Another “morsel” from Eric’s post this morning:

No wonder people are pissed that the news networks wouldn’t stop covering the death of Anna Nicole Smith — they wanted to (rightly) switch back to the “things that matter” which are, you know, all the presidential hopefuls announcing their candidacy.
Not that any of these things aren’t important. Of course they are important. But, so many Christians–Protestants, Roman Catholics, and Eastern Orthodox alike–place so much primacy on this stuff that they forget to be Christian. Is Christianity really something that is enacted through laws, movies, executive fiat, and even dare I say, Christian flags?*** Or, is Christianity something that, regardless of where one finds oneself, a faith in Christ to love the “least of these”, the downtrodden, and the poor?

This is a valuable point.  I think of the title and theme of a Derek Webb song (or is it an album title…I forget) : I See the World Upside Down  (which is actually right side up,  but allegiances and therefore perspective in a different place,  so all the “media generated” suggestion about “what the issues are” cannot be taken as other than that which doesn’t really get it at all). That whose sensibilities are not formed in the way of a people raised and being formed in a polis whose telos has been radically realigned, and reshaped.

The way of God’s Kingdom is not “brought about” at all;  but is an active reality, participation in which largely draws the disdain and dismissal of the power structures as “impractical” (usually because it supposedly doesn’t know how to “get things done in the reality that is the world”

Source: Eric’s Tasty Morsels of Thought – The appeasement of ‘the public square’