Happy 4th Anniversary?

In my musical days, I ran a soundboard for a friend’s band. The band played rock music with a Christian message. In essence, they were preaching the gospel through music. It was a noble, yet misguided venture. We used to play in churches, Coffee Houses, Christian youth centers and other places where young Christians gathered to listen to people tell them what they already believed to be true.

Part of the reason I don’t do that anymore is because I used to ask a lot of questions. “Why are we playing in church? People here already believe. Shouldn’t we be playing in bars or homeless shelters, where people need to hear a different message?” They heard me, but they desired the built-in acceptance of people with whom they shared a common belief.

However, I felt that by playing for Christians, we were essentially wasting our time, similar to re-reading Moby Dick to a literary group. We were reinforcing an already held conviction. We were popular, but why wouldn’t we be? Preaching to the assembled choir, as it were.

Now, I am reading about protests surrounding the fourth anniversary of the War in Iraq. Some bloggers are fighting outrage fatigue and seem to believe that if they are not being heard, they should scream louder. The issue is twofold. (1) The format here is so insignificant as to be rendered almost useless in the fight, and (2) we are holding meetings in our “church”.

Consider three recent stories to come out of the White House:

"It can be tempting to look at the challenges in Iraq and conclude that our best option is to pack up and go home," Bush said. "While that may be satisfying in the short run, the consequences for American security would be devastating."

In the past week alone, the White House threatened to veto House bills dealing with presidential records and protection for whistle-blowers and a defeated Senate bill that would have set a deadline for withdrawal from Iraq. The White House also warned that a war-spending bill the House will take up this coming week would face a veto because it contains Iraq withdrawal language.

Amid bipartisan calls for the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in the wake of a scandal surrounding dismissals of eight federal prosecutors, the White House said Monday, "We hope he stays."

So, they whine, moan and complain in this tiny format. The White House is steadfast and the protests will cause you both emotional pain and lost time from work. If you do it until you fatigue from it, then the gun has backfired in your face and the people you were shooting at will be laughing at you as they get further from your range while you re-load. It may not be worth the blow to your emotional well-being to fight people who are not listening or willing to debate. Not to mention the fact that rage and anger are not socially enhancing forms of behavior. They turn beautiful people ugly and generally cause more problems than they solve.

But, like drug addicts and alcoholics, they persist in spite of the detriments. They protest, blog, scream, yell, grow weary, rest and start again. Lather, rinse, repeat. Meanwhile, the biggest change has taken place in the voting booth, which appears to be the only place we can find a captive audience. Keep voting, and stop yelling so much. It took an election to get us out of Vietnam, because the last guy from Texas didn’t listen and the one from California didn’t listen until he heard the voters in 1972.

If the other party is not listening, you are yelling at each other. Here, we are preaching to the choir, while the people you seek to reach are deaf to it or ignorant of it. They do not want to hear and will not listen.

Either way.

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