Speaking our Truth from a Deeper Place

This colum by Fr. Ron Rolheiser ran in the Catholic Herald of October 27, 2005 under the title "Get beyond liberal, conservative labels." Expect Father Rolheiser, like Father McBrien, to return to this theme from time to time unless and until the Left makes significant electoral gains. While Father McBrien claims the middle-of-the-road, Father Rolheiser takes the label-transcending approach of Jim Wallis.

The importance of what's being said here stuck me recently as I read an interview in Sojourners magazine. A young woman, an Episcopalian priest, was being interviewed. She had just published a book with a very strong message challenging us all to be more respectful of nature and was about to set off on a book-promotion tour.

Thus the trees that went into that book, Soujourners, and the Catholic Herald did not die in vain. She asked how she expected her book to be received in the hinterland.

Her response contains a lesson: In effect, she said, "I'm not worried. Most people are sincere and I find that, among sincere people, there isn't any spiteful resistance to God's word. People resist ideology (and they should) but my experience is that, if you preach God's word and not liberal or conservative ideology, most sincere people will hear you!"

Sojourners itself ran this Rolheiser column so I wonder that he didn't quote her interview, rather than putting quotation marks around his paraphrase.

He goes on to summarize the now-perfected Christian message which most people will accept in short order, concluding with

"Both the life of the unborn child and the freedom of a pregnant woman must be morally defended."

Assuming he does not mean he's personally opposed to abortion but etc., this raises the question of what is the freedom he refers to as particular to a pregnant woman.