TIME magazine's Person of the Year is none other than .... you. That's right. You. And those clever people at TIME even used a reflective mirror on the cover so you can see a warped vision of yourself on the screen. The idea is that it's not Carlyle's "Great Man" theory that holds true today in creating history. It's the common citizen that is influencing journalism, our perception of the world, and creating ripples that are felt on the other side of the globe -- all thanks to the Internet. If you haven't read the section, you should.
Interestingly enough, after I read through the TIME piece this morning, I remembered that I needed to hop online to activate the vacation stop on my Washington Post delivery. While I was cruising through the site to find the membership section, I came across an Internet dialogue called "On Faith," moderated by Newsweek Managing Editor Jon Meachem and Post journalist Sally Quinn. The moderators post a question to its online panelists, who type up responses that, in turn, are responded to by everyday citizens. What's so intriguing to me is how the "normal" people respond -- their posts made me think and they made me weep, not only for the 5th grade English teachers who would be heartbroken by the appalling grammar, but for the rationality and tolerance that this country is supposed to exemplify.
As a person of faith, I like to think of myself as both spiritual and intellectual. I believe that I'm called to be smart about my faith, to understand it, to question it and to recognize that I won't know all the answers. Not in this life, at least. Sure, I know that not everyone will accept my faith or even respect it. But, isn't this supposed to be the country where that's allowed? Here's a sample response from a person named Rob, who responded to a panelist's thought on faith: "So faith is a gift, not the result of intellectual persuasion, or practiced debate. How each of us answers the question put to Peter determines our relationship with the God, now and into eternity. This is real faith. This is the real meaning of Christmas." Rob's response is below, in all its grammatical glory:
Rob says:
A gift huh?
From whom?
Faith is for weak minded fearful children of mind.
It's not a gift, it's a curse.
Truth is beauty, not the supposed King of Kings.
Son of God. Please. There is no God, grow up.
The concept of Jesus is an ongoing fraud perpertrated by the half weak upon the fully weak.
The idea of having faith at all just means that the underlying premise os false.
When the truth is clearly agaisnt you, it's time to roll out the lies, faith being the #1 wool pulling device. Fools.
