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The role of religion in Presidential politics has been the topic of recent Op-Ed pieces in the Austin American Statesman. On January 8, Kathleen Parker criticized Howard Dean for what she called his "blinding insincerity" when he confesses "devotion to Christ and starts invoking the Lord." The same day, Nicholas Kristof described a "deep gulf dividing church-going Republicans from relatively secular Democrats." He warned us to "expect Republicans to wage religious warfare by trotting out God as the new elephant in the race, and some Democrats to respond with hypocrisy, by affecting deep religious convictions." The Democrat Kristof had in mind was clearly Howard Dean, whom Kristof accused of "grasping for faith."
The relationship between faith language and Presidential politics is a tricky one. It's clear that faith language is a powerful ingredient when used effectively in political speech. With it, politicians can reach straight into people's hearts and minds, stir them up, and mobilize them for action. But faith language used for political ends can also backfire. When people of faith perceive that a politician's faith pronouncements are phony and self-serving, they get angry and feel betrayed. In the New Testament book, Acts of the Apostles, Simon the Magician is a powerful man with a large following. When some Christian apostles show up to heal and baptize people, he's amazed by the awesome power of the Holy Spirit at work within them. He offers to purchase this power from Peter, hoping this newly acquired spiritual power will translate into political power within his community. Peter refuses, and orders Simon to repent. I don't know what the deal is with Howard Dean, religiously speaking. He admits to discomfort when speaking publicly about religion. Having grown up a New England Congregationalist myself, I understand his Yankee frugality when it comes to public faith pronouncements. It certainly doesn't mean he's not a man of faith. He confesses that he doesn't attend his Congregational Church that often. Neither do some members of the Congregational Church of Austin. That doesn't mean they're not spiritual people. It means they're busy. Dean's advisors recognize that his perceived lack of faith is a political liability, and assure us that Dean will have more to say about his faith in the future. This does concern me. If it turns out that Dean is a man of "blinding insincerity" when it comes to faith, and if his handlers are simply prepping him to pull a Simon the Magician on us, then I'll be angry and feel betrayed. However, if Dean does have sincere Christian faith convictions, and if he truly does identify himself as a Congregationalist, then I hope he overcomes his discomfort, and learns to publicly articulate his faith loud and clear. The Republican Party is often portrayed as the party that represents the values of mainstream American Christianity, while the Democrats are portrayed as the secular party. While this may be a popular perception, one that the media promotes, it may not be true. It certainly doesn't have to be true. I'm convinced that a Democratic candidate with authentic religious faith could convincingly forge a liberal or progressive political agenda based on Christian tradition, biblical values, and the words and deeds of Jesus. I'm also convinced that Howard Dean, if he truly is a Congregationalist Christian, could be the candidate to articulate such an agenda. The Congregational Church has deep religious roots in America. Since the pilgrims, the Congregational Church has articulated its faith in Jesus Christ and pursued political, economic, social, racial, gender, and environmental justice. From its leading role in the abolitionist movement, to being the first mainline Protestant denomination to ordain woman and gay people as clergy, the Congregational Church has worked for a vision of the world that it holds to be consistent with Jesus Christ's ministry. If Howard Dean's faith is real, as I hope it is, and if he truly identifies himself as a Congregationalist, as I hope he does, then he's blessed with a tradition that can help him ground his politics in a strong tradition of Christian faith and justice. In the months ahead, as the Presidential campaign progresses, I hope America discovers Howard Dean the Congregationalist Christian, and not Howard the Magician. Tom
Outreach Alert Freeze Night Update GOD'S INCARNATION You shall never be able to establish in words that you live in ecstasy. But struggle unceasingly to establish it in words. Battle with myths, with comparisons, with allegories, with rare and common words, with exclamations and rhymes, to embody it in flesh, to transfix it! Personals Jim Tomasek thanks the congregation for the way in which they have perceived and have met his and his family's needs as Jim continues to live with Parkinson's disease. On Nov. 7, good friend Terry White came and spent a whole day with him. Folks have brought by cookies, come to visit, sent cards, and called him on the phone. A truly special treat was the Sunday before Christmas when the choir came and sang carols with him and Mary for an hour. Daughter Dorcas was home for the holidays and went with her folks to the midnight services at University Methodist Church. It was late in the day for Jim and he could not get to the altar for communion, but it was brought to him in the pew. On Christmas Day Jim came to our church for the services there and participated as one of the leaders in the communion service. It was a great joy for the congregation to have Jeri Winter back in our midst on Sunday January 18, after almost a year off from school. She is back at UT this semester, living in the Pearl Street Co-op with 100 other residents, and looking forward to her senior spring semester taking nutrition, world religions, politics and Latin America, and psychology. Jeri's folks and her brother drove her down and headed back north to Illinois right after church. Welcome back, Jeri! Jake Burlinson, majoring in criminal justice, made straight A's in his first semester at Texas State. His favorite class is military science (ROTC). The class has two components--class (leadership) and lab(field training, obstacle courses, land navigation, and working with M-16 rifles). Keep up the good work, Jake! The congregation has enjoyed visiting with Comfort Tysen and her eight-year-old daughter Waamene (her name means "princess."). Comfort found us in the phone book several months ago and has been attending with Waamene. In fact, Waamene, a second grade student at Casis, was an active participant in the Christmas pageant (which was wonderful, by the way). A decade ago Comfort came to Austin from Nigeria to study at UT. She works as a tour guide at the Capitol and her husband Terrence works in transportation for a shuttle company. Ben H. White, MD, received the Texas Pediatric Society Charles W. Daeschner, Jr., MD, Lifetime Achievement Award for his outstanding lifetime contributions to the health and welfare of the children of Texas and to the Texas Pediatric Society. This was especially meaningful to Ben as Dr. Daeschner was one of his professors in his residency training. Congratulations, Ben! In mid-January, ichthyologist Clark Hubbs was in San Antonio as part of a National Academy of Sciences team called to study the present instream flow procedures in Texas streams to find out whether present techniques are worth while. The study is motivated by the realization that reservoir waters are evaporating at a rapid rate and instream flow rates are not clearly understood. They hope to make their conclusions internationally available. Lisa Kirch's friend Andreas has come home from the hospital, is back at work, and he seems fine. He'll be here in the spring, although he's just found out that they can't issue him a visa at the huge Munich consulate, so he has to go to Frankfurt to get that done. It's about a 4- or 5 hour train ride. Daughter Sarah has had serious objections to returning to school after the break, and Lisa reports that there is a crisis every morning. It's a hair crisis, or an underpants crisis, or a sock crisis, or a shoe crisis. Lisa understands her feelings but wishes the mornings were a little less exciting. Lisa is teaching twice a week up at Southwestern, and she'll soon discover how that works with teaching three days a week at UT. Her class is very small, and she LOVES the hands-on, friendly treatment up there. Everyone says hi--she has no idea who they are, but she says hello back. She needs continued prayers about all those job applications she has sent out. The Pinkards observed Christmas and New Year's in Central Mexico this year, visiting Guadalajara, Uruapan, Morelia, and Queretaro. They visited archaeological and historical sites. Tommie's proudest accomplishment was climbing a pyramid -- and getting herself back down. They both brought home colds which evolved into something worse, calling for antibiotics and a week's bed rest. On 11 January, Vera Townsend and Rizer Everett made a trip to the Forbidden Gardens Outdoor Museum in Katy, TX. The most impressive exhibit, says Rizer, is the re-creation, outdoors, of the terra cotta army of emperor Quin (pronounced "Chin") Shihuang, some in full scale and others in 1/3 scale. Dioramas, under roof coverings of the cities of Suzhou and Beiging are beautifully constructed. The emperor's dining table and the empress' sedan chair are also of interest because of the beautiful replication work in those exhibits. Vera and Rizer thoroughly enjoyed the three hours spent at the Gardens, and they are strongly recommending that all their friends put the Gardens high on their list of places to visit. By the way, an excellent article about the Gardens appeared in one of the issues of Texas Highways last year. Before returning to Austin, Rizer visited his old friend John Woods and his daughter, Lynne. Rizer reports that it was good to see John whose strong handshake and firm voice make it hard to believe that he will be 101 years old next month. Mathis and Mary Blackstock saw plenty of family at Christmas including a good visit with Mathis' nephew Si along with the rest of David and Marjorie's children and grandchildren. They all celebrated the fact that the tumor Si had removed last month was not malignant. Mathis is planning to audit a UT course in cultural anthropology "Cultures in Contact," taught by the department chairman Sam Wilson. Retired family practice physician Mathis notes that he finds himself perpetually curious about the sort of cultural influences that seem to eat on patients and doctors and seemingly affect the patient-doctor interaction. In the fall he expects to audit a course in medical anthropology. New member Liz Spencer works for SouthernCare, a hospice located in North Austin, which is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for the terminally ill and their families. They also host bereavement groups and seminars as a way of offering our assistance to anyone in the community who has experienced a loss. The bereavement support group meets the 2nd Thursday of each month from 11:00 a.m. - 12 noon. All groups are held at the SouthernCare office, which is located in the Lake Creek Festival Shopping Center on Highway 183 North (just south of the intersection of 183 and 620.) They are right next door to a Payless shoe store. For more information, please contact The Rev. Liz Spencer at 336-0170. Anyone in the community is welcome to attend, regardless of whether or not your loved one was served by SouthernCare. Pat and Mel Oakes have been accruing frequent flyer miles recently. They went to Iowa City to see Beth, Eugene, Emily and Ethan for the week after Christmas. They had a wonderful time there, enjoyed relatively balmy weather, and played many games of Candyland with Emily. They came home on the 2nd of January and Mel left on the 5th for Bethesda, MD, to help Sarah get settled in her apartment and to deliver Sarah's new computer. Pat left on the 6th to stay with her folks for a week while her mom was recuperating from the effects of her radiation treatments which had led to 10 days in the hospital. Daughter Sarah came to North Carolina to stay with her grandparents for an additional 5 days after Pat went home. Mardie Oakes and her fiancé Tony Deiffel had a wonderful trip to Egypt for a Harvard classmate's wedding. Mardie called Pat and Mel on Christmas Day from the banks of the Nile at Luxor. Pat had worried and worried about the trip, but finally consoled herself by remembering that Joseph, Mary, and Jesus had traveled to Egypt at Christmas time and they had done OK. Weldon and Marie Scheel had a wonderful trip to Florida in early December thanks to their terrific neighbors who were driving to Florida and offered Weldon and Marie a ride. They were gone for 10 days--2 days of driving each way--and had 6 memorable days with Marie's brother and sister-in-law from Detroit who winter in their condo in Lake Worth. Marie reports that the weather was lovely and cool and that they enjoyed the beach not far from where they were staying. Eleven hardy souls made their way to Frances Alford's lovely home for the women's book club in January. A lively discussion of THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES ensued. Everyone was delighted to see Florence Castle at her first book club meeting ever. She had read the book while recuperating from her fall. The next book club meeting will be at Robin Chapman's on Monday, Feb. 16, at 7:30 p.m. The book for February is PEACE LIKE A RIVER by Leif Enger. Jim and Jennifer Howicz had a lovely pre-Christmas celebration in Chicago with Jim's family. Tess's first Christmas as a toddler was fun, especially the fact that her favorite "gifts" were the ribbons and wrapping paper. (sound familiar?) Big sister Emily got her very first big kid bike - sans training wheels.
Christian Education Matters The Christian Education Committee is hosting a Pre-Valentine's Day Family Night Out on February 6 at 7pm in the Appel Room. The kids will make chocolate to sell during Fellowship Hour on Sunday, February 8, with any profits to be donated to the newly initiated Sponsor-A-Child Program in Palestine (stay tuned for more information on that program). Another mystery project will be on-hand for the kids to assemble to give to members of the Congregation during church on February 8 for Valentine's Day. Please join the fun on February 6 and come on Sunday, February 8 to allow your kids the joy of giving!
Adult Education is also thriving, with Adult Sunday School each week at 10am, led by Rev. Tom VandeStadt. In addition, Tom is leading an adult education series centered around the works of Nikos Kazantzakis. The next session will be on February 1 after church. Child care is available until 1:45 p.m. Your kindness is appreciated very much. Dear Friends, Women's Book Club February 16: Enger, Leif, PEACE LIKE A RIVER. Hosted by Robin Chapman Men's book club sets year's program. The men's book club met at Dave Ross's on Wednesday, January 21, to set our Spring schedule. We had so many interesting choices that we are now set for the whole year. We normally meet on the 3rd Wednesday each month. BACK BAY MISSION MANY THANKS To: Jeff Lemley and Junior Bowls for lovingly folding, stuffing folding, labeling and tabbing the January VISITOR. Deadline for March VISITOR -- February 19 |
