The recent Congressional votes, allowing continued funding for the US war in Iraq (etc., etc.) have raised many concerns and complaints.  Here are four varied responses for your consideration:

Pat Buchanan says the Democrats "caved" because the didn't have the courage to risk their political fortunes.

Rabbi Michael Lerner says they gave in because they can't offer a morally grounded responses to Bush's push for the war.  And more war.  And more war ....

The Network of Spiritual Progressives (of which Lerner is a founder and major leader) offers what we might call faith-based "talking points" on some of the major social-political issues today:  foreign policy, health,

Finally, Gary Dorrien, the new Reinhold Niebuhr professor of social ethics at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, discusses the apparent tension between Niebuhr’s "Christian realism" and current value-centered approaches to social issues.

What do you think? 
How do you balance political "realism" and moral values?  This is certainly something worth talking about, so please send a note and your voice to the conversation.

Patrick J. Buchanan, of all people, goes after the Democrats in Congress for letting George W. Bush continue his war in Iraq. He asks "Why did the Democrats capitulate?"

And he answers: "Because they lack the courage of their convictions. Because they fear the consequences if they put their antiwar beliefs into practice. Because they are afraid if they defund the war and force President Bush to withdraw U.S. troops, the calamity he predicts will come to pass and they will be held accountable for losing Iraq and the strategic disaster that might well ensue."

In case you’re wondering, this is the Patrick J. Buchanan who has served as a senior advisor to three American presidents: Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and (as White House Communications Director) Ronald Reagan.

Rabbi Michael Lerner, founder of the Network of Spiritual Progressives, sees the failure of the Democrats in Congress to stand up against Pres. Bush’s pressure to let his war continue unhindered not as a failure of nerve, but as (in a way) a failure of faith.

They gave in, he says, because "the Dems lack a coherent vision and ideology from which they could derive strength of purpose that would provide the foundation on which they could easily develop a moral backbone to fight for what they believe in. Thus, for example in relationship to the war in Iraq, they talk about the inability to win, rather than about the moral failure of the paradigm of trying to bring about safety and security by military or political domination of other countries."

The Network of Spiritual Progressives has posted a number of one-page flyers of talking points on issues of current interest.

The topics (with links to the flier for each topic)

[Note: Clicking on this link will take you to a page listing that paper; then click on the title of the document to download it. Don’t ask me why!]

These are also all listed on the NSP website under the Guiding Ideas page >>    [You’ll have to scroll down a bit, but they’re there!]

Do you have comments? You might share them with Nichola Torbett, Director of National Programs for the Network of Spiritual Progressives

Gary Dorrien, the new Reinhold Niebuhr professor of social ethics at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, was interviewed by Peter Steinfels of the New York Times about the apparent tension between Niebuhr’s "Christian realism" and current value-centered approaches to social issues.

Dorrien does an interesting job of taking the "realistic" approach seriously, while also affirming the importance of the values affirmed by Social Gospel liberalism and by more recent liberation theologies. He might help us, too, in balancing the valuable insights of all three traditions, especially as he comments on the Iraq war.

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