Holiday Inn (December 9, 2006)
Last Sunday, my wonderful Sunday school class was about how Jesus viewed wealth and social responsibility, and the teacher, a talented preacher and theologian, said that faith transcends politics. He went on to say that we have an ongoing responsibility to continually question our political decisions in light of our faith. I sat there nodding my complete agreement, but I’ll admit that I was also thinking to myself, “Of course Jesus was a progressive, therefore all my progressive political positions are the right ones. I’ll always continue to reexamine my positions, but of course they’re the ones Jesus would take.” And just as I was sitting there thinking those thoughts, I glanced down at the ball-point pen in my hand (which I had happened to bring from home), and the words incribed on it absolutely jumped out and hit me in the face—in bright mauve on a white background, HOLIDAY INN SUNSPREE RESORT. Not only did those words conjure up a pleasant memory of my opulent accomodations during a recent vacation; God was also letting me know in no uncertain terms that one danger of holding progressive political views is that it can make us fail to see that we, too, have the possibility of being greedy and materialistic! What a pointed illustration of how religion must “transcend” politics.
