Greetings this Easter Sunday! I hope this edition of "Russert Watch" finds you all happy, healthy and celebrating with peace, joy, and a delicious multi-course dinner. Today Tim marks the holiday by convening a panel to discuss "Faith in America." Caveat: If you want pivotal up-to-date poliltical commentary, don't bother reading this; but if you are interested in a rundown of an interesting, thoughtful discussion, go for it, because today's ep was filled with good stuff, even if it wasn't the stuff of front-page headlines.
Our guests (deep breath): Sister Joan Chittister, author, "Called to Question: A Spiritual Memoir"; Rabbi Michael Lerner, author, "The Left Hand of God: Taking Back Our Country from the Religious Right"; Newsweek managing editor Jon Meacham, author of "American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation"; Seyyed Hossein Nasr, George Washington University Professor of Islamic Studies and author, "The Heart of Islam"; Rev. Richard John Neuhaus, author of "Catholic Matters: Confusion, Controversy, And the Splendor of Truth"; and Joel Osteen, Senior Pastor, Lakewood Church and author, "Your Best Life Now." Find more info on all of these people on the MTP website here. And hooray, the transcript is up! Find it here, watch it here.
Tim starts by reading a GIGANTIC passage from Meacham's book, which notes that talk of God and religion's intersection with politics "generates much heat but little light." I actually thought that this edition of MTP generated quite a lot of light: I found the panel to be extremely progressive and quite tolerant and accepting, which was genuinely refreshing, considering things like the South Dakota abortion ban and clout of the Evangelical Right leading into the 2006 elections (but consider the number of families of all stripes hunting for Easter eggs at the White House right now).
In any case, while this topic is no doubt relevant, it is an evergreen one; a lot of stuff happened this week that was not addressed. Calls for Rumsfeld's dismissal? Check. Bush authorizing Cheney authorizing Libby to leak? Check. And isn't Brangelina having a baby? OUT OF WEDLOCK? I know Tim likes to stick to his pre-prepped talking points, but there was some news this week. Ah, well. Stuff happens.
Tim kicks it off, takin' it back old-school: "Jon Meacham, were people more religious at the founding of the country?" I know -- zzzz. It does get better. In the meantime, I could really use some bread.
Meacham thinks that no, they weren't more religious in the time of the founders (besides, didn't Ben Franklin have a thing for prostitutes?). Says Meachem: "What the founders wanted to do, I think, and what I think the American gospel is, the great good news about America, is that religion shapes us without strangling us, and that we are a religious people, by and large.... people's faith is essential in politics because politics is about people." (NB: Meachem's conclusion in his book -- per Amazon- is that the Founding Fathers "ultimately created a nation in which belief in God is a matter of choice." (Incidentally, Amazon also recommends pairing the book with "The Human Stain" by Philip Roth).
Tim asks the Rev. Neuhaus why there is so much rancor between people on issues of God and morality. Rev. Neuhaus says that he doesn't think there actually is that much rancor/anger as the MSM says there is. I say that rancor can take many forms, and I point to South Dakota as one of those forms. Bee in my bonnet? Check. But, I'm not so sure I'm wrong.
Neuhaus also invokes Aristotle, who he quotes as saying "politics is the deliberation of how we ought to order our life together." This I like very much, and I am pleased to see it as a recurring motif throughout the discussion.
Tim turns to Prof. Nasr and asks, pointedly, if he is "troubled that some use religion as an excuse to do things that aren't right or even immoral?" Nasr answers, pointedly, that yes he is, "not only for Islam, but also for Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism." Bravo, Prof. Nasr. It's very important to distinguish between the bad apples and the bunch, and this panel makes very clear that a civil, thoughtful discussion can take place about these issues. I know, there's theory and then there's practice. But still.
Nasr also thinks it's important to note that we are trending towards desecularization on a global scale. Sister Joan picks up on this in my favorite passage of the discussion, which I will excerpt in part here:
I talk about society now being at a crossover moment in time bigger than anything we've seen since the 16th or the 13th century... we have a new globalism... which means we have to look at, newly, what pluralism really means again. We have to choose now with whether or not we want religion, that is this thing that binds us together, that is somehow or other genetically wired in us, that, that Aristotle talks about, that all the churches talk about. Or do we want denominationalism. What church, what religion do we want? Do we want the religion of the Crusades and the Inquisition and the witch burnings and segregation and slavery and the oppression of women and Puritanism that led to Prohibition, that didn't last because it was somebody's creed imposed on everybody else's creed? Or do we want the religion of the peace movement that Jesus talked about, and the, the labor movement and the civil rights movement?
My notes here say "I love Sister Joan."
Next up Tim calls on Rabbi Michael Lerner, author of "The Left Hand of God" (I will not make an Onan joke. I will not make an Onan joke.) Tim notes that in Lerner's book he says "The unholy alliance of the Political Right and Religious Right threatens to destroy the America we love." Lerner says that he actually gives credit to the Right for correctly identifying a spiritual crisis in America, though it incorrectly scapegoated other groups when looking for blame. Lerner blames "the ethos of capitalism" wherein "the world of work" is about maximizing money and power, which in turn pervades our personal lives where it "undermines loving connections in families" (I'm not so sure this is a new phenomenon though; takin' it even more old-school, wasn't that the original problem with Cain and Abel/Jacob and Esau/Joseph and his brothers? Jockeying for position, prestige and success isn't exactly new to the family dynamic. And that's just the first few chapters of Genesis). Still, I give Lerner credit for his utopian ideals: "We need a new bottom line of love and caring and kindness and generosity." How can you not want to hug someone who says that? Even so, no one at the "Meet The Press" roundtable hugs Rabbi Lerner.
Finally Tim gets to Pastor Joel Osteen, patiently waiting via video feed in Texas. Pastor Joel seems like a very gosh-darn happy guy, and I gotta say that gosh-darn I like him. I like that he's on the record saying that "our church is open for everybody" -- even those whose life choices don't dovetail with bedrock Church tenets. "We love this place being open," says Osteen, who Tim says gets 42,000 worshippers every Sunday. Not too shabby. "I think that's what the, the gospel's all about. I mean, Jesus was a friend of sinners and, you know, I don't believe in going around condemning people and telling them all what they're doing wrong....when you show love and you open your heart it seems that that's when people respond." Ohmigod Tom Delay said the EXACT SAME THING.
Okay, at this point everyone has gotten a fair chunk of airtime -- Tim has been pretty generous that way. I will say again that I really like what's going on on this panel -- but, that said, this edition of "Meet The Press" is pretty toothless. Why? Because it doesn't actually do anything. It's lovely to get these views out there but it does not actively challenge anyone in any meaningful way. Instead of having a lovely pleasant little roundtable in which everyone got a meaty chunk of airtime to say their piece, I would rather have seen these experts put these theories to some of the main practitioners -- to challenge guests like SD governor Mike Rounds or McCain fan favorite Jerry Falwell or Tom "I asked God if I should resign from the House, and He took time out of his busy day to tell me I should" Delay. It's great to have this discussion but who is being HELD ACCOUNTABLE here? No one. Holding people accountable is a way to making changes, to making things better. Today, on this Easter Sunday, that represents a missed opportunity.
Case in point: Sister Joan's excellent linkage of the budget to our underlying national "religion":
If we're looking for, for, for a moral standard, we have to do something about looking at the national budget. Your national budget is theology walking. If we're really a pro-life country and not a pro-birth country, we, we won't be taking from all the life bodies in order to feed a war body.
That is a very, very interesting point, and one which I have not seen so framed. That's a point to put to President Bush, flying to Florida for an eleventh-hour bill on Terri Schiavo, or vis a vis the stem cell debate. Sister Joan, I think you should seriously consider a permanent berth in the White House Press Corps.
- Prof. Nasr explains Islam's position on abortion and gay rights: abortion is not an issue until the first 100 days, which is when Islam says life begins; on homosexuality, he notes that the prohibition is biblical in the Judeo-Christian tradition, but in Islamic society, people have generally "gone about their business" with impunity. But he says that "legally speaking, and point of divine law, it is something which is disdained by God." I'm a tad confused because he doesn't source that to the Koran or otherwise, which would, I think, have been helpful.