Musings: Notes From My Daybook

As we move deeper into the national election cycle we shall hear more and more extremism and exaggeration from candidates, from supporters, and from the media.  Sorting all that out and making informed decisions will require moving beyond the black and white that is usually offered to looking deeper into the complexity of issues and the complexity of the candidates themselves.

One good example of that kind of reflection comes from Garry Wills in a New York Review piece where he compares the Illinois senator with an Illinois senator from the 1850's who was also running for president.  At first blush you might find a comparison between Obama and Lincoln to bizarre and construed.  However, if one takes the time to think about they dynamics and contexts around the two speeches that Wills reviews, then I think that one comes to a different light.

I want to make clear that I have no idea who I will vote for in November.  However, I do hope for and will work for  reasoned and thoughtful dialogue.    Thank you Gary. 

David Gushee's article is a good way of remembering Martin Luther King today.

Noteworthy quote from Harvard Chaplain Peter Gomes:

Preachers, despite much evidence to the contrary, are not called to celebrate the status quo, even an American status quo, and when they do their job properly they call us all to a higher standard. Preachers are not perfect, nor are they the only people allowed to be credible critics of our time and place, but they are among the very few whose vocation it is to make us aspire to something other than the status quo. For too long we have made God an ally in the American way; the highest standards of preaching in America require that we should seek to be God’s ally, helping God and one another to create a world in which we seek to live as God would have us live. To criticize America is not a sin, but it is a sin to mistake America for God, and it is both sin and dereliction of duty to fail to note the difference.

 For more see his piece on Obama and Jeremiah Wright here.

Do you like numbers?  Then you might find Martin Marty's opinion piece of some interest here. Whether you like numbers or not, what they do offer is a sober look at our faith.  And for American Christians, we are reminded of our minority place in the Christian world.

A striking and potentially watershed moment occurred earlier this year with the publication of a document A Common Word Between Us and You published by 138 Islamic leaders to Christian leaders.  Rooted in exegetical work in both the Bible and Qur'an, the authors state that the common link between Christianity and Islam is the double command to love God and to love neighbor.  The Islamic leaders understand that there is much between us.  Indeed, they state: "Whilst Islam and Christianity are obviously different religions--and whilst there is no minimising some of their formal differences--it is clear that the Two Greatest Commandments are an area of common ground and a link between the Qur'an, the Torah and the New Testament."

It is a place to begin and for Christians it is a place that stands at the center of our faith.  Can Christian people come to this place and stand?  One clear signal can be found in a Christian response penned by several people at Yale.  Called Loving God and Neighbor Together this response acknowledges the commonality between Christian and Muslim in the demand to love God and neighbor.  It is signed by perhaps 130 plus Christian scholars, pastors, and leaders.

By acknowledging this common word Muslims and Christians can find a place to stand together.  I do not think standing in the same place will make difficult issues or matters of theology and ideology go away.  And how Christians understand love may well differ from our Islamic friends.  For example, Christian love finds its greatest disclosure in and through Jesus' sacrificial death.  Jesus actions and Christian understanding of those actions are certainly different than how Islam has understood them.  However, there is great hope that interfaith dialogue can give rise to a new hearing and to a new way of acting toward one another.

That is great news indeed!