Not much more to say than that.
Be glad that life, even in the most difficult moments, gives you the opportunity to love and hope and dream and be.
I am not very good at it most of the time, but today I am glad of life and fully satisfied with what it has to offer. And my day is better for it.
Texas politician Jim Hightower wrote a book a few years ago titled “There’s Nothing in the Middle of the Road but Yellow Stripes and Dead Armadillos.” There are two opposing camps on every issue and never the twain shall meet. Or so the argument goes. I would add one more thing…me. More often than not I find myself in the middle of the road politically and theologically.
According to the mainstream press (and some of the religious press) we are a society that is sharply divided between left and right with little or no room for moderation. The church is often characterized the same way along liberal/evangelical lines. Voices on the extremes dominate our public and theological debate to a degree that any possibility of moderation is squashed. Moderate voices in politics and theology are viewed with suspicion and even hostility. Once, when being interviewed by a Committee on Ministry in a presbytery I was hoping to join, a member of the COM actually accused me of being “untrustworthy” because I would not take an absolute stand on a particular divisive issue. For whatever reason, “I’m not sure” has become an unacceptable answer. Our churches and communities are fast allowing minority voices on the fringe to take over the debate.
This summer I had the opportunity to attend the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in Minneapolis. The city was gracious, our hosts were wonderful and the leadership of the GA did an admirable job. Nonetheless, I came away from GA feeling a deep sense of trouble. Everywhere you look at General Assembly there is another affinity group pressing one cause or another. I went to GA to work with one of those groups, however half way through I resigned my post as a volunteer. I could not stomach it anymore. I still support the goals of the group. However, I was left feeling troubled by the persistent all or nothing view on theology. It is a mentality that you are either with us or against us on every issue and for the right reasons. Arriving at the same theological conclusion for different reasons is eyed with suspicion and even a measure of disdain. Theological disagreement becomes absolute with a winner and a loser and little room for compromise. Theological discernment is reduced to political strategy. This tendency is as true on the left as it is on the right. The dominance of such thinking leaves little room for moderation. As a moderate at GA, I found myself feeling like a new kid in the cafeteria at school without anyone to sit with at lunch!
In 2006 the Baylor Religion Survey found that 17.6% of respondents consider themselves theologically conservative while 13.8% consider themselves theologically liberal. So what happens to the other 68.6% of us who claim neither label? We are right there with the yellow stripes and the dead armadillos in the middle of the road.
