Most Americans love God and their families. Most Americans are contented with God and their own families. They are gruntled -- the opposite of disgruntled -- about the core conditions of their lives. They worry about their communities and society as a whole, especially if they think that problems in society will come back to dishonor God or hurt their families. Most Americans can form a gruntled center for themselves.
Politics is a competition. The small left and small right wings compete to draw that center one way or the other. The strategists and salesmen and women of the extremes have to exaggerate the differences in order to make the center afraid of the other side.
The Gruntled Center aims to bring a calm consideration of the real facts about religion and family life to help people in the center keep their bearings in the midst of the competing claims about "family values" and "rational thought."
I am sociologist and teacher by trade, and a churchman and family man by conviction and daily practice.
The Gruntled Center is where faith, family, and sociology all hold hands.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
The far ends of the political spectrum seem to work harder at manufacturing enemies to serve as foils for their dramatic presentations than they do at seeking accord. The creation of a common enemy takes up energy that they could otherwise use for creating a better society.
Love the P.G. Wodehouse reference ("gruntled" was one of Bertie Wooster's favorite words).
I am glad to see someone else is a Christian and a centrist. They are so rare.
Not only that, but we both went to Swarthmore.
Post a Comment