I've been thinking alot lately and cultivating some pretty good discussions with my social studies students about what role compassion should play in the current immigration legislation debate.
This is from a book I'm reading.
"Francis Schaeffer said, Christians may be at times, be "cobelligerents" with the Left or the Right, but never allies. "If there is social injustice, say there is social injustice. If we need order, say we need order....But do not align yourself as though you are in either of these camps: You are an ally of neither. The church of the Lord Jesus Christ is different from either - totally different."
The ideology of the Left believes big government and social reform will solve social ills, while the Right believes big business and economic growth will do it. The Left expects a citizen to be held legally accountable for the use of his wealth, but totally autonomous in other areas, such as secual morality. The Right expects a citizen to be held legally accountable in areas of personal morality, but totally autonomous in the use of wealth. The North American "idol" - radical indiviualism - lies beneath both ideologies. A Christian sees either "solution" as fundamentally humanistic and simplistic.
The causes of our wosening social problems are far ore complex than either the secularists of the Right or Left understand. We wrestle not with flesh and blood, but with powers and principalities! We have seen there is great social injustice - racial prejudice, greed, avarice - by those with the greates wealth in the country (and sadly, within the evangelical church itself).
I simply haven't felt much like writing lately. I felt obligated to put something up a couple of weeks ago, and realized that I very much did not want this blog to feel like an obligation.
So I didn't write anything.
Anyway, this blog needs... something... else. I'll let you know if I figure it out.
In the meantime, I'll post this Onion article that well captures the mentality of many folks. At least, many of the people I work with.
I don't have a ribbon sticker on my car, because it seems like such a hollow gesture to me. I know I'm not alone on this one, but I haven't really heard it elsewhere.
Last week on the bumper of an extremely large SUV at the school in which I teach (incidentally driven by a solitary mother dropping off a lone child) was a sticker proclaiming "Live Better, Drive an SUV!"
I'm not against SUVs by any means, but to revel in their low-mpg's is contemptuous, and the fact that this woman felt no dichotomy between that sticker and the yellow ribbon beside it was vaguely unsettling. If you use an SUV to tow a trailer, haul boxes, big dogs, more than one or two people, fine. You genuinely need this big car. Most people don't, this soccer mom, for instance.
I Wonder What Kind Of Message I'm Sending To The Troops
March 13, 2006 | Issue 42•11
I support the troops from the bottom of my heart. But my question is, do they know that? What if I'm somehow sending them the wrong message?
The other day I lost the magnetic yellow ribbon from my car, and I didn't even notice until my neighbor pointed it out. Just think: It could have fallen off days or even weeks before! And there I was: driving up and down all over town just as happy as you please, all but announcing, "Jane Merrick doesn't support our troops!"
I went to the gas station to buy another magnet right away, but they were sold out. So here I am without one. And the way everybody is around here, they'll talk. What if this gets back to the troops somehow?
Or take the other night when my husband and I were watching Leno. He cracked this wiseacre one-liner about the president, and it just busted Ted and me up. Then suddenly, we both trailed off and stared at each other in ominous silence. I'll admit the joke seemed harmless enough, but just imagine those poor soldiers, covered with the arid dust and sand of a foreign land, huddling for cover, engaging in pitched small-arms firefights with enemy insurgents on a daily basis. What would they think if they saw me sprawled out on the living-room sofa set, eating pretzels, cackling with irreverence at the expense of their commander in chief?
If I unwittingly sent a message to the troops that hurt their feelings, I am truly sorry. I would never knowingly make them feel that nobody back here in the homeland believed in them or thought they weren't incredibly special, which they are. I don't want to accidentally lower our troops' self-esteem, especially in a time of crisis like this. Maybe after the war is over, that may be the time to raise questions about our leaders and laugh at the TV hosts, but certainly not now. Right now, we have to think about the troops. And, even more important, the messages we may or may not be sending them.
What would the troops think about our yard? And I don't mean just about our flag. When I don't bag our leaves, am I basically saying, "To heck with you, troops"?
Are the troops aware of all the remodeling I've been doing in the basement rec room? If so, what message are they getting from that?
I read in the paper that a lot of the troops are complaining about the war, and want to come home. They're putting their lives on the line. It's my duty to support them, but I get confused. What message am I sending the troops if I read articles like that? For that matter, what kind of a message are those troops sending themselves? They are the troops, but it almost sounds like they're not supporting the troops!
I'm sorry. I didn't mean that last statement to sound anti-troops.
If the troops knew what I was thinking, what would they say? "First she has it one way, then she changes it all around"? Maybe they're saying, "Who does this lady think she is? She doesn't know what she wants! Our morale is sapped! We're losing our will to fight!" America would be defeated by Iraq, and terrorists would rule over us.
Oh gosh, no! I just want to clear up any possible misunderstandings over previous mixed messages I might have sent the troops.
I support them, and I implore them to provide me with any feedback they may have on how I might be adversely affecting their daily lives.