Of politics and religion

Good Lord, these can be thorny topics. And here we are, lucky enough to be essentially on the same page for those two items. On Saturday, we went with friends to see Barack Obama announce his run for president of the United States. I'm almost afraid to set my hopes on him, for fear that I might truly believe that he is different only to be disillusioned with the political process yet again. But boy did he sound different. Articulate, passionate, committed. He sounded soooo different from so many politicians. He said there was a certain audacity in running for president because he hadn't been in Washington all that long. As far as I'm concerned, that's one of the main things that sets him apart and is a distinct advantage over most if not all of his competition. So it was frigidly cold (I had foolishly not prepared as well as I should have for the cold), my baby wrapped his arms around me, we listened to the speech, there was a huge, huge crowd, and I felt hope. For us, for ending the war, for the country.

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Next, religion. Again, Brian and I are very similar in this regard. We continue to talk and define our religious beliefs, if any, and talk about what we want out of our life together in terms of religion. These are the principles I/we've worked out:

1. I want my religion to guide my decisions but not make them for me. God gave me a brain; I can't imagine I'm supposed to set it to the side to believe man-made laws.
   
2. I want my religion to provide an opportunity for community interaction, both in my spiritual activities as well as social projects.
   
3. I do not want my religion to serve as a justification of any kind for judgmental or unkind behavior, from a mildly disapproving air to full-blown self-righteousness. Meaning, I don't want to be all pious on the one hand, talking about religion and Christ and devotion all the time, and then be mean and judgmental on the other. Even if it's just a little bit. Hopefully, I won't be unkind and judgmental at all, but I definitely do NOT want to use religion or devotion as a basis or reasoning for that type of behavior. And what is it with that classic combo of high piousness/low tolerance or patience, with a ton or two of hypocritical behavior mixed in? Like a friend said at work, that focus on the rules while missing the point of the book. At least the book that he's read. So I don't want to be that. Again, not that I want to behave in that way anyway, but particularly using religion for that purpose makes my skin crawl. And I'm not a world leader or anything, so it's not about taking the country to war for me; rather, it's about how I behave toward others in my small, daily life. Oi weh this is such an area of personal growth for me.... To the extent that I continue to integrate religion into my life, I want it to help me be more tolerant and kind, not be a way to rationalize judgmental and hypocritical behavior.
   

That's pretty much it - those three things. I've used the first person, singular here only because these exact words are mine (sometimes we actually draft emails and blog entries together, and this language here doesn't reflect that type of collaboration), but Brian doesn't want to shut his brain off for any reason, including religion, nor does he want to become pious and religious only to end up being judgmental toward others. He's also open to the idea of community activity. So we're at a good point for now. We've laid down the foundation, the basic principles, of what we want from this part of our lives together. Although the life that we build together is a work in progress, these principles should help guide our decisions. God willing.