Tread lightly on the things of earth

AKMA’s weblog entry on Rowan Williams’ first sermon as the new Archibishop of Canterbury — the ABC is the “new leader of 70 million Anglicans across the globe” — influenced me to read and watch the whole thing [sermon excerpts, full transcript 1 and 2, photo and video links].

I am heartened by Abp. Rowan’s display of genuine Christian thinking and being:

Once we recognise God’s great secret, that we are all made to be God’s sons and daughters, we can’t avoid the call to see one another differently.

No one can be written off; no group, no nation, no minority can just be a scapegoat to resolve our fears and uncertainties.” …

The Church exists to pass on the promise of Jesus — “You can live in the presence of God without fear; you can receive from his fullness and set others free from fear and guilt.” …

The Christian will engage with passion in the world of our society and politics — out of a real hunger and thirst to see God’s image, the destiny of human beings to become God’s sons and daughters come to light …

When Christians grieve or protest about war … it is because of the fear we rightly feel when insult and violence blot out the divine image in our human relations, the reflection to one another of the promise of Jesus in one another. …

If all we have to offer is a Jesus who makes sense to me and people like me, we have no saving truth to give.

For followers of Jesus, war — and with inarguable certainty, preemptive war — is not an option, for it means knowingly scapegoating brothers and sisters, knowingly killing others of us whom God loves. Supporting preemptive war may seem to be sensible, may seem to be patriotic, but one thing it inescapably is not: it is not following Jesus.

I agree with AKMA who says, “We got a good one, this time.”

In The Atlantic, Jonathan Rauch writes in a funny but bang-on way about Caring for your Introvert. Man, oh man. I laughed out loud at this paragraph:

Extroverts have little or no grasp of introversion. They assume that company, especially their own, is always welcome. They cannot imagine why someone would need to be alone; indeed, they often take umbrage at the suggestion. As often as I have tried to explain the matter to extroverts, I have never sensed that any of them really understood. They listen for a moment and then go back to barking and yipping.

I have one or two extroverted friends who, yip though they may, actually try to understand me, so I’ll give ‘em some credit. :-)

[via Kottke.org]

After noting the Washington Post report that “many people in the world increasingly think President Bush is a greater threat to world peace than Iraqi President Saddam Hussein,” Horst compares Iraq and the U.S. from his non-U.S. point of view. The result is striking and inarguable, seems to me, especially the table.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams issues warning to Blair and Bush:

Both President Bush with his “axis of evil” soundbites and the prime minister [Blair] in his recent campaign to provide a moral justification for the conflict have become increasingly messianic in tone as they strive to persuade sceptical electorates, [Abp. Williams] said. “There is no war that is holy and good in itself and to bring the heavy artillery of a religious kind, to say that is the only way of resisting evil, is something that has to be watched out for.”

Makes me happy to be an Anglican (the U.S. kind; that is, Episcopal).

[via Aardvark]

Bush Administration:
"We will export death and violence to the four corners of the earth in defense of our great nation."

Yes, this Administration said that (according to Bush at War).

2003-03-03 update: In a comment to this entry, John makes a good point [which I've since lost, possibly with subconscious intent since he called me a "dumbass"]. Some of the citations turned up in a Google search credit the quote to an anonymous CIA person rather than to Mr. Bush himself. I've amended the original entry above to reflect this.

Actions speak louder than words, however; our current U.S. actions shout "we will export death and destruction" more than the words themselves do. As the buck ultimately stops on the President's desk, it's reasonable to hold Mr. Bush responsible for these words -- this thinking -- as reported in Bush at War, no matter who under his authority spoke them.

(I notice that the CounterPunch article in which I originally saw this quote, Armageddon Anxiety, is unchanged from reporting these words as "the President's declamation.")

Rafe points to a site called The Political Compass that addresses “the inadequacies of the traditional [political] left-right line.” Its test assesses your position on two axes, not only the economic dimension (left <-> right) but also the social dimension (libertarian <-> authoritarian).

Hmmm, I score as a libertarian leftist [-3.38/-2.72] immediately adjacent to Gandhi, just slightly to his right on the economic scale. (I couldn’t ask for better company.) This placement earns me this Reading List, the contents of which I, uh, haven’t read yet.

More than a decade of reasonably intense thinking about these issues — fueled largely by reading the Church fathers and other Christian spiritual classics — has brought me to my current point of view. I expect, then, that this quadrant is my home for life. I wouldn’t have predicted my arrival here, though; my youthful self was probably in the top right quadrant: somewhat more authoritarian, much more to the right economically.

What an illuminating exercise!