One of the basic principles that I try to practice as a Buddhist-Christian is to oppose without denouncing. As a Buddhist teacher once put it to a group of Christian liberation theologians, “We Buddhists don’t denounce.” This is one of the most difficult, but also one of the most important, things we Christians can learn [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Democracy’
Please, Mr. President, speak your mind!
Dear President Obama, On Aug 3, your press secretary, Robert Gibbs, speaking for your administration, said that you did not want to take a position on the controversy surrounding plans to build a Muslim Center near Ground Zero. When asked what was the opinion of your administration, Mr. Gibbs replied that it was “a matter [...]
Obama and the Middle Way
In the March 8 issue of The Nation, Katha Pollitt concludes an excellent article with: “What is the point of Obama being conciliatory and careful if his opponents are reckless and don’t want to conciliate.” (http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100308/pollitt). I’m sure many of us resonate with what Pollitt is urging: Get tough, Mr. Obama! All your reconciliation stuff [...]
Democracy or Dependency: The State of the US Congress
Democracy or Dependency: The State of the US Congress In a recent THE NATION article, Harvard Law Professor, Lawrence Lessig, lays out compelling evidence for the following conclusion about the state of our democracy due to the state of our Congress: “Rather than being, as our framers promised, an institution ‘dependent on the People,’ Congress [...]