Bill Ellis

I waited for a week before writing anything on the election because I wanted to see how durable my first impressions of the outcome would be. My first impressions turned out to be pretty durable; I am still happy with the outcome for two reasons. First, it represents our best chance to plot a stable and moderate course toward reducing the deficit by sharing the burden across the entire spectrum of American people and not simply forcing the poor to pay for the whole thing.

The Oct. 15 issue of Newsweek had a fascinating article by Dr. Eben Alexander entitled "My Proof of Heaven." Alexander is a neurosurgeon who describes himself as a man who “considered myself a faithful Christian,” but more so, “in name than in actual belief.” He tells us that he “sympathized deeply with those who wanted to believe that there was a God somewhere out there who loved us unconditionally.”

This question didn’t interest me when I first read it, but upon reflection I realized it gets at something very important.

Think back for a moment to the days of the Roman Empire; back then from the point of view of Imperial Rome God sounded like marching armies and the clash of weapons in combat.

My conclusion is that the spiritual “fault line” (if you will allow me a geological metaphor) is not best or most accurately drawn along the lines of which religion a person practices, as if the real issue in the religious and spiritual world today were whether or not a person is a Christian, a Jew, a Muslim or a Buddhist.

Every four years as the presidential campaign ramps up I get this feeling I can’t seem to shake, and though it seems obvious to me, I can’t find all that many people who agree with it. As far as I can see our choices for president do not represent two starkly contrasting visions of what this country can be, but rather they represent highly nuanced, barely distinguishable views of what this country can be.

Eric Blauer wants to know how liberal Christians are responding to Russell Douthat’s editorial on the decline of Liberal Christianity. Diana Butler Bass and the Rev. Winnie Varghese have given two very fine responses and I have a few observations of my own.

Soon after the state legislature legalized same-sex marriage the effort to repeal that law began, and it now appears we will be voting in November on whether or not the State of Washington will recognize such marriages. Though the signatures on the initiative petition repealing that law have not yet been fully certified, supporters of repeal are confident they have garnered far more than enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot.