Keep It Solid, Keep It Civil, And Keep It Simple
People blog for many reasons, but I write to influence people. Blogging for me is the first step in pursuing a plan to try to change things. Over a year ago, a friend approached me with a desire to join our resources to address concerns that we both saw as threatening the future of our country and of the faith we share. I spent nearly 15 years in radio and my entire adult life in serving people. We talked about writing and broadcasting, about the ideas that we regard as sina qua non, the basics without which we have nothing. To a great extent, we share with many Americans a desire to restore the bedrock of our heritage of freedom and faith expressed freely. I have begun writing about some of those basics on this site. Let’s say that one objective is to “Keep it solid”—truth, absolutes, basic essential ideas, bedrock.
I have invested a big part of my last 25 years in Biblical peacemaking. By that, I refer to resolving interpersonal conflict using Scriptural principles and the tools of mediation. To have any real chance of “making peace,” I learned that we need to challenge people to see the value of handling disagreement differently than is common in our highly combative and litigious age. In an attempt to teach and demonstrate these concepts, I created a radio program called Table Talk, a reference to the mediation table. Circumstances bumped me off the air before I was able to get the bugs out of the production, and I was forced to make a living at something other than radio.
“Table Talk” is the venue in which I hope to discuss important issues. My goal is to provide an alternative to the hostile, highly polarized, and personally nasty kinds of talk we hear everywhere from politics to talk radio, from trash talking on TV to trash-talk in sports. I hate hearing people, including those whose views I share, treating people with whom they disagree disrespectfully, even though their opponents are often equally disrespectful. People will not change their ideas or even listen to a logical argument when people are name-calling. I discuss some of these principles at another site: www.xanga.com/jrogerw. Here my goal is to persuade people to “Keep it civil”—don’t label, discuss issues, seek common ground, create solutions, unify rather than divide, make peace.
Whether I get back on the air or not, I have discovered the blogosphere. I know that bloggers are already making a difference. I have been pondering what I might contribute. As I have continued to think about those goals, I have been looking for a third piece to complete an effective strategy. A few Sundays ago, our guest preacher quoted the following, and I believe it suggests that missing element:
We know that too few citizens vote. Many folks are absorbed in working, playing, going to school, raising their families, and other non-political pursuits--the very activities that freedom allows each individual to choose for him or herself. Lots of people have little interest in politics, news, or the topics that dominate Washington. Even those who care often feel powerless; they think their vote doesn’t matter.
As a pastor, I have observed a similar condition among church folks. A motivated young person goes off to Bible college or seminary, studies church history, theology, Greek and Hebrew, and preaching, then attempts to share all that good stuff with some small congregation of farmers or factory laborers. They listen politely on Sunday morning, although they often have trouble understanding the specialized vocabulary or finding a relevant application to their everyday lives. I think of it as white-collar preachers trying to change blue-collar congregations.
I believe the method, that Havel credits with freeing Czechoslovakia from communism, is the key to enabling the United States to free itself of the burdens of costly, centralized, socialistic big government. The conservative movement, much of which I support, began with Goldwater but was educated by William F. Buckley’s National Review, a rather intellectual magazine that I have read often since I discovered it, many years ago. When a friend introduced me to Rush Limbaugh’s program, I saw him as an everyman’s Bill Buckley, many of the same ideas but in more ordinary language. Yet, despite Rush’s most-listened-to talk show and numerous others who have joined him, a significant number of people don’t listen to talk radio, don’t read political blogs, and seem to have little awareness that the freedoms they enjoy might be in danger. That’s where a “parallel society” becomes necessary.
Many web sites that refer to the Havel quote are Christian. We have always functioned as a parallel society. After all, we are citizens of two kingdoms, as I have written previously (http://www.right-thinking.townhall.com). Unfortunately, we have not been doing so well at “writing our plays and singing our songs and reading our poems, until we know the truth so well that we have gone out into the streets and shared the truth of the gospel.” As a result, the Church has lost ground and much of its influence. If Christians are to regain what we have lost as American citizens, we have to address this.
I also believe this approach is the key to restoring our political and religious freedoms. We need to create songs, stories, movies, and slogans that express and exemplify basic ideas so we can share them with people who might otherwise never notice or care. I believe we can make the case clear enough so anyone can understand the important questions and answers. I am convinced that we can overcome the reasons that keep many people from voting. We can get their attention. We have the tools to reach people in new ways, with new mottos and clichés, but with time-tested ideas. I think of this last key as “Keep it simple.”
Here’s how I put it all together, my three-fold strategy: keep it solid, keep it civil, and keep it simple. Here’s how I hope to contribute to the plan. I have already compiled a list of ideas I call “Roger’s Rules,” 101 basically Christian ideas, many my own unique turn of phrase. From them I want to identify a top 25, top 10, and perhaps top 3 most important Christian ideas that I want to pass on to others, so that they may pass them on. In Christian terms, that is basic evangelism and discipleship.
I have begun creating a similar list of basics related to liberty, patriotism, and citizenship. Once I am ready, I will post them for comment and use. I will use that feedback to refine them, but I hope that you readers will take them and use them. Share them with people who might never read my material on their own, but by all means give them the chance. Later on, you may be able to listen to my podcasts, and that opens up a group of potential listeners, as would a radio broadcast, if I eventually get there.
Finally, I urge you to create, in whatever medium you can, stories, songs, poems, slogans, and films, as well as blogs and podcasts of your own. The alternate media are well on their way to becoming the dominant media, but the truly prevailing medium will always be one-on-one, person to person conversation. In these various methods of communication, we need to commit ourselves to focusing our talk on truth, on the most basic values, ideas, and traditions of faith and freedom, and on the things that truly matter most.
Keep it solid, keep it civil, and keep it simple, but let’s do it with humor and hope. Many have observed that “the other side” is filled with gloom and doom. Every problem is a crisis that will surely turn out badly, tomorrow if not sooner! The picture of “Chicken Little’s Sky Falling” is funny, but not these negative folks. Too many “end-of-the-world-ers” are just as negative. I suspect that a lack of hopefulness undermines the message of the most dedicated evangelist, and I know that humor and optimism are the key to the success of others, including conservatives. I am basically an optimist, by temperament, although I have my melancholy side. I am often amusing as both a speaker and a broadcaster, but I find it more difficult as a writer. So, you have my permission to tell me if I get gloomy.
Just for starters, here are a few of the ideas I have jotted down, as I have begun thinking about this. “Pro-life, pro-liberty, pro-opportunity.” Quoting Florida Congressman Adam Putnam, “Our strength as a people is our people,” and not the government. “Less law, less regulation, less taxes.” “Stop wasting our money, stop spending our money, stop taking our money.” “I barely trust my friends. How could I ever trust the government?”
Admittedly, this is barely a beginning, and it has little to grab the attention of people absorbed in doing their own thing. I’ll keep working on it, but I don’t expect to do it alone. I hope folks like you will help. I remain a citizen of two kingdoms, and I am pondering how to use this same approach to re-energize outreach. Frankly, the problems of the two realms are entangled because of the aggressive political and social opposition to traditional Christianity, which has used public education, movies, TV, music, and other media to indoctrinate and almost inoculate more than a generation against it, using the very tools I have discussed here. It’s time for us to turn this process around. So, keep it solid, keep it civil, and keep it simple.
I have invested a big part of my last 25 years in Biblical peacemaking. By that, I refer to resolving interpersonal conflict using Scriptural principles and the tools of mediation. To have any real chance of “making peace,” I learned that we need to challenge people to see the value of handling disagreement differently than is common in our highly combative and litigious age. In an attempt to teach and demonstrate these concepts, I created a radio program called Table Talk, a reference to the mediation table. Circumstances bumped me off the air before I was able to get the bugs out of the production, and I was forced to make a living at something other than radio.
“Table Talk” is the venue in which I hope to discuss important issues. My goal is to provide an alternative to the hostile, highly polarized, and personally nasty kinds of talk we hear everywhere from politics to talk radio, from trash talking on TV to trash-talk in sports. I hate hearing people, including those whose views I share, treating people with whom they disagree disrespectfully, even though their opponents are often equally disrespectful. People will not change their ideas or even listen to a logical argument when people are name-calling. I discuss some of these principles at another site: www.xanga.com/jrogerw. Here my goal is to persuade people to “Keep it civil”—don’t label, discuss issues, seek common ground, create solutions, unify rather than divide, make peace.
Whether I get back on the air or not, I have discovered the blogosphere. I know that bloggers are already making a difference. I have been pondering what I might contribute. As I have continued to think about those goals, I have been looking for a third piece to complete an effective strategy. A few Sundays ago, our guest preacher quoted the following, and I believe it suggests that missing element:
In her book, A Royal Waste of Time, Marva Dawn tells of Vaclav Havel, a playwright who is also the president of the Czech Republic. He was asked, how the revolution to overthrow communism in the Czech Republic was bloodless and yet had experienced real staying power. He simply replied, "We had our parallel society. And in that parallel society, we wrote our plays and sang our songs and read our poems, until we knew the truth so well that we could go out into the streets of Prague and say, "We don't believe your lies anymore!" And communism had to fall.” (www.ruf.org/sounds/whats5.htm)
We know that too few citizens vote. Many folks are absorbed in working, playing, going to school, raising their families, and other non-political pursuits--the very activities that freedom allows each individual to choose for him or herself. Lots of people have little interest in politics, news, or the topics that dominate Washington. Even those who care often feel powerless; they think their vote doesn’t matter.
As a pastor, I have observed a similar condition among church folks. A motivated young person goes off to Bible college or seminary, studies church history, theology, Greek and Hebrew, and preaching, then attempts to share all that good stuff with some small congregation of farmers or factory laborers. They listen politely on Sunday morning, although they often have trouble understanding the specialized vocabulary or finding a relevant application to their everyday lives. I think of it as white-collar preachers trying to change blue-collar congregations.
I believe the method, that Havel credits with freeing Czechoslovakia from communism, is the key to enabling the United States to free itself of the burdens of costly, centralized, socialistic big government. The conservative movement, much of which I support, began with Goldwater but was educated by William F. Buckley’s National Review, a rather intellectual magazine that I have read often since I discovered it, many years ago. When a friend introduced me to Rush Limbaugh’s program, I saw him as an everyman’s Bill Buckley, many of the same ideas but in more ordinary language. Yet, despite Rush’s most-listened-to talk show and numerous others who have joined him, a significant number of people don’t listen to talk radio, don’t read political blogs, and seem to have little awareness that the freedoms they enjoy might be in danger. That’s where a “parallel society” becomes necessary.
Many web sites that refer to the Havel quote are Christian. We have always functioned as a parallel society. After all, we are citizens of two kingdoms, as I have written previously (http://www.right-thinking.townhall.com). Unfortunately, we have not been doing so well at “writing our plays and singing our songs and reading our poems, until we know the truth so well that we have gone out into the streets and shared the truth of the gospel.” As a result, the Church has lost ground and much of its influence. If Christians are to regain what we have lost as American citizens, we have to address this.
I also believe this approach is the key to restoring our political and religious freedoms. We need to create songs, stories, movies, and slogans that express and exemplify basic ideas so we can share them with people who might otherwise never notice or care. I believe we can make the case clear enough so anyone can understand the important questions and answers. I am convinced that we can overcome the reasons that keep many people from voting. We can get their attention. We have the tools to reach people in new ways, with new mottos and clichés, but with time-tested ideas. I think of this last key as “Keep it simple.”
Here’s how I put it all together, my three-fold strategy: keep it solid, keep it civil, and keep it simple. Here’s how I hope to contribute to the plan. I have already compiled a list of ideas I call “Roger’s Rules,” 101 basically Christian ideas, many my own unique turn of phrase. From them I want to identify a top 25, top 10, and perhaps top 3 most important Christian ideas that I want to pass on to others, so that they may pass them on. In Christian terms, that is basic evangelism and discipleship.
I have begun creating a similar list of basics related to liberty, patriotism, and citizenship. Once I am ready, I will post them for comment and use. I will use that feedback to refine them, but I hope that you readers will take them and use them. Share them with people who might never read my material on their own, but by all means give them the chance. Later on, you may be able to listen to my podcasts, and that opens up a group of potential listeners, as would a radio broadcast, if I eventually get there.
Finally, I urge you to create, in whatever medium you can, stories, songs, poems, slogans, and films, as well as blogs and podcasts of your own. The alternate media are well on their way to becoming the dominant media, but the truly prevailing medium will always be one-on-one, person to person conversation. In these various methods of communication, we need to commit ourselves to focusing our talk on truth, on the most basic values, ideas, and traditions of faith and freedom, and on the things that truly matter most.
Keep it solid, keep it civil, and keep it simple, but let’s do it with humor and hope. Many have observed that “the other side” is filled with gloom and doom. Every problem is a crisis that will surely turn out badly, tomorrow if not sooner! The picture of “Chicken Little’s Sky Falling” is funny, but not these negative folks. Too many “end-of-the-world-ers” are just as negative. I suspect that a lack of hopefulness undermines the message of the most dedicated evangelist, and I know that humor and optimism are the key to the success of others, including conservatives. I am basically an optimist, by temperament, although I have my melancholy side. I am often amusing as both a speaker and a broadcaster, but I find it more difficult as a writer. So, you have my permission to tell me if I get gloomy.
Just for starters, here are a few of the ideas I have jotted down, as I have begun thinking about this. “Pro-life, pro-liberty, pro-opportunity.” Quoting Florida Congressman Adam Putnam, “Our strength as a people is our people,” and not the government. “Less law, less regulation, less taxes.” “Stop wasting our money, stop spending our money, stop taking our money.” “I barely trust my friends. How could I ever trust the government?”
Admittedly, this is barely a beginning, and it has little to grab the attention of people absorbed in doing their own thing. I’ll keep working on it, but I don’t expect to do it alone. I hope folks like you will help. I remain a citizen of two kingdoms, and I am pondering how to use this same approach to re-energize outreach. Frankly, the problems of the two realms are entangled because of the aggressive political and social opposition to traditional Christianity, which has used public education, movies, TV, music, and other media to indoctrinate and almost inoculate more than a generation against it, using the very tools I have discussed here. It’s time for us to turn this process around. So, keep it solid, keep it civil, and keep it simple.
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