Crisis in the system?

This past week Senator Evan Bayh announced that he would retire from politics. Senator Bayh was disillusinoed by the current extreme cynnical polarization of the political process.

Disillusioned Bayh advocates electoral “shock” to broken system

Several years ago I read a book by German political philosopher Jürgen Habermas (Legitimation Crisis) in which he points out inherent contradictions in the modern Western capitalist system which he predicted would lead to cycles of ever increasing economic and political crises.

In the light of the Great Recession of 2008 and the current gridlock of Congress (and an 18% approval rating by the public) seem to bear out his predictions. Recent events reminds me of a passage in the New Testament (Hebrews 12:27).

Below are the wise encouragements of a prominent conservative Christian leader calling for less polarization and more communication between the parties.



-- source --- THE TRANSFORUM


Here is a question for you--do you think the system can be fixed? And please don't start with theory or scripture ... start with the pragmatic political world and the democratic system we live in.

The People themselves become priests and kings

“Protestantism is a democratic-federative movement. The Christian Protestant world is a vast federation of churches, governed democratically in conformity with the model laid down by the primitive church. The life of the local congregation is intense and greatly contributing to the incorporation of evangelical ideals into the life of the community. It tends to the creation of a people who themselves become priests and kings. The people themselves exercise the ministry of the altar... Roman Catholicism, in its organization, follows the model of an absolute monarchy....”

Manuel Carlos Ferraz, distinguished Brazilian jurist and President of the Appellate Court of Brazil speaking in an interview in 1944.
cited in Penyak, Lee M., and Walter J Petry, eds. Religions in Latin America: A Documentary History. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2006: 227.

C.S. Lewis on the Church and Culture

"People say, ‘The Church ought to give us a lead.’

That is true if they mean it the right way, but false if they mean it in the wrong way. By the Church they ought to mean the whole body of practicing Christians. And when they say that the Church should give us a lead, they ought to mean the some Christians--those who happen to have the right talents--should be economists and statesmen, and that all economists and statesmen should be Christians, and that their whole efforts in politics and economics should be directed to putting ‘Do as you would be done by’ into action. If that happened, and if we others were really ready to take it, then we should find the Christian solution for our own social problems pretty quickly.

But, of course, when they ask for a lead from the Church most people mean they want the clergy to put out a political program. That is silly. The clergy are those particular people within the whole Church who have been specially trained and set aside to look after what concerns us as creatures who are going to live for ever: and we are asking them to do a quite different job for which they have not been trained. The job is really on us, on the laymen. The application of Christian principles, say, to trade unionism or education must come from Christian trade unionists and Christian schoolmasters, just as Christian literature comes from Christian novelists and dramatists--not from the bench of bishops getting together and trying to write plays and novels in their spare time."

--from Mere Christinanity

"The evangelical movement is evolving" NY TIMES

This from the New York Times:

"The evangelical movement, however, is clearly evolving. Members of the baby boomer generation are taking over the reins, said D. G. Hart, a historian of religion. The boomers, he said, are markedly different in style and temperament from their predecessors and much more animated by social justice and humanitarianism. Most of them are pastors, as opposed to the heads of advocacy groups, making them more reluctant to plunge into politics to avoid alienating diverse congregations....

Mr. Warren, along with Mr. Hybels, 55, and several dozen other evangelical leaders, signed a call to action last year on climate change. The initiative brought together more mainstream conservative Christian leaders with prominent liberal evangelicals, such as the Rev. Jim Wallis of Sojourners and the Rev. Ronald J. Sider of Evangelicals for Social Action, who have long championed progressive causes. Notably absent from the list of signatories were several old lions of the Christian right, some of whom were openly critical of the effort: Mr. Falwell; Mr. Robertson, 77; and Mr. Dobson, 71, founder of Focus on the Family."

Einstein interview on NPR radio

I heard a great interview today on NPR radio with Walter Isaacson, the author of a new biography on the life of Einstein.

You can access the audio file at http://wamu.org/programs/dr/

The author discusses how Einstein used his creative imagination to General Theory of Relativity. I have ordered the book from Amazon.com.

Einstein was humble but was confident in the “spirit” guiding the material universe. He did not believe that science and faith conflicted. He said science without religion is lame, but religion without science is blind. He was also a rebel and nonconformist.

Einstein believed in an absolute underlying reality, for this reason he was uncomfortable moral relativism. It was an interesting interview... the audio is available at the link above.

Here are some of my favorite Albert Einstein quotes:


"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." -Albert Einstein

Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile." -Albert Einstein

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious." -Albert Einstein

"The problems that exist in the world today cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them." -Albert Einstein


"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind." Albert Einstein