Musings : Social, Political and Religious Criticism

It is often said that in polite conversation the topics of religion and politicsshould be avoided but how long can most of us carry an engaging conversation onthe weather? One who is concerned about the directions in which this nation ismoving must necessarily discuss controversial topics. Have the labels liberal and conservative outlived their usefulness? Is liberalismtruly a bad word? What are conservatives trying to conserve? Is it possible torise above the din of partisan debate? These brief essays are critical commentson society, politics and religion in which the author avoids the pitfalls ofextremism. The author, a minister of the Lutheran Church and with an interest in education,sees danger in extreme positions, religious or political, noting that the "e;right"e;produced Mussolini's Fascism and Hitler's Nazism whereas the "e;left"e; resulted inStalinist Communism. Against rigid, absolutist positions as well as spinelessrelativism, one is reminded of the church mouse who once delivered a pertinentaphorism: "e;If you stand in the middle of the road, the traffic in two directionswill flatten you into road kill"e; (Essay 10). The point is that controversialtopics must not be ignored. Problems of narrowness, for example, have been tackled by the author in Essay 6,which begins with this paragraph:Some years ago an acquaintance who liked to speak in grand terms said to me inall seriousness, "e;My philosophy is the pursuit of happiness"e;. It was narrow andegocentric but at the time I had no response. However, now, many years later, Ihave an answer to that unforgotten statement, thanks to a guest at St. James. Last month Dr. William Foege ... [from the Carter Center and Emory University],speaking at St. James, stated that there have been many attempts to definecivilization. One of these is happiness, which caused him to wonder whether athree-year-old with a chocolate might be more civilized than the parents.