Of Abrahamic Faiths & Ignorant Politicians

This past week, Rep. Rick Womick (R-Murfreesboro) decided to give a pseudo lecture on the Islamic faith. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m always a little skeptical when politicians start talking religion. I find that more often than not, it follows a scandal or precedes an ignorant statement. In this case it is the latter.

I’ll post the video HERE so you can see for yourself what Rep. Womick had to say about the Muslim faith, but here’s a brief summary of Womick’s Islam for Dummies:

-Not  “a single Muslim” in the US Army is to be trusted, even those translators who save the lives of US soldiers every day.

-The Koran requires Muslims to kill anyone who refuses to convert to Islam.

-There is no middle ground in the Muslim faith. You either have to take it all literally, or you’re out.

-Islam is not a religion; rather it is a “rope” consisting of religion, political ideology, financial rules & legal regulations.

I want to take just a few moments and rebut these comments from a Christian perspective. I am a lifelong Christian—a United Methodist to be precise. I am actively involved in my congregation, I regularly attend a study group and I spend personal time in prayer each day. I say this not for my own gain, but to rebut any comment from those who might agree with Rep. Womick and charge that I am not sufficiently Christian.

As a Christian, I am appalled by the comment that we can’t trust any Muslims in our military. Each Sunday during the Prayers of the People, my congregation prays for all the men and women serving the country at home and abroad. During the prayer, we don’t delineate between Christian & Jew, Muslim & Buddhist, Agnostic & Unitarian—we pray for all those who make our religious freedom possible. Our men and women in uniform are from a variety of religious backgrounds and they are all fighting for the same cause—freedom. This freedom includes the freedom of religion. A great many of our Islamic brothers and sisters have fought and died for this country. Rep. Womick, himself an Air Force veteran, should understand this better than anyone. That he doesn’t is a sad commentary on my own faith.

I am not a scholar on the Koran, so I have no idea what it says about conversion. As a Christian, however, I know that before we start pointing fingers at the Koran, we better look at our own holy book. I have recently been in a Discipleship class at my church. In the class, you take a year and make your way through the Bible. We have just gotten to the book of First Samuel and, let me tell you, it’s been a rough ride so far. Up unto First Samuel, the Christian God looks like a real bastard. He wiped out the entire planet with a flood, reigned fire on a city because its inhabitants were rude to visitors, killed every first born child in Egypt, arbitrarily chose a small race of people to call his own, directed the slaughter of foreign women & children after battles, caused famine to reign over entire countries and held numerous generations accountable for the sins of their fathers.

Now, as a Christian, the preceding description is not my understanding of God. Why? Because I know that you have to read the Bible, especially the Old Testament, in context. You have to understand when it was written, where and by whom. What was the perspective, what was going on at that point in history? I realize that God didn’t hand this down from on high. It was written by man, with all his biases and prejudices built into the text. Because I understand this, I am free to see the grey area between scripture and personal experience. While I am not an expert on the Koran, my suspicion is that Muslims have a similar relationship with their holy book. This means they don’t have to take every word literally, anymore than we do.

This brings me to my second point, as a Christian I don’t take every word of the Bible literally. I don’t believe the earth was created in seven literal days. I don’t believe that Jonah lived in a whale. I doubt that Job existed. I find historical inaccuracies throughout the Exodus experience. Bel & the Dragon never happened. St. Paul was a bigot who wrote letters he never thought would become scripture and Revelation is a classic example of the literature of the oppressed. In short, a lot of my holy book is allegory, parable and even fable. While, again, I don’t know anything about the Koran, my guess is that the children of Mohammed are smart enough to know fact from fiction. This means they can, in fact, divorce themselves from a literal understanding of their holy books. Those who can’t separate the literal from the allegorical are called fundamentalist. In either faith, this is a group of misguided individuals whose represent a minority of their faith.

Finally, Rep. Womick should read the Levitical Codes before he goes on about Islam being a way of life, not just a religion. If he were to read the beginning of his own holy book—which has parts shared by all three Abrahamic faiths—he would know that we too have a set of rules concerning religion, politics, finances and law. In fact the Levitical Codes cover pretty much every aspect of life. From who you can sleep with to what fabric you can wear to what kind of bath to take after your period (gross!) Now, as a Christian, I don’t follow these codes because they are part of the old law. At some point, they probably served a purpose but, again, my intellect and reason allows me to see these rules from a different perspective. I know that they are not practical to today, nor were they meant to be. They were given to a small group of people, at a certain point in history for a specific reason. While again I am no expert on the Koran, I certainly believe that my Muslim friends are intelligent enough to apply this same logic to their own rules from their own scriptures.

This Wednesday, West End United Methodist Church, a very progressive congregation in Nashville, will host Family of Abraham-Toward a CommonVision. This event is an interfaith dialogue between Jews, Muslims & Christians. It will be a discussion on the very things Rep. Womick brought up and that I have discussed above. A close friend of mine has invited Rep. Womick to attend, but has yet to get an RSVP. I hope he will attend and I hope my Nashville friends will attend as well. As human beings, God has allowed us all to share this tiny planet for a fraction of a second. We owe it to him—and to each other—to make the best of the small time we have together. When politicians make ignorant comments like these, we set up artificial dividers. These dividers have caused war, holocaust and genocide throughout our history.

I pray every night for the people who lead this country and this state. Tonight, with tears in my eyes, I will say a special prayer for Rep. Womick. That God might soften his heart and show him that whether Muslim, Jew, Christian, Buddhist or Agnostic, we are all children of the same God and citizens of this great country.

Not Scared, SMART

I had really hoped not to have to blog about this. In fact, given the reception my last posts generated, I would have preferred not to blog again. However, if you have to swallow enough manure, you feel the need to speak up.

Let me start by saying this, I am no fan of Rep. Curry Todd. He is a mean-spirited, ineffective, wrong-headed, hot tempered, and ornery. I do not agree with him on many, if any, issues. He is not my representative and if he left the legislature—much like if Jim Cooper left congress—I would not have any feeling one way or the other.

He also did something illegal and incredibly stupid. He is a hypocrite—color me shocked that someone in Legislative Plaza would be guilty of such a sin. For what he has done, he should be punished just as you or I would be in the same situation. By all indications, this is how things are proceeding at this point.

The news media has done their job. They have reported the incident. They have pointed out the Republican hypocrisy of people like Glenn Casada calling for Rep. Briley to step down in the wake of his incident, but remaining silent on Rep. Todd. The issue has gotten national coverage. A simple Google search for Rep. Todd returns numerous results. The man is down, he is out for the count and his career is at an end.

Yet there are some who believe that more needs to be done. For some people, anything short of a public lynching will not satisfy their thirst for retribution. Tonight, that attack has turned on Rep. Turner and the legislative democratic caucuses. It seems that many on the left are dissatisfied with the way our electeds have chosen to deal with the Todd situation.

Let me say this, I think that Chairman Turner went too far. Had it been me, I would have expressed my condolences to Todd’s family and said let the law work itself out. That, in my mind, would have been more appropriate. That being said, Rep., Turner is entitled to his opinion.

What I take exception to in all of this is the idea that our legislative democrats are scared. These 13 men and women in the Senate and 34 men and women in the House are our bread and butter and they aren’t scared of shit. After getting a solid ass whooping last year, these members could have lie down and let the Democratic Party die. Or they could have taken the TNDP route and focused so much on national issues and personal gain that they make themselves irrelevant. They did neither. Instead, these members put forward serious pieces of legislation, fought valiantly against the bevy of republican nonsense coming through the General Assembly and went statewide to address our jobs crisis. They held a presser last week talking about their aggressive plans for next session, despite their small number. These are not the actions of cowards.

Yet, today these members are being called ‘scared’ because they stayed out of a situation that was already being handled and to which their comments added nothing to the discussion. What would it have profited Mike Turner to call for Curry Todd’s resignation? What would it have done for the democrats or the public sphere for our electeds to put in their two cents? NOTHING. The only thing it would have done is pissed off the Republicans, who hold the redistricting pen.

Noting this reality is not cowardice, but a real assessment of the situation. Our party is in disarray and our number one priority should be to defend what we have. Saying something snotty about Curry Todd would have done nothing but make this more difficult to do just that.

So yes, the legislative caucuses could have made a big to-do like the overly dramatic Chip Forrester, but instead they took the high road, noted that we weren’t adding anything to the public discourse by pounding on Todd and lived to fight another day. We have real issues in this state and very few dems to fight those issues. This is nothing but a damn sideshow. So let’s buck up, move on and lay the fuck off the only people fighting for us in this state.

Republican Extortion/Fundraiser at the Governor's Tax-Payer Provided Home

Let's have a conversation about extortion and using your public housing for political purposes.

Apparently, Republicans have gotten over their problem with the so-call "bunker" built by Governor Bredesen. I say "apparently" because they are using it to extort an ungodly amount of money from Nashville lobbyist.

You'll note in the story linked above that Rep. Maggart and Speaker Harwell are both included in the Gang of 5 legislators who asked for the bunker construction to stop. Now, it appears the shoe is on the other foot and they are more than happy to use this tax-payer owned space to ask for unheard of amounts of money for their campaigns.

For those not familiar with legislative fundraising, $50,000 is an unheard of amount to request at a fundraiser. In the past $20,000 has been a HIGH end ask, with most contibutions ranging from $1,000-$10,000. This clearly shows the unfathomable hubris of the Tennessee Republican Party.

This is the kind of thing that can unite us as Democrats. While Tennessee Republicans are focused on pimping out their offices for campaign cash, Tennessee Democrats announced a statewide tour focused on creating jobs. Enjoy the actual e-mail from Rep. Maggart below. And feel free to RSVP should you feel so inclinded, I've already got my $50,000 space reserved.

______________________________________________________________________________



From: Rep. Debra Maggart [mailto:votedebramaggart@gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, September 02, 2011 12:55 PM
To: Debra Maggart
Subject: Tennessee Republican Caucus Event

Thanks for your continued support for the Tennessee Republican Caucus. We wanted you to be among the first to know the details for the October 3 fundraiser. Invitations will go out within the week. Maintaining our Majority will take a lot of work, and your support is critical to our efforts. Thank you to those of you have already committed to the sponsorship levels.

 The Inaugural Tennessee

 Republican Legislative Ball

To Celebrate Tennessee

Honoring Betty & Governor Winfield Dunn,

The Senate Republican Caucus

and the House Republican Caucus

With Special Musical Guests

Monday, October 3, 2011

The Executive Residence

Nashville, Tennessee

Parking, check-in and shuttle service will be available from Judson Baptist Church

Cocktail Attire

To RSVP please contact Rachel Barrett or Cari Johns at 615-564-2642 or TennesseeRepublicanCaucus@gmail.com 

Schedule

3:00 pm               Check-in Opens at Judson Baptist Church

4:00-5:00 pm       Sponsor Reception

5:00-7:00 pm       General Reception, or the “Taste of Tennessee Ball”

7:00-9:00 pm       Chair Dinner which will be upstairs in the Executive Residence dining room hosted by the First Lady, Governor Haslam and Caucus Leadership

Our Sponsorship Opportunities:

Suggested Levels of Support/SponsorshipsBenefits

$50,000: Event Chair

-5 tickets to Event Chair Dinner, 10 tickets to Sponsor Reception, 10 tickets to Taste of Tennessee,  recognition at event

$25,000: Event Sponsor

-5 tickets to Sponsor Reception, 10 tickets to Taste of Tennessee, recognition at event

$10,000: Event Host

-2 tickets to Sponsor Reception, 5 tickets to Taste of Tennessee

$2,500: Attendee or couple

-Ticket(s) to Taste of Tennessee

Thank you for helping us celebrate Tennessee and our new Majority. 

Sincerely, 
Bill Ketron                                         Debra Maggart
CaucusChairman                               Caucus Chairman
Tennessee State Senate                      Tennessee State House 

Staying Focused, Making an Impact

Let’s have a conversation today about staying focused.

In a former position, I worked for someone fond of saying that we basically have two choices in life. We can focus on a lot of things and do them with mediocre results or we can focus on a few things and do them really well. I have always been a proponent of the latter.

As progressives, we can’t get distracted by what I like to call shiny issues. Shiny issues are a lot like shiny objects in that both serve as distractions from the real goal. Take for instance the Wisconsin recall elections. No Democrat would disagree that what Governor Walker did in Wisconsin is a tragedy of the first degree. And no one would disagree that these Senators need to be sent into retirement. However, how much time, effort and money did this take from Democrats across the country-including in Tennessee-that could have been better spent advocating progressive causes in their own state? How much time did we spend as Tennessee Democrats discussing this, when we could have been talking about a strategy for the next legislative session?

My point is this: we had a myriad of horrible, terrible, no-good legislation come out of the Tennessee General Assembly this session. We limited people’s access to the court, completely ripped apart teaching as a profession, tore the already weak organized labor groups down to bare bones, dictated reproductive health to women, overruled local governments, made ‘gay’ a swear word, set science curriculums back to the dark ages and put public schools on the path to bankruptcy all while managing to completely ignore the 10% unemployment rate in Tennessee. We have enough crap to deal with from here to kingdom come without ever looking for issues elsewhere.

Let’s face facts. Barack Obama isn’t going to win in Tennessee. We are not going to beat Bob Corker in 2012. We have ZERO say in redistricting. So as Tennessee Democrats, let’s get focused on things we CAN do. Instead of spending time phone banking for the President, let’s phone bank for someone in House District 40 where James Hale almost beat Rep. Weaver in 2010. Instead of sending $5 to fight Prop 8 in California, send $5 to the Maury County Democratic Party to help send the bigoted Rep. Butt back to Columbia.  Instead of focusing on national issues and campaigns, follow the lead of groups like the National Firefighters Union and get involved on a local level where we can actually have an impact.

I say this from place of love and, as my minister says, I am as guilty as anyone of doing what I am advocating against, but we have got to get focused as Tennessee Democrats. I love the President. I hope Elizabeth Warren wins the Senate seat in Massachusetts. I hope Scott Walker gets recalled, we win the special election in New York and Prop 8 gets overturned in California. But right now, I’m more concerned about Republicans screwing up the HOPE scholarship for my sister. I am more concerned that my cousin-a first year teacher-won’t have basic classroom supplies she needs to be effective. I am more concerned that members of the General Assembly think a sexual orientation is a swear word, that any jobs bill from a Democrat is socialism and that we should really go back to the days before that disastrous Scopes Trial. These are issues that affect my daily life as a Tennessean. These are issues where I can have a real impact.

Over the next weeks, I am going to begin talking about issues that we can affect as Tennessee Democrats. I too love a good fight at the national level. I support many progressive causes that are going on around the country, but right now I want us to examine what is really going on in Tennessee and how we can make a difference. The issues won’t always be sexy, but they will be substantive.

Let the conversation continue.

A New Perspective on Redistricting



The so-dubbed Ketronmander



In my initial post, I forewarned readers that while my objective is to get us talking to each other again, one might not always like what I have to say. I feel as if this post will serve to back up that notion.

                       

So let’s have a conversation about cutting off the dead weight.

Yesterday, Mayor Karl Dean and Congressman Jim Cooper participated in an editorial board with the Tennessean. To sum up the content, Jim Cooper plead for his political life, while newly re-elected Mayor Dean lectured on the virtues of a united Nashville.

Before I go on, let me say this: I have no strong feelings either way when it comes to Mayor Dean or Congressman Cooper. I know very little about either man and what I do know is neither impressive nor damming.

That being said, I think the fact that I as an active, dedicated and in-the-loop democrat know very little about a multi-term democratic congressman is a problem. I’m sure part of the problem is me. I should know more about Congressman Cooper. But honestly, I grew up in a house where democratic politics was the rule of law. I knew who John Wilder, Jimmy Naifeh and Ned McWherter were almost before I knew Jesus Christ. The only thing I know about Jim Cooper is that when he ran for senate, he let Fred Thompson tell him to “shut-up” during a debate like he was a three-year old.

Herein is the problem. We, as democrats, can pontificate all day about how unfair the majority party is being if they can successfully split Nashville into multiple districts. Yes, it is unnecessary. Yes, it is unfair. Yes, it is patently political-color me shocked. We did it for 140 years and no one in the general public is going to listen to us complain now that the shoe is on the proverbial other foot. I don’t like it, but I think we are remiss to be so “offended” and “shocked” by this completely legal activity.

As democrats, I think we ought to be more upset that Congressman Cooper and Mayor Dean are NOW suddenly so concerned about the redistricting process. Perhaps had either man been more concerned last fall, we’d have more than 34 seats in the House and might have a chance to actually affect redistricting. Perhaps, if Congressman Cooper had paid more attention to the reputation and state of the Democratic Party in Tennessee 10 years ago, we’d have more than 13 seats in the Senate. Perhaps, the issue here is not what the evil republicans are doing to us, but the lack of action by our own party statesmen to build a bench for state races, to build effective fundraising networks and to act as leaders all the time, not just when your district is in trouble.

To be fair, the things said in the preceding paragraph could be written about a multitude of our elder statesmen in the Democratic Party. We have let our party fall into disarray in this state and we have no one to blame but ourselves. So maybe it’s time to cut the fat. From my perspective, if Congressman Cooper is sent into retirement nothing changes for Tennessee Democrats. We’re not any better or worse off. We don’t lose an exceptional campaigner or fundraiser. We don’t lose someone who is leading or shaping the conversation for Tennessee Democrats. We don’t even lose a vote for Nancy Pelosi should we regain the majority in DC, since Cooper voted against her as Leader.

Every year, my Grandmother cuts her azalea bushes in the fall. They go from looking plush and nice, to looking lanky and forlorn. But the next spring, the strongest and most beautiful bushes are those that have been pruned. Perhaps in Tennessee, it’s time to trim our own hedges and cut off the dead weight so we too can grow into something better and stronger.

Let the conversation continue.

It's time to start a conversation. For too long we, as Tennessee Democrats, have refused to listen to one another. We have talked to each other. Goodness knows we've had enough trainings and meetings and forums and facebook groups and meet-ups to clog up every one's inbox and Google calendar, but what have we got to show for it? A Republican Governor, 34 seats in the House and 13 in the Senate to be precise.

So what's the problem here? The problem is that somewhere during out 140 year majority reign, we forgot how to listen to and deal with each other as Democrats. Now we find ourselves deeply in the minority with even more losses to come courtesy of redistricting.

So how do we fix it? That is the million dollar question. In short-I have no easy answers. I do know, however, that we won't solve it by ignoring each other as democrats and dividing ourselves into these asinine sub-groups of liberals v. moderates, unions v. business, rural v. urban, Nashville v. Knoxville v. Memphis, pro-party v. anti-party, old guard v. young turk or any other ridiculous subdivision playing out in comment sections on blogs and facebook groups that span the Tennessee Democratic sphere.

And that is why I've started this blog. We need to start a respectful dialogue about who we are as Tennessee Democrats. This blog is my contribution to that discussion. You may not like what I have to say. You may find my pro-marriage equality sentiments too liberal on one day, only to find my NRA membership too conservative on another. On this blog, however, you can always depend on honesty, respect and an earnest love for the Tennessee Democratic Party.

On a final note, I will try to post once or twice a week. Most of the post will deal with current political topics in Tennessee and how we, as Democrats, react to them. I have chosen to do this anonymously because of my job. I hope this blog will accomplish a few things. One, I hope it will disseminate information that otherwise would have remained unreported by the media at large. Two, I hope it will serve as new kind of conversation where viewpoints are presented in a precise, but respectful and serious manner. Three, I hope it will help us rebuild the party we all love.