Analysis of the Sojourner's Forum -- Diana Butler Bass

Unfortunately conflicting schedules prevented me from watching the CNN broadcast of the Sojourner's Presidential Candidates Forum (Pentecost 2007), but I've watched the clips I posted earlier. The answers they gave were for the most part personal, thoughtful, and largely unrehearsed.

Diana Butler Bass had the opportunity (since she lives in the neighborhood) to witness the event in person and gives her own analysis. She finds the conversation reflective of the "ironic strain of Protestant faith" --as Reinhold Niebuhr defines the term.

Clearly unscripted and unplanned, what emerged was a re-articulation of a great American theology: the ironic strain of Protestant faith. In 1952, Reinhold Niebuhr described this part of American religious-political character in his book, The Irony of American History. Irony, as Niebuhr described, is not humor. Rather, it is an understanding that American history was full of unexpected twists, that the most innocent political intentions had often undermined virtue.

Diana quotes Niebuhr:

“If virtue becomes vice through some hidden defect in the virtue; if strength becomes weakness because of the vanity to which strength may prompt the mighty man or nation; if security is transmuted into insecurity because too much reliance is placed upon it; if wisdom becomes folly because it does not know its own limits—in all such cases, the situation is ironic.”

It is true we are not electing theologian or even pastor-in-chief and yet if as must be the case, these candidates bring to the table a faith tradition that informs their decisions (that could be non-faith as well as faith -- to be clear), hearing them share how faith influences their decisions is helpful. And as Niebuhr writes virtue can become vice, strength a weakness, security becomes insecurity, and wisdom becomes folly -- it's ironic. Think only of the current President. Loyalty is a virtue, but as we have seen with Donald Rumsfeld and Alberto Gonzalez, that virtue has been revealed to be a vice that has led to disaster at home and abroad.

Diana closes her blog posting with these words:

Contrasting the theology of glory, Luther identified “the theology of cross.” Like Niebuhr’s irony, the theology of the cross understands human limitations, recognizes suffering, and acts in humility. It is the way of grace-filled risk, of trusting God—not armies or policies or ideologies or our own righteousness—to bring peace. St. Paul, Martin Luther, Reinhold Niebuhr—all voices of the cross.

These strains—triumphal or ironic, hubris or humility, of glory or the cross—have competed for the soul of American Protestantism since its beginnings. And, as expected, the more modest voices have often been less heard, perhaps because they represent the deepest place of Protestant spirituality. After nearly two decades of certainty, no wonder the Democrats sounded that note on Monday night—and it was refreshing to hear it. I was not only surprised by how well these Democrats spoke about faith, but that they sounded like Reinhold Niebuhr while doing it!

The irony of American history is clearer than ever. As Niebuhr wrote, we are involved in irony because so many dreams of our nation have been so cruelly refuted by history.” Iraq? New Orleans? The gap between rich and poor? Will we have a political theology of triumphalism or irony? A theology of glory or the cross? Thank goodness we may well have a choice in the next presidential election.

In the upcoming election we must ponder the choices and consider as Diana points out the contrast between hubris and humility, triumphalism and irony, glory or the cross. Faith may be personal, but it does affect our thoughts and our actions. For a few moments Monday some of that personal stuff got revealed. To read the entirety of Diana's column, click here.