mercy, mercy me...

“Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.” – Mark 7:14-15

I am really troubled and fascinated by the decision of the Scottish legal system to release Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al-Megrahi, who was convicted in the 1988 terrorist bombing of a Pan Am flight over Scotland that killed 270. This man was the only one convicted of anything and there is some doubt out there as to the veracity of the case against him. Maybe it was entirely a politically motivated and fueled trial and conviction, I don’t know. Someone needed to be responsible, no doubt, and although I can’t say whether this guy was implicit or not, I can say that it wouldn’t be the first time that someone had been either wrongly convicted or convicted of something far beyond their actual involvement because a perpetrator was needed to satisfy some sense of justice.

And then again perhaps he was involved, even if only in planning or some downstream funding or organization. Even if his involvement was only at that level, if you are willing participating with a group or organization that believes the killing of innocent victims is justifiable you are every bit as complicit as the one who straps on the bomb or pulls the trigger, in my opinion.

My real issue with this case is what it says about our idea of justice. Is such a thing attainable? If this is the guy who really orchestrated the entire event, would his death even in the most gruesome manner possibly balance the scales against the 270 innocent lives lost? I’m sure that my feeling on this matter would be quite different had one of my loved ones been on that flight, just as I am quite sure that if someone did something to hurt my children I would have vengeance not love on my heart.

Still, the justice system seems like it ought to be built on something other than responding to our passions. When Jesus refutes the eye for an eye normalcy of his time with “turn the other cheek” (Matthew 5:38) it is much more than a refutation of vengeance. He is calling for us to have anger, just not to act from that anger. Just as our anger does not produce God’s righteousness (James 1:20), our justifiable and understandable desire for vengeance does not produce God’s justice.
Perhaps the most meaning in the Scottish court’s actions can be found in this: When the call came for mercy to be shown to this man whose life is over and for whom a small amount of painful existence is left, the answer was for mercy. It was perhaps more than he showed his victims if he is truly guilty of that crime, and certainly more mercy than has been shown to the countless victims of terrorism worldwide. But hell…mercy has to start sometime, doesn’t it?

C'mon Mr. Obama!

As recently as June of this year, a national poll indicated that 72% of Americans polled favored a public option in health care reform. How is it that we are now seeing the death of this as an option? How is it that in the span of a few weeks we have gone from this as a central part of the reform process to an optional one? Can we chalk this one up to effective counter-protests?

In an informal class setting before worship last Sunday, some members of Norman UCC discussed the health care crisis, the reform efforts and what we might glean from all of this both as citizens and as people of faith. We were a collection of mostly “like-minded” people in terms of our politics and views of the role of government and we had several opinions. One of the opinions voiced was that the public option is the way to reform, but it is too much, too fast. It needs to be examined more so that we are sure about where we are headed and what we are obligating ourselves to. Perhaps that is right…it certainly is a more reasoned and practical way of dealing with an issue that evokes many emotions – but mostly fear.

If we don't address the fear, we won't get anything accomplished. I don't believe that the big chunk of us who consider ourselves more moderate and reasoned in our decision-making and conclusion-drawing are living out of the same fear that the fringes are. But the fringes get the publicity and you simply cannot consume that from every direction the way that we have without absorbing some of it. Jesus once said that he is the bread of life and that we must consume him to find the Kingdom of Heaven. That means to me that if we consume fear instead of hope, darkness instead of light and hatred instead of love we will live up to the adage "you are what you eat".

We can discuss many options and you can even look at the proposals side-by-side here. There’s lots of information out there…I guess I should say that there’s lots of propaganda out there, most of it unsupported by any actual information. I have yet to hear anyone who has cried “death panels” actually support that statement with anything other than speculation about what could happen. I mean, theoretically aliens could invade the planet tomorrow. It doesn’t mean that I should be shouting that at the top of my lunatic lungs on my FOX news hour-long trip into crazyville.

Meanwhile, militia membership and activity is up dramatically, the rhetoric and general tenor of “Tea Party” and “Birther” and “Anti-Socialism” movements grows angrier. The powder keg is full, all that is needed is a spark and I’m afraid that it can even be a real powerful flashlight. Fear is controlling and dominating all of our discussions and decisions. What we need is a leader who again will say, like FDR, “we have nothing to fear, but fear itself”.

My disappointment with Obama and the administration is not with the lack of liberal agenda fulfillment. Heck, I know where I live and understand that my own personal political agenda is far too left to be implemented. I’m fine with that. I actually prefer a more centrist government…something that keeps us from swinging back and forth on a pendulum of polarization would be nice. My disappointment is with leadership. Now is the time to lay out good arguments for why we need health care reform and to demonstrate in clear terms how a public option is the best one. The “Obama is a socialist” nuts will never be with you. They are against you because you won the election or because you aren’t in the right political party or, worse yet, because you are black. There’s nothing you can do about any of those issues.

I sense that part of Obama’s pull for lots of people is that we saw an opportunity in him to have a “post-partisan” system in which we made decisions based on what is good for the country, not what makes one party successful. It’s time to go back to the grassroots organizing that won the White House. There are more people, I believe, who want this than don’t. The ones who don’t are simply louder. Let’s not make decisions that way. Evoke your base. Awaken the middle that simply stands and watches the spectacle of what passes for both journalism and politics these days, either too busy or apathetic or disgusted to do anything. That’s what leaders do.