It has often be said that we can talk about anything except politics and religion. I would hold that that is patently untrue. We can and should be talking about religion and politics as they are such a major importance in all our lives. What we believe pretty much sets who and what we are as individuals and groups. So, not to talk about religion and politics is to remain ignorant about ourselves in most important areas.
What we do not need in the discussion of religion and politics is incivility and rancor, which, unfortunately, seems to be the typical tone of today's political and religion discussions and debates. The media seems to encourage this inane and bellicose verbiage in an attempt to be news rather than report news. I rue the day that Roone Arledge, when he moved from the head of ABC sports to the head of ABC news and stated that no longer should the news department be a money loss leader but an income producer for TV stations. That may make short term economic sense but was a great loss to an more unbiased informed American. I miss Walter Cronkite, Huntley and Brinkly, Howard K. Smith, and those of that ilk and era who took the reporting of the news as a moral responsibility to the welfare of the republic. Fox news and MSNBC would have been viewed with horror and driven off the air with their unfettered biases. [Is my old manism coming to the fore here? So be it.]
What I believe we need is much more discussion of politics and religion, one of which I have spent a professional career doing. It just needs to take place without meanness, mudslinging and a lack of thought and care for others. Soon I will be placing such an article here on this blog dealing with my sympathies with the Tea Party. I hope you read it and respond if you like.
It is always safe, or generally safe to talk about sports and the weather and such. It is good to talk about ourselves and our families. But we also need to engage in rational discussions of the wider issues of the day as well. Our country lacks such discussion and as a family I think we should do our bit. I know this is going to make Doreen nervous, but the she always was in a constant state of terror of what I was going to say in the pulpit as well.
Feel free to join in or not but know such things will be coming from yours truly. After all, I don't have a pulpit to speak of religious issues, and felt it unwise and unfair to discuss politics from the pulpit. But now I'm retired and don't have to worry about such stuff as much.
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