Awful-izers

My pastor stepped on my toes this weekend, but good. If you are a regular church goer and have a good pastor you know that he's going to hit you where you live every now and again and put you under "conviction".

In my case, it was his description of what he calls "awful-izers". They are the folks around the church and elsewhere that he encounters that take any piece of news and put the worst possible take on it. The example he gave was of a prayer chain that started with the news that a member was going in for heart tests, and by the time it got around the chain the member was dead and the funeral was on Wednesday! Someone in the chain was an awful-izer.

Okay, he got me. I'm a partisan. And a news junkie. And an occupational hazard for a partisan newsjunkie is to be an awful-izer. I've known for a long time that I'm prone to this particular malady and every so often I get reminded of it. It takes a lot of effort to take a balanced look at issues and both not exaggerate the severity of an issue and to see the positive elements of the other point of view. I try to achieve that, but it's hard and I often fall in the trap of being an awful-izer.

Now, I have to list two caveats with the concept of awful-izing in general:

- it doesn't mean that there is never "awful" news or issues that need to be confronted, or exposed, or opposed. And I will take those issues on fearlessly.

- both sides are susceptible to this phenomenon. I feel comfortable saying that it's typically the party out of power that exhibits this the most, as I believe the Democrats did during this election.

Ok. I've fessed up. Anyone else want to examine themselves? You should think about some self-examination if you've any of the following positions in the last year:

- George W. Bush is Hitler
- John Ashcroft is a facist who uses the Constitution for toilet paper
- America is worse than al Qaeda
- Haliburton is the single most corrupt entity in the world (U.N. oil-for-food, pick up the red phone)
- The fundamentalist Christian right is taking over America and shoving it's views down everyone's throats

Come on in. Stick your toes out and get them stepped on. It does a soul good.