The Euston Manifesto is a declaration by folks on the left end of the political spectrum that demands examination and respect. I heartily endorse its main points - rejection of anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism, a willingness to hold up to examination the historic failures of Communism, absolute rejection of terrorism as a valid means to political ends, and a summary rejection of terrorism's apologists.
I differ with a few details having to do with the fact that I'm on the center-right rather than the center-left. So personally, I couldn't sign on.
But those who do have my respect, because we agree on the important things. And on the less-important things, we can agree to disagree and work toward mutually acceptable solutions.
Democrats, are you listening?
Friday, May 26, 2006
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2 comments:
Thanks for the comment, Tim. I'm not sure what it has to do with the Euston Manifesto, but thanks for dropping by.
Perhaps Lay abandoned Mammon for Jesus, maybe he was posing. Lots of people pose, and yeah, it is annoying. Proverbs teaches that those who deceive and steal will be destroyed by their ill-gotten gains; maybe Ken finally got the message.
As to the "silence," I think you'll find that evangelicals at the grass roots stepped up to help those who were most damaged by the Enron collapse, at the local level, without making headlines. Just helping folks who'd lost their income make the rent and get dinner on the table; that sort of thing.
And why should evangelical leaders make a fuss over Enron? Lay and his cronies were crooks. It was obvious they were crooks. They were going to jail, it was only a question of when and for how long. No one was defending their behavior. There's nothing to debate.
A sitting President commits adultery in the Oval Office, then lies under oath, and folks actually rise to his defense, well, that's a valid thing for moral leaders to comment on.
Tom DeLay as far as I can tell is being railroaded by a prosecutor without a case who wants to be governor someday. Tom took one for the team in resigning. He could have stayed and fought it - and won - but it would have been a Pyrric victory. I am confident that he will be cleared eventually. Hardball politics ain't a ladies luncheon, but that doesn't make it illegal.
Accepting bribes, on the other hand, IS illegal. Stashing nine hundred FBI-marked c-notes in your freezer, and then declaring outrage at being searched, now that's some serious chutzpah!
Thanks for dropping by.
Politics makes for strange bedfellows. Delay played the game, and played to win. He played hardball, and took full advantage of his position. But that doesn't mean that he broke the law. The prosecutor who's hounding him had a hard time even getting an indictment. Jefferson and Abrahamoff, by contrast, look like they'll be doing time. It's kind of hard to explain the "cold cash." And what's the problem with Reed? He's got connections; he's using them.
I'm what you might call a "crunchy" conservative - I believe in a social safety net and good environmental stewardship. I'm not happy with this administration's record on the environment or education. NCLB was a good start, but it needs some serious tweaking.
But the GOP is a big enough tent to allow for a range of views. The Dems are run by the far left - see what's going on in Vegas this weekend with the Kossack Konvention.
I think most evangelicals would call Enron a moral issue - it was all about greed and lies. In my sermon on Sunday (I was filling in because the pastor was on vacation) I called out the staggering death toll from hunger - 29,000 children every day. There's plenty of room, and plenty of food - it's corruption - and worse - that's killing three children every second.
Sin, plain and simple. Social conservatives are concerned about homosexuality because they perceive it as a direct attack on the basic structure of the family - more, a direct attack on gender roles. I don't get so worked up about it myself. I have a couple of gay family members, and we simply have to agree to disagree on some things. Sin is sin is sinm in God's eyes.
I'm not familiar with Henri Nouwen, but I had a roomate once who had left the gay lifestyle shortly before he found out he had AIDS. Ironic, eh? He too was an inspiring writer, and his struggles caused him to lean wholly on God. His funeral was packed, and a joyous affair - a true celebration of life.
Lots of gifted people struggle with sin - pretty much everyone who is aware of sin struggles with it, I would think. How can you not? We're human.
We're called to be "in but not of". (That's the title of a good book by Hugh Hewitt, btw.) But power can have a corrosive effect. Some people resist that better than others. Some people compartmentalize. Some people just withdraw. I think we have to engage.
When it comes time to vote, who is going to do more on the issues I believe most strongly in? Today, that's the GOP.
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