No wonder we grate on the nerves of conservatives and moderates, us liberals :) are hardly ever satisfied and often shrilly shouting our complaints. One would think our shouting would lessen now with our newly elected President, with the big D next to his name, and our control in the Senate... but yet without having to listen too closely our shrieks can still be heard!Today was no exception. If you were within hearing distance of my shouts this morning in real life or in twitterville, you will know my reaction to President Obama's decision to go back on his campaign promise by allowing federally funded faith groups to discriminate with their hiring policy based on religious beliefs.
Nothing has made me believe in Obama's post-partisan goals more than this move and to be honest simultaneously caused my inner liberal to go bizerk!
From my liberal perspective, this was my way of viewing this situation:
I am totally fine with religious groups hiring based on their religious beliefs. I understand they see that as necessary to their purpose and mission, but I do not see that the federal government needs to be funding those groups. This seems to clearly trample all over founding principle of separation of church and state. A principle I hold very dear!
How can I even imagine my government promoting discrimination in this way? My mind then instantly jumped to this scenario. What if the KKK wanted to do some charity work. Open a homeless shelter or a nice food pantry. Would the federal government offer them a grant for their good work and allow them to hire discriminately based on race? I mean it would be core to their mission to only hire whites, and we do need more groups out there dealing with our massive homeless problem.
I voted for a Democrat so that values of equality, fairness, and justice would be upheld!
So that was my angry liberal reaction....
And then I took a step-back and began to talk myself down.
For a moment I allowed myself to sit with the conservative mindset and I came to this perspective:
Faith-based groups have been the backbone of social services in many communities in this country for years. As President Obama asserted yesterday, they are uniquely situated to offer much needed services to many Americans right now.
Faith-based groups hold it primary to their mission to work from their belief system. The good work they do is a direct result of their beliefs. They see it as imperative that others share their core beliefs in order to work effectively within their organization. The services they provide are of great benefit to society.
A study came out recently showing Americans are passionate about social causes but few take action based on those beliefs (read about it here). Faith-based groups offer a structure to increase the action that Americans take and to accomplish much of the work that our society needs done.
I believe that it is after sincerely taking in the perspective of the left and the right that Obama is able to come out post-partisan. I believe that he is genuinely trying to take the best of both of these worldviews. This will of course anger those seeing the world strictly in red or blue. When our ideas are stuck and we are only viewing the world from our particular narrow perspective, we are going to find ourselves shouting quite a bit. Don't get me wrong, sometimes we need to shout, there is beautiful truth in each of our perspectives. But trying to understand the other side, never hurt, well sometimes it hurts the pride a bit, but trust me it is worth that small pain.
President Obama offered some post-partisan, integral ideas about faith in his address at the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday, February 5, 2009.
"In this way, the particular faith that motivates each of us can promote a greater good for all of us. Instead of driving us apart, our varied beliefs can bring us together to feed the hungry and comfort the afflicted; to make peace where there is strife and rebuild what has broken; to lift up those who have fallen on hard times. This is not only our call as people of faith, but our duty as citizens of America, and it will be the purpose of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships that I’m announcing later today. " (read full remarks here)
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