c. 2003 Religion News Service

(Tom Ehrich is a writer and computer consultant, managing large-scale database implementations. An Episcopal priest, he lives in Durham, N.C.)

(UNDATED) “March Madness,” “Final Four,” brackets, office pools, and I, lying on my sofa, listening to Duke surge past North Carolina State for the Atlantic Coast Conference title.

It is a fine time of year along Tobacco Road.

Now I wonder if the college basketball tournaments will even be held.

If we have invaded Iraq, if troops are standing in harm’s way, if public gatherings are targets for retaliation by Islamic terrorists, should basketball players take the floor? Tournament sponsors say, Yes, maybe with a delay. But we’ll see. Can a nation have guns and butter _ and basketball, and Oscars, and everything else we hold dear?

How much will be disrupted by this war? In recent years, Americans have grown accustomed to treating politics as entertainment, a “virtual” reality that doesn’t stretch us beyond half-hours of watching. So far, the buildup to this war has appeared on television as a “Showdown,” almost indistinguishable from cop shows, “Mission Impossible” knockoffs and “survivor” pseudo-dramas.

But like all major conflagrations, Gulf II won’t stay neatly within such bounds. Experts disagree on the likely duration of air and ground strikes. But even if Baghdad toppled within our attention span, the aftermath won’t stop affecting us when we turn off the TV.

Basketball-rich Tobacco Road, for example, is also home to a large proportion of the troops waiting in Kuwait and at sea to strike and then to remake Iraq in our image. Half of one town is camped in Kuwaiti sand, running germ warfare drills. Disruption has commenced in the homes of those soldiers.

Economic impacts began weeks ago in a run-up of gasoline prices to all-time highs. More and worse lie ahead. College seniors wonder what awaits them in June. Job-hunters will lose more hope. Business spending will be put on hold. Federal spending will shift toward warfare. Cash-strapped states will retrench, especially in social services and education. A government living once again on debt will drive interest rates higher. An already massive foreign trade deficit will become insupportable.

Social disruptions can be expected, too. Language is escalating, as more people shun the hard work of listening respectfully to each other. Flag-waving and sign-waving are replacing debate. Nuances and subtleties were shouted down weeks ago.

With European allies aghast at our behavior, who among us will be traveling to Europe this spring? If “French fries” are renamed “freedom fries,” can we expect similar jingoism toward German automobiles, Perrier water, Italian fashions, Mexican imports and Canadian wheat? How far will we take standing alone against the world?

My point isn’t to catalog an entire war-impact scenario, for in war surprises always trump plans and predictions. My point is that in our modern temples of citizenship, commerce, faith and culture, we all live side by side _ sellers, buyers, believers, voters, losers, winners, the impacted and not-yet-impacted.

Whether we talk of war at church or wrestle with our faith response to war at work, whether we support the war and wish our neighbors did, too, or wonder how our war-minded fellow-citizens could be so obtuse, we all live side by side.

I cannot imagine a Messiah sweeping into our many temples and “cleansing” them, as Jesus once did in Jerusalem. Ours isn’t a theocracy which has “sacred” places and “secular” places. We blend it all.

What I can imagine is God walking in our midst, comforting the wife whose husband is one drone flight away from chemical weapons, comforting those who hate the war but respect the warriors, comforting those who favor military action and resent domestic division, comforting frustrated voters who didn’t approach the 2000 election with a 1991 grudge in mind, comforting pastors who see their flocks divided and wonder what to preach, comforting the millions who live one paycheck from disaster, and, yes, comforting the basketball stars who spent their young lives honing skills for just this moment.

While maps of Iraq dominate our newspapers, I believe that God will examine the maps of our hearts and souls. We don’t need God to take sides for president or protester. We need God to hold all of us close to his heart in the wilderness of human frailty.

DEA END EHRICH