Somewhere in the country, though, there is a politician who is going to try to lead us out of this logjam. Whoever that person is, I hope he or she is listening carefully to what the public is saying. Because when you listen carefully, you notice the public anger doesn’t quite match the political class anger. The political class is angry about ideological things: bloated government or the predatory rich. The public seems to be angry about values.
The heart of any moral system is the connection between action and consequences. Today’s public anger rises from the belief that this connection has been severed in one realm after another.
Financiers send the world into recession and don’t seem to suffer. Neighbors take on huge mortgages and then just walk away when they go underwater. Washington politicians avoid living within their means. Federal agencies fail and get rewarded with more responsibilities.
What the country is really looking for is a restoration of responsibility. If some smart leader is going to help us get out of ideological gridlock, that leader will reframe politics around this end.
The idealist in me, who believes that following the way of Jesus Christ requires not only devotion and the willingness to sacrifice, but also self-discipline, wants to agrees with David Brooks, saying that “what the country is really looking for is a restoration of responsibility.” Nevertheless, the cynic in me thinks that if the enough people of the USA simply begin to have more money in their pockets to afford both what they must and what they wish, then they will be reluctant to want changes in political leadership, because it will be easy for them to overlook moral and ethical failures in “the system.”
I assume that the reason that the departing group retains the “Episcopal” terminology is to enhance their legal position for laying claim to property. Is there any other reason? Do they still believe themselves to be part of The Episcopal Church? If not, I can’t imagine why they would want the term in their name.
sorry – I misplaced previous comment. It goes to the preceding post. Administrators should feel free to discard these two from me.
The need for regaining a sense of personal responsibility is pretty much what Glenn Beck is saying.
T.S. Eliot: “It is impossible to design a system so perfect that no one needs to be good.”
Our pastor quoted him in his sermon today, applying it to a different issue, but it certainly fits here as well.