Unpacking Ideas

My simple conclusion as a Christian was this: The policies that our Church endorses publicly ought to look a bit like the Jesus we read about in the Gospel of Luke (or Matthew, or Mark, or John). The policies we endorse as people of faith ought to protect our widows, care for our orphans, and welcome strangers in our land.

“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.  If you want to be happy, practice compassion.”   – The Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Nobel Laureate, Peace, 1989 “What matters today is not the difference between those who believe and those who do not believe, but the difference between those who care and those who don’t.”   – Georges [...]

Etzioni and others like him (more and more of them, fortunately) have long been convinced there is hearty middle ground where we can obtain a balance between a commitment to community and the pursuit of self-interest. They believe (me too!) there is hopeful middle ground where you and I can retain our precious personal rights while also remaining diligent in our pursuit of common good.

Perhaps Arizona helps us see what we might become — our dark side. Arizona’s behavior might alert other more reasonable folks to say, “Hey, I don’t want to become like them. I am not that way. We are not that way.”

I think effective immigration reform belongs in the middle. For me as a Christian, immigration reform makes perfect sense. And there’s good news. A middle-way approach to how we respond to our immigration crisis is being embraced by an ever-growing centrist group of religious leaders.

“Women are ultimately the key to development, they are the key to the eradication of poverty.  Once you empower them, you empower a nation.”  — Desmond Tutu, Nobel Laureate, Peace, 1984  This is a true story.  An omen, perhaps.  When I woke up after an apparently restless sleep I saw that the book had toppled onto my laptop keyboard.  I [...]

The principles of a just war were first articulated by theologian Augustine of Hippo in the 4th C. and later refined by theologian Thomas Aquinas in the 16th C. These principles describe what needs to be true before a nation enters a war (jus ad bellum), and what needs to be true about how the nation does the war (jus in bello).

It’s simple. Let’s say we will protect our children and babies. Let’s say we will feed all of our children enough. Let’s say we will do whatever it takes to keep more of our babies alive. The rest we’ll worry about later.

In my world fundamentalism — religious and political — lurks all around me, so I readily grabbed at doubt as a convenient handle for my reaction against the extreme that I tend to notice daily. I read the entire book but came away with what I needed — a fresh approach to help me counter the purveyors of hollow certitude around me. Also, it seemed to me, regardless of which perpective we carry, when we enter the dance of a conversation in hopes of a healthy “turn about” of ideas, it is the overabundance of certitude that more often smothers the music for one or both dancers.

If my willingness to doubt permits me to welcome additional, even oppositional ideas, then at the very least my original idea has an opportunity to be compared, tested and perhaps strengthened. At the very most, my idea grows creatively into much more than I considered possible or available before.

To lead with my center in a good conversation means I will care more about you and less about being right. To lead with my center in a good conversation means I might find myself following, or leading no one because we disagree. And what I might learn is that when I dancing or conversing if I lead with my center, whether my feet follow or not, I will still enjoy the dance. I will still enjoy you.

A good conversation is better than information sharing. A good conversation is like dancing. Linda and I are taking ballroom dancing lessons. Imagine the chaos. We are learning about conversation without words. When she and I dance, sometimes she knows where I am going, sometimes she doesn’t! Sometimes I go left and she follows, other times I go left and she goes somewhere else. This confusion of direction is usually not her fault because I am not very good communicating with her about where we are supposed to be going.I like good conversation. We all need good conversation, in every relationship, at home, at work, in government and across governments, and across cultures. I like good conversation and I have some hope because I like dance, even if I don’t know where we are going, and even if we do not end up in the same place.