Disconcerting Conversations

I think it's odd that I find Bill Moyers' Journal more interesting as time goes by. I find it particularly interesting that I'm intrigued by programs dealing with faith and religion, inasmuch as I have neither.

Tonight, he had a conversation with Cornel West, Serene Jones, and Gary Dorrien about America's fundamental ethics and values and what they say about our society. The conversation was presented as, and acknowledge to be, an inherently "biased" conversation, since Moyers himself and his three guests are committed Christians.

They talked about what our society and the way it operates says about America’s politics, our policies, and the appropriateness of democracy in a society that describes itself as being based on morality.

West, in particular, made it a point to say that many of his personal beliefs are well-aligned with those of many devout atheists and agnostics, though the others seemed to be in agreement.

I found it intriguing that all three are connected to the Union Theological Seminary, a nondenominational seminary based in New York City. I did not even know there were any such things as nondenominational theological seminaries. Serene Jones is president of the seminary and the others are professors.

What always surprises me about Moyers and his guests is that they almost always speak about morality, right and wrong, and guiding philosophical principles, the justification for which they always attribute to Christianity or, at least, religion. His religious guests always wear this badge of "faith" on their sleeves with great pride; that is the only thing about them I find offensive and, frankly, blind.

That not withstanding, I find these conversations very interesting. I agree more often than I disagree with their almost universally liberal worldviews. Their sense of justice mirrors mine almost perfectly. It's their damn insistence on believing in supernatural beings that I find disconcerting.