I guess it all depends on how you define hope. I heard a lot of “vicious rumor, cynical politics, manipulation, lies, gossip, and fear mongering” waged again President Bush and his “hope”, but never read at that time any concerns or condemnations of them on these pages.
Also, I am pleased that Americans are speaking up, attending town meetings, staging “tea party” demonstrations. This is what America is all about. It is called democracy. It can be ugly at times, and selfish, but usually it is a beautiful thing to behold.
So let’s make sure our own personal political leanings do not cloud or restrict our inclusiveness in the realm of hope.

What disappoints many people is the fact that the Democrats and President Obama has brought much of this hysteria on themselves by not leveling with the American people about what is contained in their health care proposals. You can’t blame people for being concerned about the future of their health care when Democrats can’t even agree amongst themselves about what to put in a bill.
Not all people are the shouters and purveyors of the hysteria and half-truths. A very small minority have caused chaos at town hall meetings. The vast majority of Americans are simply overwhelmed with the size and scope of this proposed health care reform, and simply want straight-forward answers. The President and his party have failed to address these concerns. Hope sounds great, but many do not feel hope contains a government run health care program when the government can’t even run what they already control: The Social Security System (Broke), Medicare (Broke), Bailouts, Ethics in Government.
Remember that it was the Democrats who called anyone who opposed their health care bill, anti-American, mobsters, and racists. That is not the way to engage in civil dialog.
As for people coming armed to church, when did that become a sin? Many churches have witnessed terrible violence and death from psychotic shooters. When did it become a sin to protect other people from violence in the church? These shooters are not licensed, law-abiding citizens. If a gunman were to come into my church, are we to simply say “Kumbaya” and let them shoot all of us? Or would it make more sense for law-abiding citizens who are fully trained and licensed in the use of firearms to step forward and defend the congregants from death or injury. I just don’t get this anti-gun mentality from the progressive left. We are not a bunch of idiots out to shoot people. We own guns to defend ourselves. Just ask the congregants of the Church in Wisconsin where eight people died from a gunman a few years ago, and see if they wished someone would have been there to take out the shooter and save several lives in doing so.
Respectfully.

Just to give some context to my thoughts, I supported President Bush at one time, and was not a part of the bashing he received from the Left until he was clearly out of control. Like a good Independent, I didn’t go with a party line, but in ’08, I voted for President Obama.
I’m not sure why an article that encourages us all to find ways to keep hope, keep faith, and to be positive is so offensive to the folks who’ve commented so negatively before my post.
The pro-gun posts I’ve read all over Facebook haven’t been about defending themselves, rather, they’ve been a call to arms, a call of insurgence, even one thread I read was joking about assassination. These are different days, darker days, and my Christian brethren on the Right have saddened me with their abandonment of the Gospel, and their embracing of a John Birch mentality, pure hatred spewed out of apparently God-fearing folks.
Thanks for this article. I hope anyone else who appreciates your words will speak up.

As a Canadian who has lived in the USA I am disappointed at the negative comments about the mild health care reform – Here in Canada, while not perfect, no one is without health care. Yes we are short of doctors but that is not because of universal health care which, as the name suggests, all who live here get…
Like another poster said, it is troubling that guns come to church. We are reading Mark these days and it is about healing, person and community. What I have witness in the town meetings is not healing but community fear, and those fears used to bring discord. I hope that a bold address of healing is needed – thanks for your comments

Phil, I agree with you 100% regarding the pro-gun people who are advocating a “call to arms” or “insurgence”. Even the NRA doesn’t even subscribe to that mentality. Most gun owners, including myself, are simply law-abiding gun owners who want to defend themselves and their family, and enjoy using firearms for sporting purposes as well. The Call to Arms and Insurgent folks I feel represent a very small, but vocal minority. And it’s people like them who give the rest of us a black eye.
George, when the church shooter comes to church, what are we supposed to do? I don’t like guns in churches anymore than anyone else. But if I have to choose between safety and the needless murder of innocent Christian worshippers, I’ll carry the gun. Violence is a fact of life whether we like it or not.
I also voted for Bush twice, but voted independent for the first time in my life in 08.

Prof Andrew Lester who studied, wrote and taught on hope for much of his career suggests that the opposite of hope is despair. While there are many who are truly fearful, my experience as a pastor now suggests that despair is much more pervasive than fear. It’s just not as loud.

I don’t understand Diana Butler Bass’s first paragraph. What could her mother have meant, “they” killed hope? It was Lee Harvey Oswald who shot President Kennedy, not some amorphous “they.”
And if hope was “killed” with the death of JFK, how did it happen that the Voting Rights Act and other important legislation addressing discrimination in housing, discrimination in employment, etc., etc., was passed by bipartisan majorities in Congress and signed by President Johnson within only a couple of years after that? What “hope” is she talking about?

Larry: “The Call to Arms and Insurgent folks I feel represent a very small, but vocal minority. And it’s people like them who give the rest of us a black eye.”
Larry, you get the black eye from these folks. But it is those of us on the left who get the bullets. Recall the recent trend in church shootings…a man invades a Unitarian Universalist church in Tennessee and begins shooting people because they are too liberal for his taste…another man invades a church in Kansas and assassinates a doctor because he believes God wanted him to kill a “baby murderer.”
Our Unitarian-Universalist congregation is watching the situation very closely. We have a radical pro-life activist who lives near our community, one who has lamented that he lacks the “bravery” of those who have taken up guns and killed abortion providers.
Whenever terrorist attacks from Muslims happen, many on the right put out the call for Muslim leaders to “so something” about the radicals in their midst. I ask you, Larry..with the rise in terrorist attacks and threats from conservatives, what are you doing about those radicals in your midst?

Larry,
Don’t you think it proves the point when you assume that someone will come into a church and start shooting? It seems to me that believing something like that may happen is giving into a life of fear. I don’t assume that people are going to come into my urban church and start shooting. I assume that the Spirit of God calls us to serve, laying down our arms as Jesus did, with courage, kindness, grace and love as our only weapons.

As for radicals in our midst, what the church needs to do is DENOUNCE them and their activities. That is one reason I left the pro-life movement. I am pro-life, and very conservative on the abortion issue. But the intolerance toward those with differing views on the issue was troubling for me. You make a statement by your speech. For the “Christians” who preach intolerance toward gays and lesbians, you DENOUNCE these purveyors of hate speech.
I am a pastor, and a fairly conservative one, moderate in the Wesleyan tradition, but very dismayed by social conservatism. The intolerance coming from many of our pulpits must be DENOUNCED.
Tony Campolo said that Christians in California spent 40 million dollars trying to pass Prop 8 outlawing gay marriage. But couldn’t that money have been spent doing what Jesus said to do: feed the hungry and help the poor? I’m against gay marriage, but lambasting gays and lesbians is not an emphasis of my ministry.
Diana, I’ll be the first one to say that I feel uncomfortable with guns in the church. But I’m sure those poor individuals in that Unitarian-Universalist Church in Tennessee could have used a licensed and trained gun-toting parishioner who could have stopped the bloodshed. I know there are people in my church who carry weapons to church. It’s part of the culture here. We don’t live in fear, we just live prepared. Nobody really thinks too much about it. I would prefer that my parishioners are protected from bloodshed instead of us laying down our arms. Laying down our arms sounds great in theory, but we live in a violent world.
Thank you for your consideration as we dialog.

As I’m sure you know, the early Christians were faced with the same dilemma. When the Romans raided their meetings, threw them in jail, and fed them to lions, they preached love in return for the violence directed against them. They lived in a much more violent world than we even do. And we hail that first generation of Jesus followers as the most faithful witnesses in the history of the church.

“But I’m sure those poor individuals in that Unitarian-Universalist Church in Tennessee could have used a licensed and trained gun-toting parishioner who could have stopped the bloodshed.”
Assuming that licensed and trained parishoner had been sitting where he/she had a clear shot at the shooter, had seen him enter and raise his gun, and had been able to shoot him before he shot anyone else. A lot of ifs there.
I have to wonder, Larry…what is Jesus’ counsel about this?

Damn, I just lost a fine comment because of that captcha thing.

So, only the Right is violent, intolerant, and mean spirited. Only the Right chooses murder in addressing the abortion issue.
Well guess what, that is a lie. Proof?
See below
http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2009/09/antiabortion_activist_shot_in.html

If a gunman were to come into my church, are we to simply say “Kumbaya” and let them shoot all of us?
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.”
—Matthew 5:38-42, NIV
But of course you wouldn’t want to consider the Prince of Peace when you’re talking about guns, would you…

James:
Send your comment to the Abortion Doctors too.