I’m not going to give my thoughts or feelings about who won and who lost yesterday. I’m keeping my political leanings and opinions mostly to myself these days, but have some overall thoughts on what we’ve all just watched and experienced. Most of this is in light of the Presidential campaign and Proposition 8 here in California, which involved an amendment to the Constitution to ban gay marriage. Because I’ve been thinking pretty heavily reflecting on Friedman’s A Failure of Nerve so I’m going to start off two different thoughts with quotes from the book. If I haven’t inspired you to read it yet, maybe today will do the job.

“In the greater American family we call society, all of the same attributes of reactivity are rife today: the automatic response, the pessimistic focus on pathology rather than strength, the intrusiveness into the boundaries of others, the loss of playfulness, the wearing down of leaders. As with any chronically anxious family, there is in American society today an intense quickness to interfere in another’s self-expression, to overreact to any perceived hurt, to take all disagreement too seriously, and to brand the opposition with ad hominem personal epithets (chauvinist, ethnocentric, homophobic, and so on). As in personal families, this hardens hearts and leaves little room for forgiveness or balanced accommodation.”

A Failure of Nerve, pg. 64-65

I’ve pinpointed why I have moved farther and farther away from the political realm in terms of what I choose to think about and dwell on. More specifically I’ve pinpointed why I react to election season with all its vitriole. It’s the level of reactivity involved – most of which is fear based and tends to show a lack of reflection. This continues to be shown true on both sides of the aisle, on both sides of important issues – even the ones involving significant questions of morality.

I’m not surprised so many people disagree with Obama. There’s a lot that I do, but I am continually amazed at how many people fear him to a degree that they lose the capacity for reflective thought about what he can and might do well for the country. I think there’s similar reactivity towards McCain and all things Republican. There’s plenty of things to disagree with, but people never cease to amaze me with the amount of blameshifting and reaction for their lot in life. Friedman has some great thoughts on this and “anti-incumbantism.” I really like Friedman’s thoughts above regarding the polarization and black and white reactivity being evident symptoms of a deep and chronic anxiety.

“Highly reactive families are a panic in search of a trigger. And the quickest trigger is any issue that involves a child. In fact, many chronically anxious families can be described as “child-focused.”

A Failure of Nerve, pg. 63

Obviously I’m going to Prop 8 here. I saw someone at my church last week with a big sign on their care that simply read, “Save Our Children!” (Vote Yes on Prop 8). I couldn’t help but think of the above quite by Friedman and the dynamics of reactivity and fear. This is why school boards and PTA meetings might be some of the fiercest battlegrounds there are today. Regardless of Prop 8′s victory, I think the church at large needs to do some reflective work because I have no doubt it passed on the large wave of fear and anxiety out there – most of which was being funneled towards their children. I’m not saying it wasn’t the right vote or that voting Yes on Prop 8 was not honoring to God, but it’s hard for me to believe an anxious vote out of panic-driven fear is honoring to God. I hope more people than I think were able to vote more reflectively with a measure of security and out of principle as opposed to this panic driven fear. Such fear all but closes the door on dialogue and witness to alienated groups of people such as the homosexual community.

I do wonder if Prop 8 was a no-win situation for the church, but don’t brand me a heretic quite yet. The church has taken a stand and in many ways, rightly so. However, the degree to which this was a church vs. the homosexual community scenario only creates more distance and hostility to an already sad dynamic. I wonder how many were able to maintain a stance of compassion to this demographic when casting their yes vote.

Anyway, I don’t know what yesterday really means in the long run, but I really hope that the church isn’t looking to the government’s definition of marriage as the thing that is going to “save our children.”