{"id":762,"date":"2008-08-21T14:17:25","date_gmt":"2008-08-21T14:17:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2008\/08\/open-political-thread-1.html"},"modified":"2008-08-21T14:17:25","modified_gmt":"2008-08-21T14:17:25","slug":"open-political-thread-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/08\/open-political-thread-1.html","title":{"rendered":"Open political thread"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just a word on the blog – a reminder.
\nLong-time readers will recall that this blog (and previous incarnations of it) used to be a ten-post a day type of blog in which I linked to everything, commented on lots of it, and hosted intense comment-box conversations on the issues – religious and otherwise – of the day.
\nObviously, I don’t do that anymore. Six or so years of that was enough for me. Plus, there has been a lot going on these past six months which have really done a number on my writing head, and now with most of the household (Little Michael excepted) gone to school, I need to turn to that again. I’ve got a manuscript due on December 31, after all!
\n(On the centrality of Christ in Pope Benedict’s writings as Pope – nothing scholarly, simply a popular accounting of it to help folks understand a little better. For Word Among Us, publisher of the Mary book.)
\nBut that doesn’t mean I’m not sitting here reading my eyes out regarding issues, particularly politics. I just think blogging about the many, many ways in which religion and politics are intersecting these days takes some responsible blogging – well-thought out posts and participation in ensuing discussions. Plus, to be honest, my stance in the current political season veers pretty constantly between slack-jawed amazement and blind fury, neither of which is probably good for that, er, responsible blogging.
\nI also – and perhaps this can be a starting point for discussion on this post – am sort of befuddled and frustrated by the level and shape of political discourse this season, particularly among Catholics. And no, it’s not about civility. <\/em>I’m all for no-holds barred conversations, saying exactly what you think and if you have to say it strongly, so be it. Civility <\/em>is code word for “Don’t state your views too strongly, please. And don’t challenge the presumptions of your opponents. Speak in platitudes. That would be nice.”
\nNo, what I see is this:
\nPolitical conversations among Catholics are stuck. Just stuck. <\/em>Anyone who has been reading the politically-oriented Catholic blogs or websites sees this pretty quickly. Every single conversation – every bloody one – <\/em>goes like this:
\nA: Obama’s positions are unacceptable to faithful Catholics because…
\nB. Oh, yeah? What about McCain’s positions. They’re unacceptable because….
\nA: But Obama’s unacceptable positions touch on more serious issues.
\nB. Oh really? The bishops say…
\nA. Oh really? But the bishops say…
\nI’ve sort of racked my brain trying to figure out an alternative paradigm. I’ve failed so far. One of the things that seems to be missing is cold hard reality. No, not the reality of balancing goods – that’s on full display and everyone seems to tap into that – but on the reality of politics and politicians and who they are, what drives and funds politics , what the end game is and what a president is for<\/em>. I’m not trying to be cynical here, (well) <\/em>..but what was it someone once said? Put not your hope in princes? <\/em>Something like that. It’s in some book I read once.
\nUpdate: <\/span>Thanks for the great…discussion..so far! A trip in the car for a school pick-up and a trip to the library clarified something – by seeking a way to get pass this impasse in conversation, I don’t <\/em>mean to say that the way we know we’re out of the impasse is when we all agree politically. That wasn’t my point, although I can see how it would seem that way. No, my point is simply about the nature, quality and contour of the conversation. It always goes down the same predictable road, reaching the same predictable impasses. Is there another road? Leading to even another, more interesting, less predictable impasse? I kid. Sort of.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just a word on the blog – a reminder. Long-time readers will recall that this blog (and previous incarnations of it) used to be a ten-post a day type of blog in which I linked to everything, commented on lots of it, and hosted intense comment-box conversations on the issues – religious and otherwise –…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nOpen political thread - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/08\/open-political-thread-1.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Open political thread - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Just a word on the blog – a reminder. 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}