Political Rebirth

Ok, first I'll acknowledge that it has been forever since I posted here last, and this is a subject I don't normally write about. Acknowledgment done.

I heard about Sarah Palin's resignation today, which got me thinking about politics. This isn't a post about her, more about the Republican party and politicians in general. I choose the Republicans because they are in disarray and so a rebirth might actually be possible, plus they try and play the morality card more often, so this post will make more sense from that point of view (I am not bashing Democrats, nor implying they are not moral...merely that the Republicans bring it up more).

I would like to suggest that people don't want politics, or more specifically, politicians, as usual. I know, I know, everyone has already figured that out. Let me make what I think is a simple suggestion which would radically change things, but might actually work if communicated clearly.

I suggest that we allow for personal and political change in our politicians, and ask to see it clearly rather than having it obfuscated as much as possible. It's the information age, people can find out that you voted one way on environmental issues at one point, then changed your mind at another time. They can also discover that you had a DUI in college, or an affair, or whatever. If politicians engaged these issues rather than trying to hide them, we might reintroduce trust into the system.

Let me address this issue from the opposite, and for that I choose George W. Bush as my target. An easy one, I know, but still it's a wonderful case study. Now, whether or not you love or hate him, almost everyone is willing to concede that he made some mistakes. Everyone does, so that's not a huge deal (unless you take issue with the types of mistakes, but I'm trying to bring people together here). My biggest problem with George W. Bush is that he would not admit his mistakes.

He ended his presidential career with an extremely low approval rating and probably dragged his party down with him. So maybe, just maybe, his model of "I will remain the same and will not admit mistakes or defeat" doesn't work. Just a thought. Imagine instead that he addressed the American people and admitted things that he did wrong. He might not say all the things that everyone wants him to, but I'm pretty sure a decent chunk of America would have been more satisfied with him if he could at least do that much.

Now let's explore that model a little more (if you are still with me anyway...I know politics can be a bit boring, and I love the sound of my own keyboard, so I might just be preaching to myself by now). Imagine a 45 year old man (it could be a woman, but I'm choosing a man) who decides to run for office. He had a DUI during his college years, his wife cheated on him when he was 30 but they worked through it, and he has changed political parties. Rather than hoping those things won't come out, he talks about them. Getting pulled over for the DUI was a wake up call. He had driven drunk other times and just never got caught, but after that he sobered up to the implications of what he was doing and he stopped. He barely even drinks anymore because of that. The affair was a hard time, but it was another wake up call that something was wrong in his relationship with his wife. He took time away from other things to focus on that relationship, and now it is stronger than it ever was before. Talking about his party switch he speaks to specific issues that he changed his opinion on, and why, giving insight into his political reasonings.

Does all of this openness mean that he will never go wrong? No, of course not, but the guy that doesn't talk about it could go just as wrong. And this way you get a chance to get to see his life as he does, and maybe even a bit of his character. And it destroys the illusion that he won't change, instead showing you what kinds of things will cause him to change, letting you evaluate if those things are good or not. I don't know if I could get behind this imaginary guy or not, but I know I would respect him a lot more than your typical politican.

Am I just being naive about this? Is this kind of thing completely unpolitically feasible, or have the changing political winds maybe made it possible? I don't really know, I would be interested to find out what my more politically minded friends think.

The Myth of Catharsis

The other day the idea of catharsis came up in a conversation. I mentioned that “catharsis is a myth” but didn’t say any more than that because the conversation moved on. I got to thinking about explaining it more to the original audience, and in so doing had a realization about catharsis that linked it to the struggle with sin (at least in some ways).

First, let me explain what catharsis is (supposedly) for anyone not familiar with the word. The main idea of catharsis is that you can let go of some kind of strong emotion through a specific action. The best examples I can think of would be screaming into a pillow or punching a punching bag. People talk about various experiences being cathartic.

Why is that a lie or a myth? Because while at that particular moment in time the emotion may fade (you might not be as angry after screaming into a pillow) it’s really just reinforcing that emotion and that action. This is even more particularly evident in “violence” being spent on a punching bag. That practice will just make you more likely to be violent, and over time the punching bag might not be enough.

How does this have anything to do with sin? We lie to ourselves about our various “solutions” to sinful desires. Perhaps I feel out of control and food is something that brings me comfort, so I think to myself “I’ll just eat a bit to make this feeling go away.” Really the decision probably isn’t quite this clear, but at some level that is our thought process.

But it doesn’t get rid of the feeling because it does nothing to really address it, it merely masks that problem. And, perhaps worse, something we enjoy and probably do a fair amount (eating) is now connected to feeling out of control, so the two may reinforce each other. And by dodging actually dealing with the problem we stay away from the transforming power of God.

Instead we should address the issue, whether it is anger, pride, lust, or anything else directly before God. He can help us to actually deal with the sin problem in a way that won’t merely mask and reinforce it, and only He has that power. So don’t believe in the power of catharsis, believe in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Long Overdue Thoughts

Tonight my thoughts are…more clear and concise than normal, and I’m going to try and capture them in a blog post. Something I haven’t done for a quite some time, so forgive me if I’m a little rusty.

I was thinking about my Scripture reading habits, or lack there of all too often. I am a Bible major who doesn’t read his Bible, so something is obviously wrong. I don’t think I’m all that uncommon, people who come off of intense times of studying Scripture and move away from it. That doesn’t make it any easier to admit, but maybe I’ll connect with others with this problem and say something for them.

I want very much to get back into the Word, but there is some kind of barrier. I think I pinned that barrier down recently in that I burned out. I did so much so deeply, and now I want to go even deeper but I’m burnt out. So I took a step back and started reading very small chunks for short periods of time without that much intensive study. I journal a bit to get my thoughts out and give God a chance to speak to me in His Word (since that’s the whole point anyway).

That’s about where my personal musings end, and move into a different realm. I have been reading Genesis, not the place you would expect someone burnt out to go. The Gospels are all kinds of wonderful, and the Epistles offer nice small chunks. The Psalms are given to emotion, making them easier to not study. So why start at the very beginning and “trudge through” the Pentateuch that I’ve read and studied so many times before?

Because I love the Old Testament, and I never understood why I did (or why I should) until somewhat more recently. The sort of epic story arc of the Old Testament appeals to the same part of me as all the fantasy books that I consume. And much as I love the big action sequences and the romances to last a lifetime, I also really love the normal life stuff, and the Old Testament offers plenty of that (Leviticus I’m looking at you).

That explains the why I have, but why should I? It is at this point that I must ask forgiveness of N. T. Wright if I destroy his ideas, but one of the things that I think (and hope) I rightly got from his book The New Testament and the People of God (which I still have yet to finish) is that story is more important than fact. What I think he rightly communicates is that truth statements are not as fundamental as we in our rationalist era seem to believe.

We try and boil all the stories in the Bible down into various statements of fact, so that we can then apply them today. But truth is more…truthy…when it is in story form. The fact that “a marriage should last through thick and thin” is far less powerful than the story of God’s marriage to Israel throughout time and space. Try meditating on one and then on the other and see which one works better for you. I have a very strong feeling that history will win out over fact unless you resist it.

That’s why one of my greatest desires in coming to the Scripture is just to get the story in me. There is so much there that it seems impossible to fit it all in, and I want to break it down into basic summary statements (God creates everything, Adam and Eve sin, etc) but even that loses something. The closer I can get to the actual story the better I think I can get those truths into my heart, soul and mind.

I don’t think I’ve communicated this at all or done it any justice, but I had to try. Maybe any readers I have left can do the extra work to fill in the blanks and understand what I was trying to say. If it really doesn’t make sense, yell at me in the comments. Revisiting this subject over and over would be good for me.