Taking faith seriously

I saw this at Real Clear Politics and was immediately sucked in. It's something I've seen all over the place at ESPN and a subject that intrigues me as a politically-inquisitive and "active" Christian. (Note: that's not the best word to describe the concept, but as good as I could come up with. The idea that I try to get across is that my faith is "alive" and it informs my actions and decisions. I sometimes hate the way English works; too many ideas and not enough words!)

The entire piece begs to be gone over and discussed nearly line-by-line, so thoughtful and insightful is it. But I'll cut to the chase. This is the key passage far as I'm concerned:

On the most basic level, the contempt of the progressive elite for ordinary people--for their faiths, their speech patterns, their clothes, their hobbies, their hopes, and their aspirations--has driven scores of millions of Americans out of the Democratic Party and into either the Republican Party or a no man's land between the two. The willingness of many Republicans to simply show respect for the habits and interests of these mixed and moderate Americans has paid growing political dividends. The Republicans have understood that communicating respect is more important than offering programs or incentives. The Democrats have failed to realize that multiplying programs or policies designed to meet people's needs is doomed to fail unless and until those people sense a fundamental level of recognition of who they are, not just what they need. The medium may not be the message. But a medium of respect and recognition is what makes the reception of the message possible.

...

The core of this tradition, described by Bloom and many others, is clear. Believers strive for-- and achieve--a personal relationship with God. This intense experience--a spark, a fire--is individual, not collective. The less mediation and interference by denomination or organization or professional clergy, the better. And there is simply no need for much organized communal activity. No church-defined version of "social justice" can compare with the intensity, purity, and clarity of the one-on-one relationship with the divine. Many Americans, in mostly exurban and rural counties, subscribe to this tradition and practice. But it is not exclusively a white, Southern, rural, or middle-class religious culture. Many scores of millions more, in megachurches in Houston, Pentecostal storefronts in lower Manhattan and the South Bronx, and Holiness congregations in Boston, have the same core habits, patterns, and basic beliefs.

I write this with deep respect for those who express their faith in this way. Just watch Pastor Joel Osteen's services--25,000 believers packed into a Houston facility, Bibles on their laps, pens in hand. The preaching is excellent--prepared, thoughtful, positive. But it's the response--from people who have worked hard all week, people who traveled far to come to the service, people who have all the pressures and strains of every other American, sitting and listening and working at their faith--that's really remarkable. The racial and ethnic mix of the congregation is a marvel. I am a lifelong practicing Roman Catholic who has had the good fortune to spend many Sundays in Baptist and Pentecostal churches. The quality of the experience, the depth of feeling, and the impact on believers are often extraordinary. It is a tradition that must not be dismissed, that must be understood, first on its own terms and for its own sake, and then because it is at the heart of the cultural change that has already occurred and that continues to occur in our country.

So that's the 'what' but what of the 'who'...? One who would tell you that "You represent a viral strain of political thought," for starters. Inhabitants of Blue-state bubbles like the San Francisco Bay area will gladly dismiss--outright and with a blithe smile--this entire segment of their fellow Americans.

It's political folly to insult people at the core of where they live their lives. And for us people of faith, this is where we live. My faith in Christ goes with me to church on Sunday most certainly, but it also comes with me to work, it goes with me to the Dodger-Diamondback game, it goes with me to the movies and any other place I go where I encounter the culture at-large.

By insulting it and deriding it, the left serves only to push these people farther away from the left's own beliefs and positions and the political party that represent them. While I hate to see it and will fight it when it comes at me, I will at the same time get out of the way if my political opponents are that intent on ruining themselves.