On Being

I just finished reading the transcript for "On Being."   I guess I could say that the AmCon readings are on a roll this week, because I highly enjoyed this one, too.   First of all, the opening paragraph addresses that "the right of free speech implies the duty of allowing others to speak."  Which, as I recall, was the subject of one of our first heated debates last semester.   However, the article went on to describe this as meaning that "I don't have to agree with you, but I have to let your thought into my mind in order to have a real democratic exchange between us."   I thought that this was an interesting, perhaps more "old-fashioned,"  but also in a sense, more progressive way of looking at liberty: that it comes with a sense of duties and responsibilities that must be adhered to in order to achieve not only personal success, but a collective community in which individuals can flourish.   The author addresses religion in this sense, suggesting that religion can help to achieve this atmosphere, and has in the past- but not in the ways that one might think.  I thought he offered some interesting insight into the issue of religion in a society which professes to have a "separation of church and state,"  by suggesting that the religious ideas that most greatly influence America are not necessarily specific to any one God or denomination, but rather are those which allow for a deep individual spirituality of choice, concern for morals, and a commitment to thinking together.   He claims that religious and spiritual ideas penetrated early America and filter down to us today, saying that "They brought a spiritual vision of community that I think we need to rediscover...because our own Constitution and our own laws of government in some ways can be seen to echo a deeper meaning of human equality."   I think that we can tie this program's ideas into our own lives and Amy Frykholm's lecture today by saying that the program's view of the possibilities for religion have a more postmillenialstic view on life in America- that we can, if we return to a value of individual spirituality and thinking, create a better social harmony and future in our nation.  One less selfish, and more whole.