Signs of hope

October 25, 2006 by lynnell

by Lynnell Mickelsen

With two weeks to go before the election, I'm making the regular commute between hope and despair, riding the polling roller-coaster. Some days, I can practically smell the coming victory. Other days, (like today) I see how much work we still have to do.

Right now, I agree with the number-crunching of Chris Bowers
of My Direct Democracy, a wonderful Democratic blog that is tracking various races. Chris says Dems will win the House, but the Repubs will keep control of the Senate---just barely. He's an optimist. He's young. He's on our side. But that's what his numbers are showing.

Yeah, but I want it all and I want it now. I'm not a patient person. Chris says the big picture isn't half-bad. Dems are going to win the majority of governorships and do some real damage in state legislatures. The West is turning from solid red to purple and even blue. He adds that taking back our country is a long-term project---he thinks Dems will win even bigger in 2008 and 2010.

Of course, 2010 seems like forever to me. But here's one more immediate sign of hope. Two nights ago, my 87-year-old mother went to a dialogue on faith and politics out at Bethel University, a private Baptist school in suburban St. Paul where she used to teach. The dialogue featured Jim Wallis, author of God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It and Greg Boyd, a local pastor who just wrote The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the Quest for Political Power Is Destroying the Church.

Both men are evangelicals. Both are critical of the religious right. Bethel University is run by the Baptist General Conference---not exactly a liberal bunch. The talk was from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. on a Monday night---not exactly a prime time. But when my mom arrived at the auditorium at 7:45 p.m., the 1,700-seat place was packed. She found one of the last open seats in the upper balcony. The school brought in extra chairs and put them on the speakers stage. But they still couldn't fit everyone in and had to turn people away.

Now this is not the kind of story that's going to make the news. But in the northern suburbs of St. Paul, over 2,000 people showed up at a conservative Baptist school at 8 p.m. on a Monday night to listen to two guys say it was time to for evangelicals to stop their hyper-focus on abortion and gays and start working for social justice. Because that's what Jesus focused on.

Maybe it's just a fluke. But my Mom thinks it's a sign of something shifting. "People were so hungry to hear them," she says, and her voice sounds full of hope.

Posted in

Lynnell's Blog

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