Tucson Sammy

The cover of the April 8, 1966 issue of Time magazine posed the question, “Is God Dead?” More recently, The April 13, 2009 issue of Newsweek magazine boasted a cover story entitled, “The End of Christian America.” Time magazine was wrong in 1966, and Newsweek magazine is wrong in 2009.

Well, Time was certainly wrong in 1966, but what of today? Are we not in a post-modern, progressive, enlightened era? After all, books promoting atheism seem to be all the rage. Last year alone saw the publishing of a plethora of books arguing the atheists’ case. Heavy weights Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion), and Christopher Hitchens (God is not Great) led the way.

I thought it would be interesting to check out the local Christian scene. After all, if God is dead anywhere in Arizona, would that place not be progressive and enlightened Tucson?

Easter was fast approaching, and it seemed to me a good occasion to observe a Christian service. As luck would have it, Calvary Chapel Tucson was having a free “Resurrection Celebration” downtown at the Civic Center Arena on Easter Sunday. I decided to attend.

I have only vague recollections of my last rock concert, but this was definitely bigger. The traffic on Broadway Blvd. heading downtown was backed up almost to the Snake Bridge. Once I was on Congress, I thought I would be clever and work my way around to Stone Avenue, then to Cushing Street where I would park on the street by the Civic Center – I often did this when attending gun shows there. Alas, all the street parking was taken, and it appeared that the neighborhood streets were filled as well. I got in line for the main parking lot, which turned out to be full. There was a dirt lot across the street in back where I managed to find a spot.

While walking along with the crowd, I realized that I still held many of my childhood ideas of what church was like. In New England, where I spent my childhood, that meant a room filled with old, gray haired men in suits and old women in navy or maroon suits and white gloves.

The crowd with which I moved along was diverse in both ethnicity and age. Even the dress ran the gamut. Many women wore their Easter outfits – pastel sun dresses with white shoes. Others, mostly young and middle-aged mothers, were more plainly dressed; though they put pretty dresses on their girls. Some, mostly the young, were inappropriately dressed for the occasion; I confess to being old school in that regard.

Inside the arena was like, well, an arena. The seats were packed with people, there were two huge video screens, and on stage was a warm-up band playing inspirational music.

Pastor Furrow gave a great sermon. A pastor for 28 years, he was excellent at connecting with the audience. He came off as a regular guy speaking to peers. He actually told the following joke: A man was touring the Holy Land with his family, including his mother-in-law, with whom he had strained relations. While they were in Jerusalem, the mother-in-law died. The man went to see the funeral director, who said, “The bad news is that it will cost $5,000.00 to send her home for burial. The good news is that it will cost $150.00 to bury right here, in the Holy Land.” The man thought for a while and said, “Send her home.” The shocked funeral director said, “Why would you send her home for $5,000.00, when you can bury her here, In the Holy Land, for $150.00?” The man said, “Look, two thousand years ago a guy died and was buried here, then he came back to life. I don’t want to take any chances.”

I’m really bad at judging the size of crowds, but I suspect the people numbered in four figures.

Meanwhile, in California, Rick Warren draws about 20,000,000 people a week to his Saddleback Community Church (205 people attended the first service at Saddleback in 1980). You may have heard of him, he gave the invocation at President Obama’s inauguration. He also authored the book, A Purpose Driven Life.

While declines in the Catholic Church, and others, are often cited in the likes of Newsweek and Time, little attention has been paid to the dramatic growth in non-denominational, evangelical churches like Calvary and Saddleback. Are Christian churches changing? Sure. Is secularism overwhelming Christianity? I think not.

At the national level, the Republicans are wandering around shell-shocked in the wilderness, while the Democrats are lookin’ fly and rollin’ phat.

Many Republicans, who dare to look at the future, see a glimmer of hope in 2010. They know that, historically speaking, the mid-term elections usually result in electoral advances for the party that is out of power – if ever a party was out of power, it is certainly today’s Republican Party. Between 1946 and 1996, the president’s party suffered an average loss of about 24 seats in midterm elections, according to the book The American Congress, by Steven S. Smith, Jason M. Roberts, and Ryan J. Vander Wielen. The authors went on to state that the only time this does not happen is when the president’s approval rating is very high.

President Obama’s approval rating is still high, but so are the people’s expectations for his presidency. If, in two years, the economy has not recovered dramatically, unemployment is high, or the voters generally feel that their desires have not been fulfilled; they maybe inclined to make it a good year for Republicans. Two years is a long time in politics.

What the Republicans need are a few good candidates, and campaign organizations. Perhaps there will be some past successes from which they could glean ideas.

Let us now go back in time from 2010 to 2009 (that would be now), and narrow our focus from the nation to Tucson (that would be here). We may have here today a microcosm of the national scene in 2010.

While the big change on the national scene was the last election in which Democrat Barack Obama won the presidency, and Democrats strengthened their hold on Congress. The big change here occurred in 2005, when Democrats Nina Trasoff and Karin Uhlich succeeded Republicans Fred Ronstadt and Kathleen Dunbar. This put Tucson firmly under Democrat control. The newly elected Democrats were to transform Tucson into a happy, crime-free, traffic-jam free, neighborly city with a vibrant downtown in which one could not swing a cat without hitting some kind of artist. The big plank in the platform was the elimination of the trash fee, originally instituted by those nasty Republicans.

The reality, of course, turned out much differently. People are not moving around town on greenways and bicycles; rather, the City Council has approved plans by the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) to make roads bigger and better for *gasp* automobiles. The Rio Nuevo project, that was to “revitalize” downtown Tucson, has been so poorly managed that there is little to show for the ten years, and 60 to 100 million or so dollars, apparently spent on design concepts and artist’s renditions. I just checked my water bill and, and yep, the trash fee is still there. Then there is the goofy stuff like facilitating classes that teach kids how to spray graffiti. I could go on, but you get the idea.

So, Tucson really is the laboratory in which the Republicans can test ways to win against floundering Democrats. The old loser approaches should be abandoned. A focus on technology, particularly social networking, would help. More resources directed at grassroots efforts, with more autonomy at that level, would bring the campaigns into the 21st century. There is certainly enough disenchantment throughout the community that money should not be a problem.

The only major stumbling block is the party itself – they are, as of this writing, three months behind already! I asked Bob Westerman, chairman of the Pima County Republicans, if they were on it. He said that they were actively recruiting. I hope so. This is an opportunity that ought not be missed.

If you have been griping about how you find the current council embarrassing, if you are aggravated by what you see as an anti-business climate in this town, now is your chance to step up to the plate. Imagine, being on the cutting edge, beating the majority party, being the example to which the big boys look for ideas and guidance, making history….any takers?