In my last post, I mentioned that I feel blessed for having so many friends. So maybe it’s time to lose a few ;-) Almost each day I receive an email or hear a comment that expresses the shock and disappointment regarding President Obama being invited to Notre Dame and like usual, I am bothered with the outrage of people (yeah, I’m outraged with outrage). But this got me thinking.
Maybe I shouldn’t have been but frankly, yes, I too was initially surprised that Notre Dame invited Obama. Generally speaking, people regard Notre Dame as the symbol of American Catholicism and I wondered about this for a while (at least 30 seconds) and I’d like to make a few assumptions:
The decision makers of Notre Dame are highly intelligent capable people and they probably thought this through.
This wasn’t a spectacle too distract from their terrible football team.
Notre Dame isn’t posturing for a federal bail-out.
Then it occurred to me – could it be that Notre Dame is interested in conversation? I’ve been sharing to some my friends that we as evangelical Christians need to change our paradigm in various areas. Among these areas is the idea of the culture war. For starters, we need to stop calling it a “culture war”. Second, those “enemies” or those who we sharply disagree with are not going to change their minds in the midst of our protests, books, blogs, sermons, and our Fox News Channel personalities (who seem to be quoted more often than our Messiah). Evidence of this is the last 40-50 years of reaction in attempt to combat the effects of the sexual revolution. Campaigns and images like these posted to the right are not going to make a profound difference.
Those who we differ with may at least dialogue with us if we invite them to our tables, honor them at our events, show them the same love that was shown for us. I truly believe good can come out of this mentality and at worst, it will be a start.
I can hear it now, “Aren’t you afraid, that Obama will convert the Notre Dame students to the abortion agenda? He’s very convincing you know …” No, no I’m not. That’s not what I care about. I am interested in fewer abortions and the regard for life, not more people to check “I am Pro-Life” during a Gallup Poll. “Are we not inviting the wolves to come and prey upon our flocks?” No because this is the type of logic that has moved us further out of discussion and set up yelling matches. This is what has armed the battalions of our new civil war, “Blue States verses Red States”. “Aren’t we compromising our convictions by allowing this sort of thing?” I know people are tired of reading/hearing this, but again, Jesus ate and drank with prostitutes and tax collectors and others who obviously had different convictions than he did.
Likewise, I’d like to see a school like Concordia invite a respectable conservative like Hugh Hewitt to address their students or a Columbia invite a guy like Cal Thomas. (Forget the Robertsons, Coulters and Limbaughs, they are not interested in conversation). Another great example is that I loved seeing Don Miller pray at the Democratic National Convention and I pray one day he will allowed back into one of our churches ;-) A negative example is the reaction that Relevant Magazine editor, Cameron Strang, received when he was scheduled to pray at the DNC. Listen, we do not even need to exchange honorary doctorates (honestly, I’m not sure I even understand the point of that) but simply begin by dialoguing with one another – with honor and class.
If we are truly interested in some progress, solving problems like reducing the number of abortions performed, we need to start channeling our energy into working together as opposed to hating and trying to destroy each other. We can begin by welcoming Obama to Notre Dame.
Amen, Tim! Nothing is ever gained by protesting someone’s religion/politics through uninviting them to events (or ignoring them or pretending they don’t exist). Nothing. Not to say a conversation always solves the problem, but it’s the best place to begin. I love the way you think.
Thanks KrisAnne.
We are addicted to controversy, being mad, and yelling at each other. This is the key to shows like the O’Reilly Factor. It actually has a good deal in common with the Jerry Springer show.
Beware of those Dogs!