Washblog || Religion and Politics at Highline Community College

Religion and Politics at Highline Community College

By The Movement of the Faithful
Tue Oct 03, 2006 at 03:46:37 PM PST
Section: Diary Topic: Building the base

WAC Board member Le Roi Brashears, and Movement of the Faithful organizer Richard Wells (that's me) sat on a panel with Emmanuel Chiabi - Anthropology/History/Poly Sci. Prof. from HCC - and Tarek Dawoud - Islamic Speakers Bureau - and discussed 3 questions with 200 students.

1.    What role should religion play in a democratic society? How does religious belief influence political views and political affiliation?
2.    Does democracy require the separation of church and state?
3.    As the US becomes more culturally and religiously diverse, what impact does that have on the Democratic and Republican parties?

After a quick history lesson on what the separation of church and state actually means, the discussion got down to values based politics. Almost all 200 students showed hands when asked if they came from families in which religious faith played a role; about a hundred indicated they were members of congregations; and close to fifty indicated they'd been in church last Sunday - amazing for the "most un-churched state in the Union."

Mr. Chiabi pointed out the students were asked about churches to the exclusion of mosques, temples, or synagogues. A fair point, well taken, and a good corrective to how even the language of inclusion can get trapped in the sectarian. It was also good leavening for the discussion that followed on how values that speak to the most vulnerable cut across all religions, and that politics must be informed by those values regardless of religion, and regardless of party affiliation.

A movement in which there are no D's or R's, but a critical mass of people of faith standing with allies of every stripe under the banner of "justice for all," was the thought we left with.

We didn't recruit any new congregations, but 200 students heard about The Movement of the Faithful, and who knows when we'll meet again.

< Reichert: Maybe Climate Change Ain't Real | Fair Elections Mtg Tonight >

Religion and Politics at Highline Community College | 1 comment (1 topical)

Faith And Belief

...I have found that in order for me to have faith, I first have to make sure that what I am having faith IN is based on something real.

When Thomas doubted that Jesus had indeed come back from the grave, Jesus did something very interesting to me: He told Thomas to check out his wounds, to put his hands in the cuts and examine Jesus' body. Jesus knew that faith does not come out of the blue, faith is the strongest when you KNOW something is true or will be true. If I walk across the floor and know it is solid because it has always been there, the next step I take is full of the "faith" that the floor will always hold my wieght. If at one time, I walked across that floor and I fell through it, I would not have that same solid faith in the floor, would I? If someone came and repaired the floor, I might regain that faith, but still there will be doubt until that faith in the floor is restored after countless times again walking across it.

I am not saying that you always have to have solid evidence to have faith, just that faith and trust are closely innertwined. I know God will answer my prayers. Why? Because they have always been answered before. Sometimes not in the way I expected, and then "faith" took on a whole new meaning because I had to trust that, whatever I am praying about, I trust that, if it is not answered it is because God has a better plan, or if it is answered, that it might not be they way I pictured it "should" be, but in the long run it will be answered in a way that is for the best ~ because I have always gotten an answer, just not always the one I expected.

So faith is based on trust, which comes out of experience, IMO. At least my faith is this way. So when someone labels me a kook for having faith in something, I smile inside because I know I am not going to just believe any old thing. God gave me a brain to discern what is and what is not. This way I don't need to waste my time believing and expecting stuff that will never be ~ and healthy skepticism is important because when you when the time comes that you need REAL faith, you have to know what to believe and what not to believe in order to stand on the solid ground you desperately need at those times.
My 2 cents

Cat In Seattle

by mntleo2 on Mon Oct 16, 2006 at 05:46:17 PM PST

* 1 none 0 *

Religion and Politics at Highline Community College | 1 comment (1 topical)

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