Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Rock on Richard Haas & Council on Foreign Affairs
I'm pretty wasted tonight - started early this morning to get to Decatur, Illinois and got stuck on the tarmac at LaGuardia for a few hours - I made it, spoke. I wanted to write now because tomorrow will be a zoo and I don't want to forget last night.
Richard Haas spoke and I can see why he is where he is. The guy is brilliant. I'd already read "The Opportunity" a while back and read his articles in Foreign Affairs, but after hearing him - I had a lot of things stirring inside of me. Some key things he said about people of faith and global issues:
--Timing is everything in global affairs - and the timing is now for the discussion of faith and foreign affairs.
--People and ideas matter - they always have.
--Current world described not so much by great powers of of a diminished order.
Each one of these you could talk all day on. I would have liked a day with him to probe him on these issues - and a lot more.
The thing that stuck in my mind the most though - was the question of how to do foreign policy for America. Is the starting point the world, or is the starting point America. Not sure where he comes out on that one. But it sure reminded me of our current "debate" of the church. Our starting point is not the church - but the world. Our seed - the Gospel of the Kingdom. I hope to get to know this guy a lot better.
Richard Haas spoke and I can see why he is where he is. The guy is brilliant. I'd already read "The Opportunity" a while back and read his articles in Foreign Affairs, but after hearing him - I had a lot of things stirring inside of me. Some key things he said about people of faith and global issues:
--Timing is everything in global affairs - and the timing is now for the discussion of faith and foreign affairs.
--People and ideas matter - they always have.
--Current world described not so much by great powers of of a diminished order.
Each one of these you could talk all day on. I would have liked a day with him to probe him on these issues - and a lot more.
The thing that stuck in my mind the most though - was the question of how to do foreign policy for America. Is the starting point the world, or is the starting point America. Not sure where he comes out on that one. But it sure reminded me of our current "debate" of the church. Our starting point is not the church - but the world. Our seed - the Gospel of the Kingdom. I hope to get to know this guy a lot better.
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