Sick, Advent, and Politics

Well, it's 2:21 a.m., and I am sitting in bed enjoying a nice night of stomach flu. I knew something was wrong when I picked up a book but had no energy to read. So, I decided to make the night a bit bearable by blogging (don't worry, not about the stomach flu). This post is dedicated to Andrew Freeman, who gets to be vicariously sick with me tonight. Hopefully it's something I ate so I won't be all sick and needy during Thanksgiving.

I just started working on this week's bulletin...you know, the one that has blue/purple headers instead of green and uses amazing songs like "O Come, O Come Emmanuel," "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence," and "Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus." Advent is finally almost here! Six more days! A shout out to all my Catholic brothers and sisters who are switching over to the new translation of the mass next week. Now, instead of saying:

Leader: The Lord be with you.

Congregation: And also with you.

They will say:

Leader: The Lord be with you.

Congregation: And with your spirit.

It's also supposed to be a bit more poetic and be closer to the Latin translation. We'll see how it goes!

So, I've been thinking a lot about politics, economics, and faith recently, and I keep coming back to this basic point: how can a Christian whose entire faith is built on the idea of unmerited grace, i.e. receiving salvation that we in no way earned, buy into an economic system/philosophy that says we should only get what we've earned? For example, when people debate welfare and other social services they say things like, "Well, people are lazy and won't work for it," or "People will never do anything for themselves when they keep receiving handouts." Now, disregarding that I think these basic premises are wrong (say they were right, just for argument's sake), doesn't our faith say that people always receive grace when they should receive punishment? That mercy trumps judgment? Who am I to decide who "deserves" health care or food stamps or fill-in-the-blank. All that to say, thank God I don't get what I deserve because I don't think it would be pretty (not to mention people that "earned their way" have often had many more privileges afforded them than they would like to admit). Political rant done.

In two days I'll be in Minnesota! I always like when I can say that.

I mean, obviously:

Who'd have guessed this?

I might give up on politics soon. I have come to the realization that I am already much too cynical about life to add an element that could turn even the cutest fawn or a bunny into a hardened cynic. I have no idea what I'm writing anymore. This is it, folks.