When the Homily is about Immunology

Taking it out our front door and seeing blood in the streets of Bothell

The previous post generated some interesting conversation. I concluded my most recent comment with this:

If we could take our Christianity out our front door, instead of worrying so much about taking it to the polls - then maybe...just maybe there'd be no talk of gay "marriages"?

I recall Huw-Raphael recently posted about the fact that the real problem is not so much these individual issues such as homosexuality, feminism, liberalism, pedophilia, obesity, or whatever...the real source of ALL our troubles is HEDONISM.

Hedonism (from Dictionary.com): Pursuit of or devotion to pleasure, especially to the pleasures of the senses.
Philosophy: The ethical doctrine holding that only what is pleasant or has pleasant consequences is intrinsically good.
Psychology: The doctrine holding that behavior is motivated by the desire for pleasure and the avoidance of pain.

Now, yesterday we celebrated our nations independence...I explained it to my kids like this: "We used to be England, but now we aren't." They just shrugged, maybe I should have mentioned unfair taxation without representation?

We even got to witness a Revolutionary battle reenactment on the streets of downtown Bothell...as the crowd applauded, whooped, and hollared for the apparent victory of the rag tag colonials I kept wondering who was going to carry off the dead, saw off limbs of the wounded, and clean the blood off the street. To my suprise the shot soldiers simply got up and moved on down the street...how nice and sterile!

life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness

Are we a nation founded on hedonistic principles? How inherent in western individualism is hedonism? I wonder about such things...as the flags were waving and the hands were clapping. Am I unpatriotic because I couldn't manage to flame the fires of national pride in my heart? God knows I would not wish to live anywhere else...but do I say that because of the ease, wealth, comfort, and freedom I have here? Which of those are Christian virtues?

I'm still piecing all of this together in my head.