I wonder as I wander

For those of you who have asked about my faith and how it influences my life, my views on politics, my activism, I point you in the direction of Sen. Barack Obama. He recently gave the keynote at the Call to Renewal conference and you can read an excerpt from that speech here.

If we truly hope to speak to people where they’re at—to communicate our hopes and values in a way that’s relevant to their own—then as progressives we cannot abandon the field of religious discourse. Because when we ignore the debate about what it means to be a good Christian or Muslim or Jew; when we discuss religion only in the negative sense of where or how it should not be practiced, rather than in the positive sense of what it tells us about our obligations towards one another; when we shy away from religious venues and religious broadcasts because we assume that we will be unwelcome—others will fill the vacuum, those with the most insular views of faith or those who cynically use religion to justify partisan ends.

Not too long ago, I had a conversation with Gang of 100 member, Autumn, about this very same topic. She's spiritual, although tends to stay away from organized religion. We were chatting about the pro-life protestors that came onto campus that day, complete with huge poster boards depicting bloody, chopped up, aborted babies. They were lined up along one side of the street and some pro-choice students were lined up on the other side, chanting things like "Get off our campus!"

We bemoaned how useless both groups were -- from the offensive posters and chants, to the physical lining up on different sides of the street -- and somehow started talking about how "religious" people defend their positions by quoting the Bible. Her main complaint was that Bible quotes don't mean anything to someone who doesn't believe in the Bible. And I have to agree with her -- I may be motivated and inspired and called to action by what's written in the Bible, but nothing is accomplished if I use it as ammunition. Why don't more Christians (including me!) take the extra step more often to make their faith relevant to people of other beliefs? I wonder, is it because we're lazy? Or because we don't know how to do it? Or, even scarier, is it because we're just so used to being told what positions a Christian is supposed to take and we're more concerned about making noise about those positions than winning hearts and minds?