, pragmatic debate on policies that will make the country a genuinely better place, because I think this is consistent with my Christian moral worldview. On the other hand, I want to win, dammit! WIN!!!!!
As you might imagine, this produces some inner tension.
But back to Danforth. It seems like his book will mostly be an in-house critique of the Republican captivity to the religious right. What will be interesting to see is what beyond a good scolding he actually has to offer the discussion of where we go from here.
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