"God Sex and Politics"

I found this reading to be very interesting because I have never thought about the politics involved in religion. Many of the people the author Dawne Moon interviewed had a very negative view of politics and believed that they should be kept out of the church. Moon however questioned if this is even possible.

Moon defines a situation as political "when people experience it not as a matter of simple differences of opinion...but as something that has to do with people's entrenched interests, including their understandings of the proper relations between themselves and others" (127). The problem with separating the church with politics is that, as a religious community, the congregation should be concerned with helping others and working with people who are hurting. This includes political problems. One church member that Moon interviews talks about murder, starvation, as well as the tragedies occuring in Rawnda, Bosnia, and Herzegovina. He is clearly concerned with political matters. What is interesting about this interview is that he believes more people should be upset over such atrocities as this, and much less worried about homosexuality. I could not agree more. So many church congregations today are highly concerned with the political AND religious issue of homosexuality. But, why are matters such as rape, abuse, murder, and homelessness not leading to the same passion? I understand the debate over gay love in the church, but it frustrates me that this issue can evoke such an uprising from people who don't actively do anything about other (more) important issues such as those mentioned above.

For the members of the two churches in this book, the attempt to keep politics out of church seems almost like an excuse to not make a decision on controversial issues such as homosexuality. Some people see church as a place to "transcend" politics and seek a haven from the secular world that divides people. However, I couldn't agree more with Moon when he states "in seeking to create church as a transcendent haven from politics, members inadvertently reasserted the political hierarchies that structure dialy life. This is the paradox of avoiding politics" (230).