Welcome to another iteration of my blogging self. My main blog is of course the Augustinian Democrat, but with a name like that it automatically puts up ideological blocks that aren't necessary. So I thought maybe this might be a better name for writing about political and theological material. As the title of this initial essay suggests, I hope to write in a manner that sees beyond the typical left/right divide, both politically and theologically. We live in such a hyper-politicized culture that everything is described by this ideological dividing line. But in normal life, which most folks live in, this isn't the only metric for describing who they are. In fact it's not even that important a metric for most folks when it comes to their day to day life.
Seeing life as something more than the left/right divide is something I believe we desperately need to reacquaint ourselves with if we're to move forward from the mental gridlock we're stuck in now. Life is also about music, art, sports, family, friends, lovers, religion, science, etc. In other words, "all of the above" is what life is, and when we shrink it down to only one or two markers like politics or religion, we do a deep disservice to what it means to be fully human.
