[Dialogue] spong 9-11

[KroegerD at aol.com]

    Thursday September 11,  2008   Hurricane Gustav, Sarah Palin and the  
Republican Convention  It  was widely reported in the media that James Dobson, 
the evangelical head  of "Focus on the Family," had prayed for rain to fall when 
Senator Barack  Obama delivered his acceptance speech to 80,000 people in the 
Denver  Broncos' outdoor stadium. If he has that kind of uninformed and 
magical  theology, I wonder how he interpreted the fact that Hurricane Gustav  
disrupted the Republican National Convention, at least on its first day.  Democrat 
Michael Moore called the hurricane "an act of God" visited on the  
Republicans, which demonstrates that both Democrats and Republicans can be  pathetic 
theologians. The only thing more disillusioning than religious  politicians is 
politicized religion.  
Both President Bush and Vice President Cheney cancelled their  appearances at 
this convention to attend to the nation's well being in the  light of the 
hurricane attacking the Gulf Coast. Politics is a strange and  inexact game, 
however, and most commentators felt that given the low  popularity of both the 
President and the Vice President this was in fact a  plus not a minus to the 
McCain campaign. Their absences took a potentially  embarrassing situation away 
from the convention and made it a little more  difficult for the Democrats to 
run against the "Bush-McCain Ticket." In  addition to that, Senator McCain, 
aware of the political disaster that  Hurricane Katrina was to the Bush 
administration just three years ago,  used this natural disaster to demonstrate that he 
was not George Bush. He  presided over the television screen in such a way as 
to live out his theme  of "Country First." Hurricane Gustav may just prove to 
be more helpful to  the Arizona Senator in his election fight than more 
hackneyed speeches  where the theme is to recite the words "The next President of 
the United  States" and "God Bless America" as many times as possible. McCain 
also  obviously wanted to avoid television's split screens juxtaposing  
Republicans partying while the people in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast  suffered.  
Prior to Hurricane Gustav, in a decision that took Democratic  enthusiasm and 
the Obama/Biden acceptance speeches off prime time and  refocused the 
nation's attention on the McCain campaign, the Senator  announced that Governor Sarah 
Palin of Alaska was his choice for vice  president. It was a surprising 
choice to say the least, even, as we  learned later, to some members of McCain's 
inner circle. Just 16 months  ago, Ms. Palin was the mayor of the Alaskan town 
of Wasilla with less than  7000 people. The spin doctors had to work overtime 
to turn her appointment  into a plus for anyone but the evangelical vote, to 
whom she was a perfect  choice. Senator McCain was playing a wild card. His 
appeal to Democrats  and Independents is based at least in part on his reputation 
as a  moderate, or at least a maverick, but he is not trusted among 
evangelicals  as President Bush had been. He attempted to shore up that support with the 
 choice of Governor Palin, but he sacrificed potential Independent and  
Democratic support in the process. Time will tell whether this calculation  was a 
wise move or not.  
Governor Palin has an interesting profile from her beauty queen and ice  
hockey days to her ability to stand down corruption in her own party and  win the 
governorship of Alaska against heavy odds. Nonetheless, for  Republicans to 
proclaim her as having vast "executive experience" sounded  thin indeed.  
Her evangelical credentials were not in doubt. Governor Palin was for  years 
a member of an evangelical Assembly of God Church. She is opposed  both 
personally and professionally to abortion with no exceptions. She has  supported a 
constitutional amendment to the Alaska Constitution to ban gay  marriage, 
favors teaching "creation science" in public schools as an  alternative to 
evolution and opposes sex education in the public schools.  She is a champion of 
"teaching abstinence." All of that makes her the  dream candidate for the 
evangelical vote.  
Politically she satisfied the Republican conservatives on gun control  and by 
supporting Pat Buchanan for president in 1996. The fact that her  son is in 
the Army and bound for Iraq this month was another important  point in her 
biography. Senator McCain apparently hoped that with her on  his ticket he might 
yet attract those women voters who are still upset  about Senator Hillary 
Clinton's narrow defeat to Senator Obama. Ms. Palin  appealed to those voters 
immediately when she was first introduced to the  public by Senator McCain. Tossing 
bouquets in the direction of both  Representative Geraldine Ferraro and 
Senator Hillary Clinton who, she  said, had paved the way for her, she even 
suggested that she would be the  one finally to remove the glass ceiling into which 
Hillary had placed  "18,000,000 cracks."  
Will that strategy work? It has never worked before. In 1988 Vice  President 
George H. W. Bush believed he could appeal to the women's vote  by appointing 
a handsome young man to be his running mate. That is how Dan  Quayle became 
vice president. Nonetheless, George Bush lost the female  vote substantially in 
1988 and lost the White House in 1992. Quayle was  judged a liability to the 
ticket in both years. Politicians do not always  understand that it seems 
insulting to women to think that a candidate's  sex rather than her competence will 
determine their vote.  
George H.W. Bush also once thought that he would elicit  African-American 
support for Republicans by appointing a black person to  succeed Thurgood 
Marshall on the Supreme Court. His choice of Clarence  Thomas, however, was viewed as 
insulting to black voters since Thomas'  public positions time and again 
seemed to be at odds with the vested  interests of the African-American 
population. Again, it seemed insulting  to think that black Americans would support a 
candidate of their race who  did not reflect their interests.  
The choice of a vice president is the first major decision the  presumptive 
nominee has to make, and as such it provides an opportunity  for undecided 
voters to evaluate Senator McCain's judgment of what both  the country and his 
campaign need. From that perspective, Governor Palin  remains a strange choice. 
Senator McCain is 72, the oldest person in  American history to seek the 
presidency for the first time, and he has  some major health issues, including a 
diagnosis of melanoma and four  surgical procedures to contain it. Three of them 
were routine, but the  fourth was extensive to excise where the melanoma had 
invaded his temple.  That accounts for the distortion on the left side of his 
face. Earlier in  the campaign, recognizing these health issues, he stated that 
his first  and primary criterion for the vice presidency was a "readiness to 
assume  the responsibilities of the Presidency." Not even by the wildest 
stretch  of the imagination does this appointment qualify on that basis. One can  
hardly pretend that being mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, or serving 16 months  in 
the governor's office of a state with the population of the city of  Austin, 
Texas, qualifies one to be the leader of the free world. Former  senator Fred 
Thompson was disingenuous in his convention speech on Tuesday  night when he 
referred to Alaska as "America's largest state."  
Second, the voting public gets to evaluate the decision-making process  
through which the candidate for the presidency goes to make major  decisions. There 
was no confidence built in this area when it is  recognized that Governor 
Palin was a last-minute choice and that Senator  McCain, who preferred Governor 
Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania or Independent  and close friend Joseph Lieberman of 
Connecticut, bowed to evangelical  pressure and named Governor Palin. We 
learned that Senator McCain had  interviewed her only once on the day before he 
made the announcement. That  hardly seemed like sufficient preparation to place 
his candidacy for  president into another person's hands and to place her 
potentially into a  position that is just one heartbeat from the presidency. When 
it was  revealed in the opening days of the convention that Governor Palin's  
17-year-old daughter was five months pregnant, we wonder what other  surprises 
might be forthcoming. I hope Senator McCain knows that a  thorough vetting of 
one who will potentially have their hands on the  ultimate instruments of 
power seems to be the barest of all pre-requisites  to the appointment. Yes, it is 
true that the office frequently makes the  person who occupies it, but the 
office has to have a substantial person on  which to work its magic.  
It is clear and regularly stated in the media that this election is  Barack 
Obama's to lose. Everything is running against the Republicans,  from the 
unpopularity of the Bush presidency to the state of the economy  to the wars in 
Afghanistan and Iraq, to the drop in housing values and  finally to the price of 
gasoline. Senator McCain must get every break and  make no mistakes to gain 
the White House. Is that possible? In politics  everything is possible, but 
being caught between Hurricane Gustav and the  choice of Governor Palin is not a 
good way to begin.  
Other impressions at the Republican Convention I simply file by title:  
    1.  The three major speakers on Tuesday night, President Bush and  
Senators Thompson and Lieberman, had one thing in common: Each was an  aging, 
grey-haired white male. When the TV cameras panned the audience  they looked fully 
representative of their listeners.  
    2.  Sarah Palin exceeded all expectations. There will be no "Thomasina  
Eagleton."  
    3.  Does anyone still remember Dan Quayle attacking Murphy Brown for  
conceiving a baby out of wedlock? That issue now seems politically dead  even in 
evangelical circles. Bristol Palin has been embraced. No one has  yet 
mentioned that Sarah Palin's oldest child was born eight months  after her 
"elopement." People don't remember that Ronald Reagan and  Nancy had a child seven months 
after they were married and John McCain  was having an affair with Cindy 
before he left his first wife. Bill  Clinton begins to look like a monk. 
Politics-strange indeed! 
– John Shelby Spong

 
____________________________________
Question and Answer 
With John Shelby Spong   
John Bakerfrom Canton, Ohio, writes: At age 82, I am greatly impressed by  
your writings. I am currently reading Jesus for the Non-Religious  and have 
often wished that your speaking engagements might include a visit  to some 
location within 50 or 60 miles of where I live. Perhaps a greater  possibility is 
that some pastor within a reachable radius is a disciple of  yours or shares your 
major views. I am a long-time member of a  Presbyterian congregation, many 
members of which are dear friends.  However, church attendance long ago became 
boring for me (but not for my  wife). I gave up Sunday school because questions 
I wanted to ask appeared  to offend people I considered my friends. As a 
youth I was confirmed in  this same church and remember being told, when I 
questioned beliefs that  did not make sense to a 13-year-old, "You must have faith." 
I enjoy your  essays very much. If you can connect me with a "Spong pastor" or 
followers  within reach, I will be in even greater debt.    
Dear John, 
Thank you for your letter and kind comments. I regret that I do not  know the 
churches of Ohio well enough to direct you to a congregation and  pastor that 
would engage you deeply. One resource might be to contact _The Center for  
Progressive Christianity_ (http://tcpc.org/template/index.cfm)  (e-mail 
fplumer at TCPC.org). Fred Plumer, the  executive head, is in touch with churches of all 
denominations across the  United States and he can recommend to you those 
congregations who have  signed up with his organization.  
The Episcopal Dean of Trinity Cathedral, Cleveland, the _Very  Rev. Tracey 
Lind_ (http://www.trinitycleveland.org/people/lind.html) , might be able to 
direct you to progressive Episcopal  Churches, but she might not be familiar with 
other traditions, and my  sense is that if you find a Presbyterian Church that 
connects you to your  own religious past that would be, I believe, the most 
desirable.  
I have done lectures in Ohio in Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus,  Toledo, 
Akron, and Dayton, just to name the places that come immediately  to mind. From 
those experiences I can guarantee you that there are  churches in that great 
state that will allow question and debate and that  will not be bound by a first 
century view of the Bible, a 4th century view  of the creeds or a 13th 
century view of doctrine and liturgy. The  traditional churches are dying today and 
until they open themselves to  dialogue with the world and allow their literal 
claims to be challenged,  they will continue to die. People like you, even at 
age 82 (you are five  years my senior), have the capacity to help bring about 
that change.  
Good luck and I hope you find a place where you can both be fed and  make a 
difference.  
– John Shelby  Spong




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