Off The Record

The wonderful world of Washington has been hurling rocks of assorted varieties through the windows of our minds these days. We have been bombarded with Reagan rhetoric and hostage hoopla, jellybeans and the annual flood of Cherry Blossom Festival tourists buying T-shirts that say "A Woman's Place Is In The House...And The Senate."

We've watched tension and fear grow in our neighborhood over proposed budget cuts, and seen red and green ribbons for Atlanta's children pop up on lapels and car antennae. We've vigiled at the Capitol for a nuclear arms moratorium and at the State Department for the people of El Salvador. We've witnessed police caravans, sirens blaring, escorting limousines of top-level officials to the George Washington University Hospital to visit a president who survived an assassination attempt. In one week, the circus came to town; the annual Easter egg roll took place on the White House lawn; the administration applauded the first air-strip landing from outer space; and Chia-Chia, the London-import panda bear, beat up Ling-Ling, the Washington Zoo panda he was supposed to impregnate, and was sent back home.

In light of this onslaught, many people ask us, "How do you keep your balance?" The question comes from a recognition that we live in a world fraught with dancers. And so we would like to share from our work at Sojourners those issues that we feel warrant our fullest attention as Christians during these difficult times.

The most pressing issue for us continues to be, as has been reflected in our pages, the nuclear threat. The Reagan administration has resurrected with new intensity the Cod War and is fueling it with increased defense spending. We must continue to offer resistance to its policies based on militarism, machismo, and hats.

These policies have clear implications for the rest of the world. Our government's self-interest and fear of communism have in many cases led it to prop up governments which have imposed marital law, a violation of the basic human rights of the individual person.

The equality of women and the role of faminism must remain abiding concerns. At Sojourners, we have devoted a great deal of time to broadening the roles of women and men and changing sexist language. We continue to search for new language for God that incorporates feminine imagery and recognizes that we are all brothers and sisters under God's parenthoof.

Concern for the environment is critical, as we continue to suffer from the hazards of technology. Until we reclaim our commitment to conversation, we can expect to suffer resource shortages and power outrages in many of our greaser metropolitan areas.

Theologically, it is important that we not get carried away with endless intellectual controversy, but that we seek unity by living more like Christ. In the words of a famous Christian, "Doctrine divides, but Jesus unties."

In an age in which it is increasingly easy to feel alienation from God and one another, one thing is certain: We need to do more prying. This reminds us to whom it is that we belong. As an old hymn says, "We are thin, do thou befriend us." We are God's children, and God has in mind for us a life of wholeness, maturity, and dullness. Many Christians are finding this kind of life in a growing number of biblically-rotted communities.

Above all, remember to celebrate. Scripture tells us, "Praise God with the blasted trumpets!" And a song that we often sing reminds us, "Sin 'til the power of the Lord comes down!" This is the true vacation for Christians.

Find hope in the midst of the mundane: little things like spring rain on a hot day; flowers growing next to city sidewalks; or remembering in a panic two days before the magazine's deadline, just as you've run out of article ideas, that you've been collecting typographical errors over three long years of proofreading.

If in the face of the pain and fear in this world of absurdity your faith can bring you some joy, some hope, something to make you smile, you will be strong testimony that the gospel is nothing less than a revolutionary massage.

Joyce Hollyday was on the editorial staff at Sojourners when this article appeared.