Unfundamentalist

Above All, Love

Sarah Anderson

Inauguration Day, the Women's March and the Lonely in Between

by Sarah Anderson in Current Events

With all that’s happened in the turning tides of the political climate in Washington, D.C., I find a misquote—of an original Albert Einstein quote—to be appropriate:

“Everything should be as simple as it can be, but not simpler.”

It’s obvious we live in a divisive time. But lately I’ve started to wonder if we live in an oversimplified one as well. I wonder if our heightened emotions have mistakenly led us to believe things were much more straightforward than they are. We feel so passionately about so much. And the louder our voices get, the deeper our convictions go. We are certain unity is possible. (If only the other side who could begin to see things our way.)

It’s simple.

But it’s not. For me, at least. And feeling this way has led to me feeling isolated in a way I didn’t expect. Because I am not sure my beliefs can be as neatly packaged as each party narrative would have me believe. As a result, it feels like I don’t belong anywhere.

I align myself with some of the ideals, both the Inauguration, January 20th, and the Women’s March, January 21st, represented. And feel undoubtedly uncomfortable with others. Meaning the most radical and controversial place to be, and as a result, the most lonely position to take these days, is that which acknowledges the intricacy in all of it. That refuses to call simple what is not simple.

A few years ago I made a theological change. Where before my starting point in the story of… [Read more…] about Inauguration Day, the Women's March and the Lonely in Between

Power Play: What You Can Do Inauguration Day

by Sarah Anderson in Current Events

I was in 3rd grade when I decided to try my hand in politics. Along with two others, I was vying for the position of elementary school treasurer. My campaign took a turn for the worse when I observed one of my opponents taking down a poster of hers–to relocate it–and I decided to start a rumor that she was dropping out of the race. I thought that would make me a shoe-in for the win.

Despite my best efforts, I still lost.

That’s when I decided I wasn’t cut out for politics. Not for any morally compelling reason, but because I was a sore loser, and also because I’d learned the hard way that politics makes you do funny things–like spread untrue rumors based on faulty reasoning. Maybe politics, in and of itself, wasn’t to blame, but rather, power was, the thing at the very root of the quest for elected position.

When I look back, I see that’s what the position for school treasurer was really about, what the draw for power allows us to attempt to get away with. What the lure of power makes us believe. What the attraction of power does to our conscience. It was a tempting game to play as a 3rd grader. So imagine how the higher stakes contort the game as adults.

Abraham Lincoln said, “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character give him power.” I think one look back at 2016 would confirm that. Power, it would seem, as much as we may want it, sometimes turns us into people we never thought we would be.

History tells… [Read more…] about Power Play: What You Can Do Inauguration Day

On Christian Culture Wars: Making Room at the Table

by Sarah Anderson in Christian Spirituality

In one of the very last chapters in the very last book of the Christian Bible, Revelation, after pages of confusing imagery and uncertain meanings, after plagues and beasts, after horsemen and scrolls, you find mention of a feast. But not just any meal. A wedding meal. An image that brings to mind long tables full of satisfying food, of rosy cheeks and emptying bottles of wine, of hearty laughs and settled hearts. It is—John, the writer of this cryptic book says—the wedding feast of the Lamb.

Something happens over a shared table. A bond over food is not a bond easily broken. As believers, we know the meaning goes as far back as 2,000 years ago, when a Jewish rabbi gathered His closest friends together, washed their feet, insisted on His certain death, and commissioned them to love another, to serve one another, as He had done them—over bread representing His body, over wine signifying His blood.

Food at the table has always meant more than a necessity. It is a tie, a connectedness that transcends the physical and becomes spiritual. 

In Acts chapter 10, Peter’s vision for the expanding church is one that includes a change in diet. In his dream he sees food—previously excluded to faithful Jews, as said by the God who led that wandering tribe—now suddenly, permitted, reveled in, and all that food represents, including the people behind it, the lifestyles surrounding it, the background emerging from it.

They’re in, God assures. Go, take this glorious… [Read more…] about On Christian Culture Wars: Making Room at the Table

Politics Aside: Addressing the Dignity of Women

by Sarah Anderson in Current Events

Most nights growing up, we had the television on during dinner for the first part of the nightly news. It was turned off after the major stories were covered. But on most evenings for most of my childhood, the happenings in the country and the world were pretty consistently the background noise to our mealtime conversation.

That changed in 1998.

1998 was the year that the Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton sex scandal broke and, given the content of the topics covered and the sexually explicit terms, the television was quickly turned off by my disgusted—and embarrassed—parents.

Nearly two decades later, and now I’m the parent. We don’t eat to the hum of the talking heads reporting the news, but you can bet I am extra careful these days to keep my 6-year old and 4-year old away from the television when it’s on. Like 1998, it’s a complicated time to be a parent, and a dangerous time to be a kid.

I think what was most disappointing to me in the hours and days that followed the breaking story of Donald Trump and his own explicit and degrading comments about women was how much this was all about politics. Still. 

How there was talk of Trump handing over the nomination due to his brazen and offensive language.

How there was mention of Bill Clinton’s own sordid past and Hillary’s complicit involvement.

How it was all, “Yeah, what he said was terrible, but let’s not forget how bad Bill was and Hillary’s own questionable actions!”

And, “Yeah, but Bill’s not running for… [Read more…] about Politics Aside: Addressing the Dignity of Women

An Election Reflection: Why Politics Is Personal

by Sarah Anderson in Christian Issues

Growing up outside of Washington, D.C., in a political family, had its pros and cons. A pro was the access we had to things like the Smithsonian and the monuments. Cons would be the insistent political murmur that invaded most conversations and the sense of emergency that surrounded every upcoming legislative vote, appointment, and election.

And then there were the things that just were—like the fact that politics always hit close to home. Growing up in the suburbs of Washington, you knew that behind every election, national firestorm, and escalating debate, were real people—people who you’ve met, who’ve gathered to eat dinner at your house, who you’ve taken vacations with. These people weren’t just suits on a TV screen. They were friends. They went home to real spouses, tucked in real children, and felt the weight of their decisions on real shoulders.

When you grow up in the shadow of Washington, you know this. Politics is personal.

This is complicated. Because, as is evidenced by social media, the talking heads on the news, and the articles appearing on both blogs and nationally syndicated newspapers, most of the time politics is not personal at all. Politics is a sport. It’s a chance to stun with our barbs, wound with our carefully worded condemnations, and impress with our well-educated defenses and criticisms.

The age of sound bites has made it easy to oversimplify the world by making it… [Read more…] about An Election Reflection: Why Politics Is Personal