The Republic of T.

I’m off to a slow start with blogging in the new year, but have a couple of posts coming up tomorrow. In the meantime, here’s an interesting tidbit I came across while searching for a reference for an upcoming post. Apparently, there are two Buddhists among the new members of Congress who will soon be sworn in.

Representative-elect Hank Johnson, a Georgia Democrat who ousted Representative Cynthia McKinney in the Democratic primary, became a Buddhist decades ago, though his family does not share that faith. A spokesperson said that Mr. Johnson plans to use a Bible, citing tradition.

Besides, there is no book in Buddhism that’s equivalent to the Bible or the Koran, said Representative-elect Mazie Hirono, a Hawaii Democrat. She said she probably would not use any book, but that in the past, when she was sworn in as lieutenant governor, she used a friend’s family Bible.

Ms. Hirono does not practice daily, but she is influenced by Buddhist values. It is “characteristic of Buddhism that there is respect and tolerance for other religions,” she said.

It’s the first one that gave me pause. Hank Johnson, a black Buddhist, got elected in Georgia? The only thing I can guess is that he kept that on the down-low, while making the obligatory rounds to churches on Sunday. He must not have told anyone, because I can’t imagine that a majority of Georgians in almost any district would elect a non-Christian to office.

Then again, it’s Cynthia McKinney’s district, so it probably leans progressive anyway.

But still. That just kinda blew my mind for a minute.

Kudos to the congressman-elect, tho’.

Jim sent me an email yesterday about the current issue of Shambhala Sun — which I subscribed to for a year or so, back when I had time to read magazines — and I was intrigued by the focus on mindful politics. I might just pick up this issue tomorrow, in order to read the full articles, because something jumped out at me from the excerpt of John Tarrant’s article “Return to the (Political) World”. Towards the end of last week I wrote that it was rather funny that someone as conflict averse/avoidant as I am would end up a political blogger, much less in the middle of a conflict like the one that broke out that week.

Then I read this.

Politics belongs in the general realm of imperfection, self-deception, desperate hope, and congenial affection we call civilization. That’s where the bodhisattva, who is interested in the fate of others, hangs out. Also, if you indulge in politics, certain personal implications accompany you; you don’t get away without being transformed by the material you are working with.

To consider politics is to open yourself—your mind and body, your naked and apparently unoffending skin, your naive hopefulness, and your joy in human company—to a tsunami of lies, humbug, drivel, false promises, masquerade, hypocritical piety, prejudice, greed, murder, and fattening food. To consider politics is to dive into this Hokusai wave of inauthenticity and to say, “Hmmm, this seems like a situation I can work with.”

Now, I don’t define consider myself a bodhisattva (it’s a lot to live up to). But it does help me make sense of an otherwise unlikely and crazy decision to engage in something that invariably leaves me tense and tied in knots. (Not that I haven’t given some thought to just starting a blog about vegetarian cooking, and just call it a day.)

But even if that brief excerpt. Tarrant’s article was right about something else; that you can’t help being transformed by it, and sometimes brought back to what you already knew.

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This has been on my mind for a while now, but it took a private email from a friend to nudge me into saying something about it. Since it's something I do on my blog, it makes sense to address it here too. I think the saying goes "I broke it in public, so I gotta fix it in public."

For some time now, whenever I write about Christianity, I've been doing so with a small "c," while capitalizing the names of other faiths. I've been doing it for a while now. I don't remember when or how it got started. It may have been intentional the first couple of times, but I kept doing it after I became aware of it and at that point it became intentional.

Well, from now I'm I'm not going to do that anymore. It's wrong, antagonistic, non-constructive, small, and petty of me to do that. It probably stems from some personal issues with religion in general and Christianity in particular, that I've mentioned before. But that doesn't excuse it. In fact, that makes it worse because it's insulting, dismissive, hurtful, and frustrating to people who are sincere in their beliefs, and who have nothing to do with my personal history.

Beyond that, it smacks of painting all Christians with the same brush as my intended targets (far-right, fundamentalist, theocrats, etc.), when there are progressive Christians who don't fall into that category. It hypocritical of me to do that when I wouldn't appreciate someone doing the same to me as an African American or a gay man.

It also makes it hard for me to engage in a discussion about religion — which is something I still intend to do, because it's an issue that's inextricably intertwined with politics, and because it's a subject I'm still trying to come to terms with on a personal level — because it overshadows or otherwise overpowers anything legitimate I might have to say about the subject. That's something I'll probably be doing for a long time. From now on, I want to try to do it in a way that isn't hurtful to others.

And finally, it goes against what I claim or at least aspire to practice in terms of right speech. And, yes, there are certainly other aspects of my blogging in which I'd do well to be mindful of that principle.

That said, I want to apologize both for the practice I mentioned above and to anyone who was frustrated or in any way hurt by it. I'll definitely continue blogging about religion as it intersects with political issues I'm concerned with. While I haven't changed my mind on the subject, or my beliefs, I hope that I can at least contribute something positive to the dialogue from here on out.

The Dalai Lama is to receieve the Congressional Gold Medal. An interesting development, considering reports that American Buddhism is on the rise. I wonder what some American religious leaders would have to say about that. Past recipients include Pope John Paul II and Mother Theresa. 

Too busy at work to do much posting today, but I was inspired to post an update about my adventures with BookMooch after getting into the office this morning to find three mooched books waiting for me. It works! It really works!

Two of the titles are fiction that I became interested in after reading a lot of Derrick Jensen's work — Ecotopia and Into the Forest — neither of which I had much luck finding in bookstores. Now I basically have them for free, or at no cost beyond the minimal postage spent on books mooched from me. (Media rate postage isn't terribly expensive.

But the title I'm probably most excited about is one I got for Parker, I Once Was a Monkey: Stories Buddha Told. I posted a while back about pondering how to raise a kid with a particular set of values in a non-religious family. To that end I've been searching for children's books related to Buddhism, that I can start sharing with Parker. Most of them are hard to find in bookstores, so rather than ordering one from Amazon I decided to give BookMooch a try first, and found one of the titles I was looking for. Yay BookMooch!

I've thumbed through it, and I'll have to give it a closer reading, but my first impression is that it's probably a little to advanced for Parker right now. (He has a tendency to get impatient if there are "too many words" and wants to turn the page before we're finished reading it, which I take as an indication that the particular book is one he's not ready for yet.) Still, I may try reading one story to him this evening, just to see how it goes. If he's likes it, great. If it's too much for him right now, at least I have it and it'll be on the shelf when he's ready to give it another try.