Amy Sullivan, who writes regularly on religion and politics at her own blog Political Aims and other places (see links at her blog) was feeling a tad sorry for herself on Tuesday:
I continue to be amazed (and even, occasionally, amused) by the reactions of both liberals and conservatives who learn that I am indeed a Democrat who is religious. Conservatives tend to look at me sideways and say hesitantly, "So, how do you feel about that? I mean, being a Christian and being a Democrat?" ...
Liberals, for their part, tend to be even more skeptical. The response I usually get is something akin to, "Ah, so what you're saying is that you're not really a Democrat." I've even been told, "Oh, so you must watch Fox News."
Hey, I'd be feeling sorry for myself, too, if people were insinuating that I watched Fox News! (Amy explains that she can't do that, because it makes her physically ill.)
But maybe if she's in the Bay Area, she can drop by and visit my home parish, where one of the priests recently wrote in the bulletin about the pain of losing a child, referring to the death of Absalom and to Jesus' rasiing of Jarius' daughter. And he said:
More than 500 American soldiers have died in Iraq (we can only speculate on the number of Iraqi civilians who have been killed). Can you imagine the feelings of the mothers and fathers of those soldiers, many of them still in their teens? These deaths are simply numbers to us; our soldiers receive no public honor, we do not even see their coffins arriving home. The president has not attended a single one of their funerals.
Let us at least embrace these children who have died for us, and share in their parents' grief. "Blessed are they who mourn," says Jesus. We cannot feel the pain of loss unless we have experienced it ourselves, but we can join in loving, prayerful remembrance of these dead, and hope that they have not died in vain. We can also take whatever means are open to us in our democratic, constitutional system to redress this terrible wrong. It is our Christian, as well as our civic duty.
3 comments:
There are quite a few religious groups who are actually pretty liberal. While I am not religious myself, I like knowing that not every Christian thinks I'm going to hell for opposing the Bush and his war. Some of my favs:
http://www.liberalslikechrist.org/index.htm
http://www.fcnl.org/iraq-war.htm
http://peace.mennolink.org/iraq.html
http://www.brethren.org/Iraq.html
As for "faux" news, even my Republican mom can stand them!
"Can't"...my mom CAN"T stand Fox news. (I need to re-read what I type before hitting "save"...sigh)
Thanks for those links. There's some great stuff out there on the Web. But focusing in on where it's located is the trick! - Bruce
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