First, let me start off by saying, I love George Lakoff. I bought his book and read it cover-to-cover and talk about it with my friends. He's a great asset to our country, our party, and now our blog. THANK YOU, George Lakoff, for convincing us that FRAMING matters!
Having said that, I am dismayed to see his diary here today about Social Justice Sunday. Seems to me, it contradicts one of the major principles I've come to believe: DON'T THINK OF AN ELEPHANT!
Please read on...
I fear we're falling into the classic trap Lakoff warns us about.
Republicans say it's about values. Therefore, we reply: It's about values! We just disagree with yours. Thinking of Elephants, as I understand it, does not mean agreeing with Republicans. Rather, it means
buying into their frame. Social Justice Sunday not only buys into their frame on Religion being the judge of Morality and Justice, but also into their frame of Conservative vs. Commie.
All of which is NOT to say I disagree with the concept of Social Justice! I wholeheartedly agree that their "morality" is flat out wrong, and that religious groups on the left should make it known that we have a different view of morality, that we too have an awesome God in the words of Barack Obama. Here, the big challenge is not in contrasting Progressive Religion from the "Religious Right," but in making it known that we have powerful Religious and Spiritual beliefs on the Left - that we are guided by our own sense of morality, of right vs. wrong. Republicans have framed Religion and Morality as being a right-wing enterprise, and we must make it known that we disagree.
There, I've just succinctly made the argument FOR Social Justice Sunday, right? We must make it known that we have religious moral beliefs based in Social Justice! Right? NO. I have just fallen into a trap, the same trap I would've fallen into before reading Lakoff's book. I'm accepting two major Republican frames. 1) that Morality is determined by Religion, and 2) that Religion sets the Moral Voice of a Government. Thus, it's no longer Separation of Church and State, but an acceptance of the premise that Justice is defined by a Religious Consensus not by the separate power of a Judicial Branch.
PLEASE, dKos readers, we MUST NOT accept this frame and run with it! It is THEIR frame, and it is wrong!
In the setting of our current meltdown with Frist and DeLay over the role of "religious values" in our government, we must not agree with their premise and then challenge their version of morality. We must RE-FRAME.
We should not have Social Justice Sunday. We can have Religious Freedom Sunday, we can make bumperstickers saying Keep Government Out Of My Religion! and, Should My Religion be Your Law? We can come up with expressions like "The Constitution Protects the Bible by not being one."
We can go further, and borrow for Lakoff's writings: Conservative family values are those of a strict father family -- authoritarian, hierarchical, every man for himself, based around discipline and punishment. Progressives live by the best values of both family and community: mutual responsibility, which is authoritative, equal, two-way, and based around caring, responsibility (both individual and social), and strength Lakoff suggests that one of the 5 key philosophies of progressives is Mutual Responsibility, and that this stands in contrast with the so-called Family Values of the far-right. This is where we can detour their conversations on values. When their talking head chimes about Protecting the Family, ours could talk about Strengthening our Communities. When they say Death Tax, we say "ask what you can do for your country." They talk about Culture of Life, we talk about caring and responsibility. They say it's about Religion, we say it's about Community. We don't try to answer them directly, we challenge their premise and introduce ours. We don't think of an elephant.
Should progressive religious leaders and groups get together and fight the Religious Right? Damn straight they should. But on a political scale - on the scale of dKos and Lakoff - I suggest that we do not frame it as Our Version of Morality vs. Theirs. We should frame it as: a) keep my government out of my Faith; b) keep your faith out of my government; c) Religion and the Law are two different things; AND the one that brings everything together... d) our Democracy is BASED on three branches with separate powers, on Separation of Church and State, and on personal freedoms and responsibilities.
In short? This is about Protecting the Fabric of Our Democracy and What Has Always Made Us Strong (our frame) not Which Religion Gets To Define Morality (their frame). It's a fight we can win. Not by repeating words like "Separation of Church and State" like some academic wonks, but by making the issue come alive... in our minds, in our conversations, and always, in our frame.