Welcome to Letters From a Purple State: The Book of Progressive Virtues
I am a Democrat.
I am also an evangelical.
The two are not mutually exclusive.
Come, let us reason together.
Since the age of sixteen, I have been a born-again Christian, identifying with the evangelical American church. I am socially liberal because I am a compassionate conservative. Three of my personal beliefs diverge from those of most of my friends, coworkers, and colleagues... and yet, we have managed to dialogue effectively.
The key is mutual respect.
First of all, I must be honest about my worldview. It is not ambiguous. I am no Gnostic or Protestant mainliner. I believe in the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, and I believe that He was both fully God and fully man. I believe in the birth, the life, the death, the burial, the resurrection, and the ascension of Jesus. I believe that He is the Savior of all mankind. I love my faith because it is ultimately an exercise of the head as much as it is of the heart. I question and I doubt, but my faith is enough to encompass my doubts and shortcomings. Nothing I've yet faced has shaken my ultimate trust in Him.
I also believe very strongly that marriage is a sacred lifelong bond that exists between one man and one woman. I believe that sex is for marriage, and as a never-married woman, try very hard to practice what I preach. My world was shaken when my best friend told me she was bisexual. Although she now exclusively dates men, her fear at the idea of coming out to me caused me to engage in a lot of self-examination. I made gay and lesbian acquaintances and friends. I taught and mentored gay and lesbian students. I decided that my beliefs were not quite so simple. I wanted the amazing people I had come to know to be free to choose for themselves how they would live their lives.
I believe that life begins at conception. I struggled with abortion for years, even working for the pro-life movement, until I began to teach young girls who came to me in tears, who needed to make decisions about the rest of their lives. I decided that my beliefs were not quite so simple. I wanted these beautiful and bright girls to be free to choose for themselves how they would live their lives.
And yet...
I subscribe to a faith whose ministers, interpreters, and mediators explicitly tell me that I am in error. By aligning myself with the left, the implicit (and sometimes explicit) accusation is that I am supporting baby murder and sodomy. From Genesis to Revelation, God has consistently condemned people who engaged in such practices, I have been repeatedly told. I knew the Scriptures from cover to cover, knew what my faith taught.
And yet...
Tuesday, I cast my vote for a party that will protect Roe v. Wade.
Tuesday, I was among the 41% of Michiganders who voted against Proposition 2, defining marriage between a man and a woman.
Tuesday, in that ballot box, I turned my back on the demogogues of my religion, but not my faith. I said no to most of my co-religionists, but not to my God. As Barack Obama said so brilliantly in his Democratic convention keynote speech, "I am my brother's keeper." Reverend Martin Niemoller's points are well taken by this born-again believer and "traditional American".
I am not alone. There are millions of us out there. There are millions more who will vote for Democrats if the party understands that tolerance is a two-way street.
I have started this blog because the left and the right have left me no other alternative. Left and right have both retreated to the margins. Both need to be critiqued, and no one is doing it effectively.
We will cover the gamut. I will lean towards a faith-based critique of the right, but I will also address leftist trends that are causing my party to lose touch with America's heartland. Much of the left's attempt to understand contemporary American Christianity is misinformed, and the right's contempt for the continuation of the civil rights movement is just plain closeminded. My aim is to define progressive virtues--to add yet another voice to the cacophony of the new media.
I am uniquely situated to address these issues, and this is why.
I am an evangelical who has been a foot soldier for first the right and then the left. I read everything from The Guardian to The American Prospect. I watch everything from Link to Fox News. I admit that I listen to right-wing talk radio more than NPR, but that is because our local affiliate has programmed out many of the best drive-time talk shows and we do not yet have Air America.
I am female and a woman of color. I was born to a mom on welfare and yet earned two college degrees without the aid of affirmative action. I am a career public school educator earning a doctorate in postcolonial studies. When I read fiction, it's science fiction or fantasy. I have lived my entire life in the Midwest, but attended college in the Florida panhandle, and have traveled in the Northeast and Europe.
My experiences have transformed me into a compassionate social liberal who is fiscally conservative. The right does not seem to comprehend compassion. The left is running away from the liberal label. The neoconservatives do not understand fiscal conservatism.
Come, let us reason together.
This Book of Progressive Virtues is dedicated to my father, grandfather, and great-uncle, men of great integrity whose compassion and wisdom knew no bounds.
No, Bill Bennett, it is not morning in America. It is night, and the great multitude is fast asleep. The hour is late, and there are many who say that there will be no dawn. I have more faith in the American people than that. I have more faith in humanity than that.
Come, let us reason together.
Perhaps if we reason together, we shall all awaken to a new world.
I am also an evangelical.
The two are not mutually exclusive.
Come, let us reason together.
Since the age of sixteen, I have been a born-again Christian, identifying with the evangelical American church. I am socially liberal because I am a compassionate conservative. Three of my personal beliefs diverge from those of most of my friends, coworkers, and colleagues... and yet, we have managed to dialogue effectively.
The key is mutual respect.
First of all, I must be honest about my worldview. It is not ambiguous. I am no Gnostic or Protestant mainliner. I believe in the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, and I believe that He was both fully God and fully man. I believe in the birth, the life, the death, the burial, the resurrection, and the ascension of Jesus. I believe that He is the Savior of all mankind. I love my faith because it is ultimately an exercise of the head as much as it is of the heart. I question and I doubt, but my faith is enough to encompass my doubts and shortcomings. Nothing I've yet faced has shaken my ultimate trust in Him.
I also believe very strongly that marriage is a sacred lifelong bond that exists between one man and one woman. I believe that sex is for marriage, and as a never-married woman, try very hard to practice what I preach. My world was shaken when my best friend told me she was bisexual. Although she now exclusively dates men, her fear at the idea of coming out to me caused me to engage in a lot of self-examination. I made gay and lesbian acquaintances and friends. I taught and mentored gay and lesbian students. I decided that my beliefs were not quite so simple. I wanted the amazing people I had come to know to be free to choose for themselves how they would live their lives.
I believe that life begins at conception. I struggled with abortion for years, even working for the pro-life movement, until I began to teach young girls who came to me in tears, who needed to make decisions about the rest of their lives. I decided that my beliefs were not quite so simple. I wanted these beautiful and bright girls to be free to choose for themselves how they would live their lives.
And yet...
I subscribe to a faith whose ministers, interpreters, and mediators explicitly tell me that I am in error. By aligning myself with the left, the implicit (and sometimes explicit) accusation is that I am supporting baby murder and sodomy. From Genesis to Revelation, God has consistently condemned people who engaged in such practices, I have been repeatedly told. I knew the Scriptures from cover to cover, knew what my faith taught.
And yet...
Tuesday, I cast my vote for a party that will protect Roe v. Wade.
Tuesday, I was among the 41% of Michiganders who voted against Proposition 2, defining marriage between a man and a woman.
Tuesday, in that ballot box, I turned my back on the demogogues of my religion, but not my faith. I said no to most of my co-religionists, but not to my God. As Barack Obama said so brilliantly in his Democratic convention keynote speech, "I am my brother's keeper." Reverend Martin Niemoller's points are well taken by this born-again believer and "traditional American".
I am not alone. There are millions of us out there. There are millions more who will vote for Democrats if the party understands that tolerance is a two-way street.
I have started this blog because the left and the right have left me no other alternative. Left and right have both retreated to the margins. Both need to be critiqued, and no one is doing it effectively.
We will cover the gamut. I will lean towards a faith-based critique of the right, but I will also address leftist trends that are causing my party to lose touch with America's heartland. Much of the left's attempt to understand contemporary American Christianity is misinformed, and the right's contempt for the continuation of the civil rights movement is just plain closeminded. My aim is to define progressive virtues--to add yet another voice to the cacophony of the new media.
I am uniquely situated to address these issues, and this is why.
I am an evangelical who has been a foot soldier for first the right and then the left. I read everything from The Guardian to The American Prospect. I watch everything from Link to Fox News. I admit that I listen to right-wing talk radio more than NPR, but that is because our local affiliate has programmed out many of the best drive-time talk shows and we do not yet have Air America.
I am female and a woman of color. I was born to a mom on welfare and yet earned two college degrees without the aid of affirmative action. I am a career public school educator earning a doctorate in postcolonial studies. When I read fiction, it's science fiction or fantasy. I have lived my entire life in the Midwest, but attended college in the Florida panhandle, and have traveled in the Northeast and Europe.
My experiences have transformed me into a compassionate social liberal who is fiscally conservative. The right does not seem to comprehend compassion. The left is running away from the liberal label. The neoconservatives do not understand fiscal conservatism.
Come, let us reason together.
This Book of Progressive Virtues is dedicated to my father, grandfather, and great-uncle, men of great integrity whose compassion and wisdom knew no bounds.
No, Bill Bennett, it is not morning in America. It is night, and the great multitude is fast asleep. The hour is late, and there are many who say that there will be no dawn. I have more faith in the American people than that. I have more faith in humanity than that.
Come, let us reason together.
Perhaps if we reason together, we shall all awaken to a new world.
posted by Ebony Elizabeth at 9:49 PM
2 Comments:
Followed the link you gave elsewhere.... I haven't much to say now (grading papers has eaten my brain), but I'll be continuing to read. :)
Hey matey!
I personally find it odd/strange/confusing that religion is such a part of American political life. Not least because of the supposed separation of church and state, but also because over in Britain, we just don't do that sort of thing. If we're religious, it's generally a personal sort of thing, and anyone who bangs on about their religious beliefs is usually treated with suspicion or amused eyebrow lifts. Now, I'm not sure whether we're at all right about our reaction, but there's got to be SOME middle ground, right?
And more than that, I also believe (though am no expert) that a lot of the rules set down in the Bible, particularly in Leviticus and the like, are really from another time. That's not to say there's not many valid, excellent points or that people shouldn't live their life by them... but they're rules from a much different time and some of them may not be as vital as they once were.
You feel like both sides have left you no options? Like neither side are really listening to you? Britain and America are much more alike each other than we sometimes would like to admit.
Post a Comment
<< Home