Religion and politics in the USA: nonstereotypical view

It is no secret I admire Sojourners, even if theologically I am somewhat to the “left” of Jim Wallis — “left” in quotes as the concept really is analogical in this context.

In their latest email there is a wonderful quote from Richard Perle in Vanity Fair:

I think if I had been delphic, and had seen where we are today, and people had said, ‘Should we go into Iraq?,’ I think now I probably would have said, ‘No, let’s consider other strategies….’ Could we have managed that threat by means other than a direct military intervention? Well, maybe we could have.

John Howard is yet to attain this measure of enlightenment.

The main item is Jim Wallis’s reading of the US election result: A Defeat for the Religious Right and the Secular Left . Worth reading.

One of the central issues in this election was the continuing violence and death in Iraq. As of today, 2,836 Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have died in this disastrous war. The people have now spoken, and there is a mandate to change the course of U.S. policy in Iraq. The president acknowledged this yesterday with his announcement of the resignation of Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, and his recognition that the country needs a fresh perspective in the Defense Department. We believe that the first order of business for the new Congress and the administration must be determining alternatives to the current disastrous course.

John “Deny Everything” Howard has yet to achieve this degree of enlightenment.

Is the age of mushroom politics finally over? Is that too much to hope for?

Did you see School blues with Clarke and Dawe on last night’s 7.30 Report? Go there.