snit snat wrote:
> Obama narrative of why democrats are democrats--because it bothers
> them when strangers on the southside of chicago go hungry--seems like
> the very moral vision that we could use right now. It isn't foreign to
> us, is it? Or, am I just a fruithat, speaking Neptuneese?
What remains to be explained is why it is appropriate for justice and compassion to occur in a social rather than religious context. Most stripes of Xtians understand that the poor need relief, many stripes of Xtians tithe about 10% of their earnings to their church, knowing that this money goes to feed/clothe the hungry, help single mothers, fund addiction treatment, etc. Most Xtians understand the notion of sacrifice too, since they are willing to accept a fair amount of present suffering in exchange for some future, eternal reward. What is happening in this country however is a growing (?) belief that social needs like health care and education should be managed by the market while everything with a moral component (marriage, sex, drugs) should be managed by the church. It is, if you will, a parallel notion of the separation of church and state -- though obviously not a notion most of us agree with.
So, it's more complicated than touting the virtues of justice and compassion. What has really happened is that the social has been completely void of content -- in the absence of that, there is only the market, the state(army), and the church. Welcome to the new feudalism.
Joanna