The previous post I mentioned how I blog because of how CONNECTED I believe ALL of this to be. Politics, communications, economics, ALL of it is a part of the whole picture which affects our lives. The Church has a huge stake in this, since I believe it is the CALL of the Church to be a community where we leran with each other how to make sense of it all. Politics is crucial becuase I believ it represents THE MOST tangible intersection between what we believe about the world and how we implement som of it IN THAT world. Politics and government, I believe, in THIS country and in THIS democracy (at least what it SHOULD be), is a way to collaborate on the stuctures which we hope will enable a more just ordering.
The Church community is to be a spirtitual and social structure for seeking God’s call on us TOGETHER. We need each other for enabling of one another to find what it is that God is calling us to do, and to find a way to mold these divergent calls into mission. Government is a way that our republic has historically instituted a civic structure to protect its people and to promote the common good. That call has become increasingly global in the last century, and certainly in the last decade/ The Church is also global, and has a unique voice in standing up for the “least of these” amongst its nations, and to be a voice for justice among the nations.
When one country, such as ours, has leaders who abandon the higher callings to work for the common good, and instead pursue the things of profits and self interest, there is a dire need for its Churches to speak the truth to power. So blogging, I believe, has been a valuable conduit for the voices of dissent in the Christian Church in America, to proclaim , as Jim Wallis calls it, a new Confession of Christ (or a refocusing on THE confession to which we are spirtitual heirs.
It is crtucial that there are Church communities to contain and care for the ones who are deeply concerned about the direction of this country under the Bush administration, as well as the heresy of the Church in keeping silent, a nd the deeper heresy of aligning themselves with the forces of darkness which proclaim Christ with their lips but are approving of the things which Christ condemned. We need oases of dialogue in the Churches, but it has been the blogosphere where I have found my “catacombs” of Christians who need each other to celebrate the truth amongst all the madness.
We ALL need the Church to be a place where we can share our stories, and to listen as others share theirs, and in that communion, happen upon our gifts, and our call. And to intnetionally structure things in our Churches to enable that commitment to be committed to the Christian formation of each other; to be “accountable” to each other and responsible to keep each other aprised of our latest journey-events.
Blogs have given me an indication that there is much of a very personal nature that can be “mined” from all this passion, and all this personal reflecti on. MOre of it is going on in the blogosphere than I have seen in most Churches. And this should not be. In fact, we need to lift up the blog as a ready resource for peeking into one another’s lives, to see what others are concerned and passionate about.