There is No Such Thing as “Judeo-Christian!”

I have been listening to the Phil Vischer podcast lately and doing as I do, I have to go back and listen to ALL of them because that’s the sort of thing I do.  Phil is the creator of Veggie Tales and though the entire company was wrested away from him some time ago for many reasons of which you will read in his book, “Me, Myself, and Bob” he has started afresh with a new project called Jellyfish Labs and its internet channel (?) Jelly Telly through which he has promulgated new characters, shows, books, and games.

The podcast’s description includes the following:  “a fast-paced and often funny conversation about pop culture, media, theology and the fun, fun, fun of living a thoughtful Christian life in an increasingly post-Christian culture.”

Now don’t misunderstand my purposes here, I am all for this post-Christian proposition, all for it, 100% on board.  I totally support the abandonment of the fundamentalist and especially unthinking cultural Christianity which causes liberals, atheists, other religions, and basically the rest of the world to look at America as backward.  I would perhaps say that a fundamentalist asks “what does the Bible say?” while the Christian life begs the question “What does the Bible mean?”  It’s the difference between a literalistic legalistic litigious religious framework and what Christianity really is.  We absolutely need fewer fundamentalist culture-warrior cultural Christians and more Christians who take the meaning of the Gospel and the Christian life seriously and follow Jesus in humility and contemplation.

And in large part I say that Phil is doing this and doing a wonderful job.  However, as with many a good thing, there are some hiccups.  One is that all three hosts seem to be conservatives, or at least moderately conservative and one of them is very much so, having worked in Washington D.C. during the Reagan administration.  I have found Phil Vischer and Skye Jethani  both to be a breath of fresh air (myself having just lived for eight years in Arkansas) though perhaps not going quite far enough in my non-Bible Belt personal view.  Christian Taylor (the Mississippi born Republican) however has been a regular source of frustration for me because she seems to hold the traditional (and I mean American Bible Belt traditional) views on things, the culture warrior, the government is too big and bad at everything, politically Republican views that have nothing directly to do with being a Christian yet are often preached as if they are one in the same.  Sorry Christian, I am certain you are a wonderful person but your political views make me want to weep and gnash my teeth.  On the other hand, the thought occurs to me, if the reader is one of my very many politically conservative friends, you’ll probably identify with her and hopefully be indoctrinated to some of the more introspective and less overtly political views of Phil and Skye.  At any rate, please do subscribe to the Phil Vischer Podcast, watch the podcast on YouTube, or find it at Phil’s website at philvischer.com.  I wholly support Phil’s work whether or not I wholly agree with him or his co-hosts on every point.

Okay, so I got way off topic there, but I want to bring it back around with the number two hiccup with the Phil Vischer Podcast which is related to number one and that is the constant callbacks to that American Cultural Christianity, specifically the idea of “Judeo-Christian” things.  And understand, I’m not criticizing Phil (and particularly Skye for constantly using this term) and the podcast.  This is an issue that has been stewing in the considerable volume of my brain (I have a very large head) for quite a number of years.  Skye’s use of the term has caused me to revisit the idea and hopefully to formulate a good case for my point of view.

As in my usual poor form, I’m going to state the conclusion first and then make a case to back it up.  This has gotten me into trouble in the past because people think “hey, you’re working from a preconceived conclusion and just trying to make the facts fit your case.”  No, that’s not what I’m doing.  Usually what happens is that the conclusion will be in the first paragraph because usually nobody reads very far in so I put the conclusion at the top so you know what I think and if you are a thinking person you’ll continue reading whether or not you agree, and if you are not a thinking person, you’ll probably disagree and quit reading and I’m okay with that.  No need to make you read into something to which your mind is not open.  I can’t open your mind.  Anyway, since we’re already in the middle of this already lengthy post, I guess it doesn’t matter.

Okay, so here it is.  If you live in the USA and have any sort of engagement with people or media or read books or anything, you have probably come across the term “Judeo-Christian” in some sort of context with values or laws or morality.  It is used extremely commonly especially in Christian and conservative (not the necessarily same thing) circles.  But my case is this:

There is no such thing as “Judeo-Christian.”

While I cannot be sure at this point, I believe the term is birthed and rebirthed in the Christian Zionist and Christian fundamentalist movements.  If it did not originate with them, it is certainly where it is most often repeated today.  There’s this idea that Christians are the new Jews or that Jews are incomplete Christians, and so if we lump them together, we can gain rhetorical force for our arguments.  Or the case may be that we are Christians and parts of our scriptures are the Jewish scriptures.  In any case, I want to say that there is no such thing as “Judeo-Christian” because Jews and Christians are fundamentally different things.  And I want to do it partially by comparing Islam to Christianity as Christians compare Christianity to Judaism.

Okay, so let’s look at it like this:  Islam teaches that Jesus and all the Old Testament patriarchs and prophets were Muslims and prophets of Islam.  In a way, just as Baha’ism claims to be some sort of continuation of Islam and Christianity and Judaism, Islam claims to be the true and undistorted extension of Christianity and Judaism.  And I say that the term “Judeo-Christian” is the Christian’s attempt to be the continuation and perfection of Judaism.  Now I am not going to explore whether or not that point is true, because as a Christian, I do believe that Christianity is the fulfillment of what was the original Judaism.  But that doesn’t make me a Jew, and that doesn’t mean I believe the same things Jews do and therefore the term Judeo-Christian is entirely inappropriate when describing any part of my Christian belief, just as a Muslim would be totally wrong in describing Jesus as a prophet of Islam and a Muslim.

Trying to rope Jews into the belief-net of Christianity is something many Jews are very uncomfortable with.  They are fundamentally different things.  A Muslim believes he is correctly worshipping the Christian and Jewish God.  A Christian believes he is correctly worshipping the Jewish God.  But the Jew says “Hey, that’s not the God I worship.  My God is not Jesus and never spoke to Muhammad.”  The Christian says “Jesus is God, and God didn’t speak to Muhammad, and Jesus’ death on the cross means Christians are not under the Jewish law.”

A Christian doesn’t think a Muslim’s claims about Christianity are legitimate, what makes a Christian think they can claim their views about Judaism are legitimate? 

We know those claims exist, but please join me in understanding that the term “Judeo-Christian” is an imposition and an interpretation.  From my research on the topic, I know for a fact that there are Jews who do not like it.  So let’s have the humility to understand and communicate that a Christian is a Christian, a Jew is a Jew, and a Muslim is a Muslim, and the claims of each are mutually exclusive. Do you think in a majority Jewish country that the Jews use the term “Judeo-Christian” or perhaps “Christo-Jewish?”  No.  The term is one of power, position, and culture.  It only works when the majority is Christian.

We are entering the post-Christian era in the United States.  And conservatism being what it is by simple nature is clawing tooth and nail to try to maintain its privilege and influence and if we are to be the cultural influencers that Christ and the Apostle Paul called us to be, we must learn to live in the same sort of milieu that they did, being the minority with no political or coercive power and yet all the ultimate power.  The more we grasp for the political and coercive power, the more we lose the ultimate power.  Part of living in a post-Christian society correctly is embracing post-Christianese.  In doing so, we must abandon the term “Judeo-Christian.”

In closing, let me relate an old Jewish joke:

A gentile professor of Judaic Studies in Iowa finds out that to really learn the Talmud he must go to the Boro Park section of Brooklyn and find himself a teacher. The professor flies over and knocks on a basement door and this little Jew comes out. Upon seeing him, the professor asks to be taught the Talmud, but the little Jews says, “I can’t teach you Tal-mud, you got a goyeshe kop (literally “non-Jewish head”), you just don’t think Jewish.”

The professor insists. The little Jew says, “OK, solve this problem, and I’ll teach you:

“Two people go down a chimney. One stays clean, the other gets completely schmutzig, filthy. Which one washes up?”

The professor eagerly answers, “The dirty one, naturally.”

The little Jew wails: “Goyeshe kop, goyeshe kop! I told you I can’t teach you anything. Listen, the schmutzig guy sees the clean guy. Schmutzig doesn’t see any problem. But the clean guy sees the schmutzig guy and figures he must be just as dirty, so he goes and washes. I told you, you got a goyeshe kop. I can’t help you.”

The professor begs for another chance, and the little Jew gives in, suggesting a new problem to solve:

“Two people go down a chimney. One stays clean, the other gets completely schmutzig. Which one of them would wash up?”

The professor says, “Sure, I know this one, it’s the clean fellow.”

At this, the little Jew wails, “Goyeshe kop, the clean one takes a look at the dirty one and says, Moishe, you’re all schmutzig, go wash already! Enough. I really can’t help you, mister, you got a goyeshe kop.”

The professor begs for one last chance, and the little Jew says, “Fine, one last chance, I’ll give you a completely new problem, then you’ll leave me alone:

“Two people go down a chimney. One stays clean, the other gets completely schmutzig. Which one of them washes up?”

At this point, the poor professor from Iowa freezes, unable to decide which of the two conflicting solutions to choose. The little Jew can’t stand it anymore and interjects, “Goyeshe kop, who ever heard of two people going down a chimney and only one of them gets schmutzig?”

(Source:  http://www.jewishpress.com/blogs/yoris-news-clips/theres-no-such-thing-as-judeo-christian-values/2013/12/26/)

If Jesus had a Church in your Town, It Would be Smaller than Your Church

I just watched this excellent video from Francis Chan.


Remembering how I reviewed his book "Crazy Love" back in '09, I went back and reread that review.  It's here in case you were wondering.  I would consider it one of my more open and honest posts, not that any of them aren't honest, but we all guard ourselves a little.  In fact consider this a sequel.

Looking back at that post, wow, I have all those same questions now.  All of them.  I do feel that I've gotten an answer on one of them.  I am moving to Boulder Colorado to help start a new church.  Like Francis mentions in this video a few times, Bible Belt Christianity is sick and I am incredibly uncomfortable being here.  I know God loves these people too and I know there are strong believers here too, but I cannot handle it.  I've realized that worse than having to give up all my worldly possessions, I'd consider it the greater chore to have to live here for the rest of my life.  God could tell me in an audible voice "I am going to have you win the lottery and you will live in opulence and comfort for the rest of your life, but you have to do it in the Bible Belt," and I'd be like "I don't ... really want to do that."  I mean, I would, if God wanted me to do that, but I don't want to.  This is not my homeland.

If I had to compare it to something, I guess I would compare it to Laodicea in the book of Revelation.  There's a whole lot of "I believe in Jesus and vote Republican (or Democrat as the case may be)" but there doesn't seem to be much beyond that.  I see people whose life purpose has little to do with the work of the Kingdom.  The only difference between them and any normal person on the street is that they go to church on Sunday and I can't really see much difference otherwise.  They drive the same cars, live in the same houses, watch the same shows and movies, eat the same food, take the same vacations, and do the same thing everybody else does.  And there's so many people going to church that really, the members of the church actually is everybody else.

I come from a different environment.  I grew up in Oregon, polled at one point as the least churched state in the nation.  In high school, I was one of just a few in my circle of acquaintances who went to church and the only one of my group of friends for some time.  I describe it like this.  In Oregon, if you don't want to go to church, you just don't go, and Mr. Chan mentions that attitudes are similar in California.  It's not like that here in the South.  Church is much more of a cultural thing, but it's such a consumeristic thing.  There is such church hopping you wouldn't believe.  Our church staff was talking the other day, that you have to bring in hundreds of new people every year just to maintain a steady population.  They were talking about how Discovery Classes (new membership thing) are massively full and yet the church's population is not growing rapidly like you'd expect.

I remember one small church I went to for a couple years back in Oregon before I moved here.  It was quite a diverse church, and I don't just mean racially.  There were a whole lot of significant sinners, addicts, alcoholics, people who'd done prison time.  I feel like that's Jesus' sort of church.  It's a place where people know they are wretched, blind, poor, and naked.  (Revelation 3:17)  That looks to me like the sort of place where Jesus would hang out.  Most churches I've seen appear to be nursing homes for Christians stuck in that awkward and embarrassing parenthesis between baptism and death.

That's not where I want to be.  So I prayed "come get me."  And as far as I can tell, He has.  And I am very excited about moving, even though it will take a hit in our finances, it's a colder place, and I will leave some good friends.

Jesus said:  "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters-yes, and even his own life-he cannot be My disciple.  Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.  "For which of you, wanting to build a tower, doesn't first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?  Otherwise, after he has laid the foundation and cannot finish it, all the onlookers will begin to make fun of him,   saying, 'This man started to build and wasn't able to finish.'  "Or what king, going to war against another king, will not first sit down and decide if he is able with 10,000 to oppose the one who comes against him with 20,000?  If not, while the other is still far off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.  In the same way, therefore, every one of you who does not say good-bye to all his possessions cannot be My disciple.  "Now, salt is good, but if salt should lose its taste, how will it be made salty?  It isn't fit for the soil or for the manure pile; they throw it out. Anyone who has ears to hear should listen!" 

I don't necessarily think that everyone will need to be martyred, or that everyone will have their families abandon them or that they must live in their car or any other specific thing.  But some will.  Some will be asked to die.  Some will be asked to give everything.  Some will lose their home.  Some will lose their family.  It may not be you.  It may be.  But what you are asked to do, you better do it.  And if you're not living in the tension, then I don't think you're in tune with the Holy Spirit.  I wish Mr. Chan would have mentioned one of the most important things Jesus said when he was busy running people off.  

"How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!  For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God."  Those who heard this asked, "Then who can be saved?"  He replied, "What is impossible with men is possible with God."  Then Peter said, "Look, we have left what we had and followed You."  So He said to them, "I assure you: There is no one who has left a house, wife or brothers, parents or children because of the kingdom of God,  who will not receive many times more at this time, and eternal life in the age to come." There is a Midrash on the Song of Songs that uses the phrase to speak of God's willingness and ability beyond comparison, to accomplish the salvation of a sinner:  "The Holy One said, open for me a door as big as a needle's eye and I will open for you a door through which may enter tents and [camels?]."  God wants you.  Camel through a needle, God can do that, and he wants to.  And he wants some effort on your end.


P.S.
I get harangued when I say things like this, but if you're the sort of person who gets mad at the church parking attendant when you're trying to leave early after pulling your kids out of Sunday school early so you can leave early and avoid traffic, I'd appreciate it if you would just not come back.  If you don't want to attend a church because service times changed, by all means, don't.  If you want to find another church because you don't like the music, please do.  If you don't feel like coming to church this morning, don't, and don't worry about it next week either.

Striving Against the Right Wing in Christianity

I don't know how Christians think they are supposed to reach the unbelieving world when they constantly belittle and disrespect the unbelievers in their own country.

 Forget for a second, the ideology.  Forget the opinion that business should be of primary importance in the economy.  Forget the view that government should operate with no debt.  Forget the idea that greed is good or that poor people are moochers or that black people only vote for Obama because he's black.  Forget all that.

How do you reach someone?  How do you get someone to come over to your point of view.  How do you dispel myths about your position and draw people into your enlightened way of being?  Do you do it through insults?  Do you mock them into seeing things your way?

 Jesus said you are supposed to love them and by your love, they will know that you are his disciples.  And he was all about making new disciples.  'Go therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them all that I have commanded you, and I will be with you always.'

For some reason, and I can't figure out why this is the case, but people who call themselves Christians are making right asses of themselves today.  Assume for a minute that their political opponents, the Democrats are among the unbelievers they should be so desperate to lead to Christ.  Then why are they so vehement in their ridicule and dishonorable speech?

 I don't say these things lightly.  I have struggled with calling myself a Christian for several years now, going back and forth.  Today one of my pastors compared our president Barack (a name which means blessing) Obama to Chewbacca from Star Wars.  Why are Christians so vicious today?  It's one thing to disagree with people, I do it all the time.  But there is no need for this name calling and flatly dishonorable behavior.

Are you against abortion?  Great!  That's fantastic, but how can you be most effective?  Is it by standing outside an abortion clinic hurling insults at poor women who come trying to escape their problems?  I'll tell you this.  Pro-life liberals get way more positive attention and frankly, they get way more done.  The enemy is not going to let you into his castle to pry the ears of his advisers.  But if he's not your enemy, he'll let you in and offer you a meal and let you try to change his mind.

 Paul had some great things to say about how you reach people.

"For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became mas one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings."

Is it possible that Paul in his wisdom may have said something like "to the Democrats, I became as a Democrat for the sake of the gospel that I may share with them in its blessings"?  That sounds like something he might say, if he were a republican which I dare say he wouldn't be.

I am in a tough spot.  I have been in a tough spot for a number of years.  I feel uncomfortable where I am.  Though my service is strenuous and valuable, I feel like I'm working with the wrong people.  I have become more and more withdrawn because the words of my 'friends' and associates are so repulsive to me.  I feel like it's all coming to a head.  I feel like if my small group leader says that 'all these regulations are in the way' again, I'm going to burst.  And I'll tell you this much, if my church participates in 'Pulpit Freedom Sunday' I will be leaving it.  Because you don't draw people to the truth with hateful and insulting language.  You don't win people to your side with partisan bickering.  Jesus hung out with hookers and tax cheats, sailors and radicals.  And all he told them to do was stop sinning.  That's it.  Not that they were bad people.  Not that they were ruining their country.  Not that they were a drag on society.  And he didn't compare them to hairy creatures whose speech nobody understands.

What Do You Believe?

In our culture today, so many times the question is asked about what we believe, especially in politics and religion.  Do believe in Jesus as your personal lord and savior?  Do you believe that a woman has the right to control her own body?  Do you believe in the death penalty?  Do you believe the earth is 6000 years old?  Do you believe in fiscal responsibility?

It doesn't matter what you believe, it matters what you're going to do about it.

That's my stand.  In the bible, James said:  "Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works."  "Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?"  So I've come to the conclusion that it doesn't matter what you believe because what you say you believe makes you a liar unless what you do backs it up.  If James calls it useless, than it is useless.  Apart from the Bible, I still say if you can't back up what you believe by what you do, then it truly is useless!

The American Christian (you know what I think about these people) culture today is one in which you are defined by what you believe, or at least what you say you believe.  Are you against abortion?  Are you against gay marriage?  Are you against taxes?  Are you a fiscal conservative?  Yes?  Well then by Jove, you're okay in my book!  But like I said, so?  What I want to know is what are you going to do about it?

Conservatives have been against abortion for forty years.  They have used it for forty years to gain votes, but in the end, what have they done about it?  Little more than nothing.  Well, they won elections, so I guess that counts.  I have recently been encountering atheists who are now approaching the ability to discuss moral issues in a playing field which for so long has been dominated by people of faith.  Jen Roth is a so-called pro-life atheist and she has such a powerful case against abortion that usually argumentative commentators can't but sit and listen to her lay it out.  I'm currently reading a new book by atheist Sam Harris called "The Moral Landscape."  And it's hard to fathom, but atheists are now, at least in my view, making better cases for moral issues than the staid Christian apologists. 

If this plays out, American Christianity is in some sh!t!

P.S.  I really hope it's deep!

But how could I say these things?  I'm a follower of Jesus after all, I believe all the stuff I'm supposed to believe right?  The difference is what I am going to do about it.

Jen Roth with her "Pro Peace" makes the best case, and I'm gonna mix hers and my stuff here for a minute to make an aggregate case for thought, action, and nuance.  Okay, so we all, on all sides can agree that abortion is not a good thing.  Even pro-choice people can usually agree that having less abortions is better.  There's something about the psycho-physical interaction that is a woman that says that the loss of a child is a damaging event.  But pro-choice people still want the option to be there just in case, and typical pro-life people think the benefit of life to the being is more important than the emotional or other state of the woman. 

Okay, so we want less abortions, now what?  The belief is out of the way, so what should we do about it because it's the doing that is the important part is it not?  That's what I said up there, so that's what it is.

What are our options?  Some say overturn Roe vs. Wade.  Truth be told, this is not a viable option.  It's a decision that gives federal rights to people, a whole bunch of people aren't gonna let that happen.  There will be riots and if it does succeed, it will be driven by the American Church and the Church will lose the American people for generations, and probably forever.  In short, it isn't going to happen.  It's just not.  It's not a viable option, it's not a peaceful option.  Likewise, making abortions on demand and free is not going to make their numbers go down like we all want.

Now if we come to the table to form a solution in the spirit of cooperation and reason, you know, being reasonable, both sides need to make some concessions.  This is how cooperation and negotiation works.  This is how it is done.  You can take power by force and alienate your opponents, or you can meet in the middle and step by step, progress can be made.  By the way, that is my definition of progress, moving forward, getting things done piece by piece, thing by thing.  That's why I can be against the health bill because it doesn't do what we need, but for it because it takes several steps in the right direction.

First of all, we just have to abandon abstinence only education.  It doesn't work.  It simply doesn't work.  Teens are gonna have sex.  The good parents can have a good lifelong effect on that, but the schools are gonna have a really rough time getting that to be effective.

People gotta stop trashing Planned Parenthood simply for fun.  Where I grew up, Planned Parenthood handed out condoms on demand.  That was a good thing.  Who knows how many pregnancies were avoided because of that.

The rights of women to not get pregnant if they choose such must be held high.  There are a lot of women who are coerced into getting pregnant.  This creates a lot of strife and is not a peaceful option for the world.  Also, a great many women are coerced into having an abortion by their boyfriends or their families.  That's unacceptable. 



What I mean to say with all this is very important.  We're not going to get abortion illegalized, at least not in my lifetime and not peacefully.  So let us put our beliefs into action to realistically reduce the number of abortions.  Let us change militant attitudes and single issue voter status quos to affect real change.

Because it doesn't matter what you believe, it matters what you're going to do about it.

Shalom
WiredForStereo

The F Word and the R Word

Recently, I’ve undertaken to explore the differences between faith and religion. I guess the greatest reason for doing this is because I’ve ceased to identify myself with the American Christian church at large. What I’m really looking for is an intermediate term that identifies me with Jesus the Messiah, but not with the American church and Christian Conservatism, and especially not with conservatives and republicans. They do not represent me as a Christian, or represent Christ either.

There are a lot of problems as I see them with the way we use the words faith and religion and how they compare with how they were used traditionally and originally especially in a Christian context. Western thought now often espouses the idea of a spiritual life separated from a work life, a sex life, a financial life, and the overall concept of life as it is. In Jesus time and in ancient thought in the near east in general, there was no such thing as a spiritual life, there was just life. It was expected that everything you did affected and was affected by everything you were and believed. Fortunately, thinkers today are in some ways returning to this mode of thought. Today, faith and religion are used almost interchangeably, and even some try to delineate them in ever more creative vocabularial gymnastics. Contemporary preachers are now heard describing religion as a bad thing, a set of rules, while faith is what we should do if we follow Jesus.

I myself find that I want to get away from those rules and focus on a more personal faith. Faith after all is only as efficacious as the object in which it is placed. However, I do want to associate myself with the orthodox Christian faith, and am definitely interested in the history of the church. One of the ways I’ve explored this is by studying the Mennonites recently. Since the inception of their tradition, they have been committed to non-violence (well, most of them, you know how it is.) Jesus said “Blessed are the Peacemakers” so, naturally, I assumed that meant that it was a good idea not to be starting wars and killing people. Apparently, according to the Christian conservatives, I was mistaken. I’ve come to understand a completely new (to me) meaning of the Beatitudes as well. For as long as I can remember, the beatitudes have been another list of things that you should do if you want to be blessed by God. This is not the correct interpretation. If the beatitudes are a new law, then Jesus did not fulfill the law, he made a new one. This stands in the face of everything Jesus actually did, to restore the universe to its rightful order. Read the text carefully, it does not say “Blessed are you when you do such and such.” It says “Blessed are you when you are such and such.” Blessed are you, fortunate are you when you are just as you are, broken, wrecked, and longing for a better way. This interpretational difference really codifies the difference between faith and religion for me.

Recently, a friend, in a moment of startling lucidity, explained it in this way. "There IS a difference between religion and faith. Faith is something that is very personal and is understood by an individual. Religion is an attempt by man to explain faith and allow a group to understand the faith of the individual." In some cases, I’d say it is an attempt to coerce or convince a group to understand the faith of the individual or even to fall in line with a certain dogma.

One of the unfortunate things the church is doing is getting the attention of the world, but in a bad way. The ones who are getting the attention of the world lately are the unfortunately conspicuous like Pat Robertson, Joel Osteen, and James Inhofe. Ask a non believer what they think of Christians and they will say “hypocrite.” Ask a non believer what they think Christians should be doing and they’ll say “helping the poor.” One of these things Jesus preached for, the other he preached against. Lately it seems, more than anything, that the world knows Christians for only one narrow set of political doctrines, being against abortion and gay marriage. Abortion aside, it’s not just good enough to be against gay marriage, but further to try to make it illegal, to take it so far as to desire to soil the great Constitution of this Union with the requirement that marriage be between only one man and one woman. Interestingly enough, the Bible only makes that stipulation for leaders of the church. Are politicians to be leaders of the church?

I want to be noticed by the world for positive things. The Christians who get noticed for the good they do today are those like Mother Theresa who live in poverty to help the poor. They notice those like Shane Claiborne who made national news by going to Iraq and comforting the people as the bombing started. They notice teachers like Rob Bell who like the Mennonites eschew words like “heretic” for words like “love” and “community.” The world sometimes notices people like me who believe so strongly in caring for creation that they decide not to waste water by pooping in it. That kind of radical lifestyle gets people’s attention. When you dare to be different in a positive way, the world takes notice.

For a while now, I’ve been saying that I am spiritual but not religious, because I love Jesus but I’m not a republican. But I’m not only spiritual; I also want to reach out to the larger faith movement of my day. And I do mean movement, I am a progressive, I believe in moving forward and making things better. It’s not a movement if it’s not moving. And it’s not a certain church or ideology that I follow. I follow progressive radical faith movements, like Mars Hill Bible Church who are doing and thinking of things so differently. I follow movements like Cornerstone in Simi Valley who decided to give up their nice building so they could devote more money to humanitarianism.

The truth is you can have faith and religion apart from one another. You can be faithful without belonging to an organized religion. And you can certainly belong to a religion, or be religious without having the faith. It’s like James talks about with faith and works. In a very literal sense, you cannot have faith without it being unconsciously outpoured through what you do. But you can have good works without even having the slightest positive attitude about it. People hear me say this and try to pass it off as legalism, but it is so much beyond legalism. Legalism says “You have to do this or you’re not in.” Faith says “People who are in do this.” You have to make your own conclusion.

One of the things I’ve come to realize is that non believers don’t really care what happens to me after I die. Much of evangelism has included as part of its message threats of hell. The thing is, when you use fear to motivate someone, you only motivate them if they are actually afraid. How does a person fear hell when they don’t even believe it exists? Non believers don’t care what I do after I die; they care what I’m doing when I’m alive. You can’t manipulate people with the threat of hell if they aren’t threatened by hell.  All those years of studying apologetics, and I find that I have all the answers to the questions no one is asking.

The kind of Christianity I want to get away from is the kind that can’t be distinguished from other parts of the culture. Today, we have “God and Country” when in reality it’s just “God.” Jesus doesn’t want Christians who act like Muslims with their understanding of revenge. Revenge is an entirely non-biblical concept while Islam is undeniably a revenge incorporating religion. We can’t fight the “War on Terror” with guns and bombs. Muslims wreak violence, because first, they’re hungry, and second, it’s like we want them to hate us. We keep working by their system, you kill one of them, their brother vows to kill you, so you kill him too, so his wife and children vow to kill you, and you kill them so their siblings and cousins vow to kill you, so you kill them, so very quickly, you have thousands of family members making death threats and generally trying to destroy you. This is not Jesus’ system of peacemaking. Jesus’ way involves sacrifice. He says you have to feed them, pray for them, and love them like you love yourself.

According to Wikipedia, the definition of religion is: “A religion is a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a supernatural agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.” The definition I was taught in World Religions class was this: “Religion is the belief that there is an unseen order, and our good as a people lies in harmoniously adjusting ourselves thereto.” I like the second definition just a little better because you can interpret it to include atheism as well. For atheists, the unseen order can be naturalism, or entropy, or simply lack of an unseen order, and our good as a people, or as individuals would lie in adjusting ourselves to that understanding. At any rate, a religion does not require actual belief in any god, or even following a specific set of guidelines. And this is where religion meets with philosophy, but that’s a discussion for a different day.

Individually, the concept of faith really works well in the Christian context, even among conservatives, and I believe that individual people are really rather good in the world. When we all have to work as individual agents, having only one to a team, peace tends to reign because one is less likely to make waves with few allies. On the other hand, you rarely see large groups of people storming around fixing things. You see large groups of people roaming around and destroying things. Individually, people are nice, generally friendly and sane. Corporately, humanity is a bunch of bastard coated bastards sprinkled with bastard and with a bastard filling. This is where faith meets religion. This is where the practices of the individual meet the practices of the group.

In this study and the several weeks of research I’ve undertaken to gather ideas, the one aspect of faith and religion that I have grabbed hold of is the discipline. Spiritual disciplines are important to one’s wellbeing. And I’m not just talking about reading the Bible and praying, I’m also talking about practicing silence, purity, and moderation. It’s not just about not doing the don’ts; it’s really about doing the dos. Remember, Jesus had disciples, and a disciple, as you may know is one who comes under the discipline of another. However, the word disciple is used in many contexts I’m not willing to adhere to as well, so I’m going to go with something a little more complex. From now on, under religious affiliation, I’m going to use the term “Under the discipline of Jesus of Nazareth.” I want to fully embrace the faith, but also the movement, the man, the messiah, the message and the commission.

WiredForStereo

Edible Bibles.

Treehugger (treehugger.com) just posted an article about a church that has sent 600 solar powered audio Bibles to Haiti.

You might think "Solar powered audio Bibles, great idea, and green too." But remember, Haiti just had a massive earthquake and what people need right now is food, shelter, and medical care.

This particular operation was done very poorly if the secular environmentalists are picking up on it. Ask a non-believer what they would expect of a true Christian and it'd be my bet that they'd expect us to help the poor and to shine in terrible situations like the one in Haiti. Ask a non-believer what they see in the Christians they see before them now and you'll get some variation of "self-righteous" which is what they see when they hear that six hundred solar powered audio Bibles are being sent to a country where 100,000 people are dead and more are dying every day due to injuries.

My friend Mark and I came up with a new take on an old proverb. Remember "Give a man a fish and you'll feed him for a day, teach him to fish and you'll feed him for a lifetime." Mark and I added this to that same proverb: "But while you're teaching him, give him some fish because he's hungry." Sure, this directly applies to food, but what about the spiritual applications? You cannot clearly communicate the gospel to someone who is dying of starvation or gangrene. You must bring a state of healing to the body before someone will accept healing of the mind, and more importantly, the two are not just sequential, but interconnected.

If you are going to send Bibles to a disaster area, send food FIRST! If people tear through a pallet of food and find a few Bibles in it, when they are done eating, they might listen to the Bibles. If they tear through a pallet of Bibles, and find no food, they're likely to be angry. The Bibles may go to waste.

How we interact with the world is almost as important as the message we bring to them. If we do not communicate the message in a way that people will be willing to listen to, the message will not be heard.

There's a reason non-believers think so poorly of us, it's because we're doing a poor job.
WiredForStereo

Public Displays of Christianity

Traveling around the country as I recently did, you get to see a lot of what I like to call public displays of Christianity. These include anything from street preachers to tee shirts to billboards and even conspicuous church buildings themselves. My thesis for this essay is that these conspicuous displays of religion, specifically Christianity, are a detriment to the church as a whole and are a sign of the inner rot of the American church specifically. Herein and henceforth, "church" is the body of followers of Jesus Christ. It's not the building they do business in.

If you travel through Texas on I-40, you can't miss it. Apparently it's the biggest cross in the northern hemisphere or something like that. I just checked the website, apparently it's the western hemisphere. Anyway, it's a big dang cross and it appears to be clad in some sort of metal roofing. While I do believe in the powers of metal roofing (can't beat the warranty) I cannot for the life of me figure out of what use this metal behemoth is. I'm sure it's a great tourist attraction for the religiously aware, but is this thing really gathering in the believers?

Second on this list is those little plastic chrome fish that people stick to the back to their cars. From what I'm told these are a way to tell others around you that if you are a jackass in traffic, they should blame God. "Thanks alot God for creating this jackass!!!" On second thought, whatever works as long as they are talking to God. If you are going with a Christian themed bumper sticker, I suggest "I found Jesus, he's in the trunk."

Next is those lit bulletin boards in front of churches. I'm not sure I have ever seen one that had anything useful on it besides the meeting times. Now I'm a biblically literate dude, and if I see the phrase "Seek his face" I know what it means, but to the average person driving down the street, what the eff does that mean? Bulletin boards are there to show how culturally irrelevant the church is.

Which leads me to my next bit of PDC, which is the church building itself. Many of these are rather small, house sized and roofed and sided as such and besides the fact that such a building is an obvious sign that no one wants to attend there, I have no problem with these. It's the gaudy megachurches that I can't stand. I won't name any names, yes I will, ahem, Church at Pinnacle Hills. How many millions did you spend on those giant effing crosses in the front yard? Yes, I have sound system envy, but your pastor is BORING!!! Another good one is the Crystal Cathedral. I feel like walking in and yelling "Is Jesus in here? No? Okay, I'll look somewhere else." What do these things say to non-believers? It says to me that they care more about your money than your soul. The only good church building is one you can't tell it's a church.

Finally, I can't handle those misguided billboards that say things like "you're going to hell" (paraphrased) in King James English. Think about what the thing is really saying. "I'm not only a bigot, but I'm also completely out of touch with the world." My wife says that from time to time she sees a billboard that uplifts her, but I must have missed all of those. Then there's the classic "The Pope is the Anti-Christ." This is a really fun one that not only shows the bigotry and out of touch that I mentioned before, but also a complete lack of understanding of the Bible. Thanks for that one Historic Seventh-Day Adventists (and whoever else.)

My whole point here is that what we do on the outside shows what's on the inside and as far as I can tell we as a group are bastard coated bastards with a bastard filling. And the problem with that is we are not willing to admit it. That's why nearly every non-christian confronted with the word "christian" in a word association quiz will come up with some variation of "self-righteous." That cannot remain for this thing to work. This is way to big for me to fix, I'm just saying that it's a sign.

WiredForStereo

Which Christian Nation?

I've been trying to explain to people why the United States is not a Christian nation. My focus in doing this is trying to convince people that many of the main figures of the Founding Fathers were not Christians, or not Evangelical Christians, or at least not the kind of Christians we have today. We do have wonderful Christian figures who have done great things throughout history such as William Wilberforce, but our country is no more a Christian nation than if you walk into a garage you are a Volkswagen.

In that vein, I found some quotations from our founding fathers and I did some research to check their validity. First is Thomas Jefferson. For the uninitiated, he actually wanted to see the end of the Christian faith and favored more of a universal moral gospel.

"Christianity is the most perverted system that ever shone on man." Thomas Jefferson

This quotation is a paraphrase of the original here (emphasis mine):

"...those who live by mystery & charlatanerie, fearing you would render them useless by simplifying the Christian philosophy, the most sublime & benevolent, but most perverted system that ever shone on man, endeavored to crush your well earnt, & well deserved fame." - Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Priestley, Washington, 21 March 1801

“Religions are all alike -- founded upon fables and mythologies”
“The Christian God is a being of terrific character - cruel, vindictive, capricious, and unjust”

Also: "But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." Thomas Jefferson

Next Ben Franklin. He was really a Deist, known by some as a champion of generic religion, and claimed by several denominations, he did not affirm some extremely vital tenets of faith in Jesus such as: salvation, hell, Jesus Christ’s divinity, and he believed in the goodness of man.

"The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason." Benjamin Franklin

And Finally John Adams.
“This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it”
"The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion." John Adams (To be perfectly fair, this one is also credited to George Washington, so it may be one or both.)

The overriding principle here is that even if each and every one of the founders were born again evangelical Christians, the goals of the US as a country and the principles of the American Dream do not mesh with true Christian principles. We are promised "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," and all these "freedoms" bandied about by the politicos of today. The Bible doesn't promise us any "freedoms." The Bible promises us death, imprisonment, and torture. So as you can see, our country was not founded solely on Christian principles and more importantly, it is not a Christian nation. We even have separation of church and state, something that not even Switzerland has. Our country was founded as a nation where there is freedom of religion, which may be somewhat of a Christian ideal, but Christianity functions best under persecution. But, freedom of religion does not equal Christian Nation. Nor is there anything in there about freedom from taxes, liberals, homosexuals, or Asian automobiles.

What has been done in the name of being a Christian nation by a self proclaimed born-again president has done incalculable damage not only to our country, but especially to the true faith of Jesus Christ. Wars started in the name of a god are the kind of thing done in Islam, not in true Christianity. Our politicians need not soil the name of God by proclaiming publicly that attacking a sovereign nation without just cause is "the will of God" because it is no such thing.

Please do some research. Faith's only worth is found in the object toward which it is directed. Faith in politicians who tell you what you want to hear is useless.

WiredForStereo

Rush Limbaugh: "Put Yourself First."

There is a common idea among conservatives and capitalists and thus the idea has crept into American Christianity as well. This is a purely capitalist idea, and it says that greed is good because it allows people to make money and by making money the world is made right and we get all sorts of good stuff from it. They say that without greed we wouldn't have all the wonderful things we have today because no one would have had the impetus to go out there and do something. Thus we have all such things as cars and medicine and farms and other helpful and moneymaking enterprises.

So Limbaugh goes on this big rant where he says that you must put yourself first. If not, how would you have any money to give to charities and such (which he calls bloodsuckers by the way.) Greed is good, self interest is good, if you don't put yourself first, you cant help anyone else.

This is profoundly wrong and un-Jesus-like. This is why I am still out here telling Christians that they need to get away from conservatives. I'm not going to tell Christians to get away from liberals because it doesn't seem to be that big of a problem. But it is a problem on the conservative side. If Christians keep being lured in by the conservatives, they will indoctrinate them with this purely capitalist nonsense. I hear Christians I know already going this way. See the post below about taxes.

You see, Jesus was all about putting others first. Washing the disciples feet was the biggest example because he put himself in the place of a slave, the lowest there was. There is no rule that says that greed drives charity, it is the opposite in fact. The evidence of that is that this very day, lower income people give a greater percentage of their money to charity than upper income people. Look at Paul in the Bible, his main concern was preaching the Gospel, and he did that partly by working, making tents, but his occupation barely receives a mention. Why? Because his focus was spreading the Gospel, putting the work of Jesus and others before himself. Mother Theresa is another excellent example. She lived in poverty and by putting others ahead of herself, drew all sorts of money and aid and expanded her work far beyond what it would have been had she gotten rich and started a charity.

Greed is not good. Putting yourself first in order to help others is a ridiculous unchristian notion. It's pure nonsense, just like lowering taxes on the rich to create more jobs and more tax revenue. The world just doesn't work that way, and Christians must stop listening to people who lead them away from Jesus by pandering to their baser instincts. Greed is a sin, the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Jesus and Paul said to put others before yourself, to act as though others were better than you. Be filled with humility and peace.

The facts show that the more you have, the more stingy you will be with it. I'm not telling you that you can't be rich or that you shouldn't try to gain wealth. If you have the opportunity, work hard at every thing you do and make a bunch of money. But the first fruits belong to God. His work is paramount. If you are a follower of Jesus, your goal in life should be to do his work. Or just as good, fund his work. If your goal is to get rich or die tryin', then you're not a follower of Jesus because to follow Jesus, you go where he went and that's not where he went.

Please, don't be a conservative, don't be a capitalist, don't be a republican, be a Christian. Be a follower of Jesus. Do like Jesus did, the pharisees essentially asked, "are you with Hillel (liberal) or Shammai (conservative)?" Jesus said neither, it was all about his father in heaven.

WiredForStereo

WWJT? Who Would Jesus Torture?

A news story for you...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The more often Americans go to church, the more likely they are to support the torture of suspected terrorists, according to a new survey.

The Washington Region Religious Campaign Against Torture rallied on Capitol Hill in March 2008.

More than half of people who attend services at least once a week -- 54 percent -- said the use of torture against suspected terrorists is "often" or "sometimes" justified. Only 42 percent of people who "seldom or never" go to services agreed, according to the analysis released Wednesday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

White evangelical Protestants were the religious group most likely to say torture is often or sometimes justified -- more than six in 10 supported it. People unaffiliated with any religious organization were least likely to back it. Only four in 10 of them did.

The analysis is based on a Pew Research Center survey of 742 American adults conducted April 14-21. It did not include analysis of groups other than white evangelicals, white non-Hispanic Catholics, white mainline Protestants and the religiously unaffiliated, because the sample size was too small.

The president of the National Association of Evangelicals, Leith Anderson, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The survey asked: "Do you think the use of torture against suspected terrorists in order to gain important information can often be justified, sometimes be justified, rarely be justified, or never be justified?"

Roughly half of all respondents -- 49 percent -- said it is often or sometimes justified. A quarter said it never is.

The religious group most likely to say torture is never justified was Protestant denominations -- such as Episcopalians, Lutherans and Presbyterians -- categorized as "mainline" Protestants, in contrast to evangelicals. Just over three in 10 of them said torture is never justified. A quarter of the religiously unaffiliated said the same, compared with two in 10 white non-Hispanic Catholics and one in eight evangelicals.

______________________________

There is no way I can pass this one up. This is the kind of thing that makes me disgusted at American Christians for those of you who want to know. You really want to know why I don't group myself in with the rest of the Christians, this is why. I'm not saying the sentiment resounds in my church, but it would be really unfortunate if only one in 8 of the people I know thought torture was never justified. I guess that one is me. There, now I'm different.

I mean is this really a discussion we need to have? I'm gonna have to go back to Jesus on this one, you got my hands tied behind my back. What was that whole thing about doing to others what you'd have them do to you? Yeah, I think that was the way it went. But now American Christians are adopting more of a "do to others what you think they'd do to you" sort of philosophy. I'd definitely say, that's not what Jesus had in mind.

And you know, the argument that it would save lives is completely null because that's what morals are about. You don't ruin lives to save lives. Ethics and morals are the things you do when no one else is looking, and now everybody is looking and Christians are saying "hey, just dip his head under the water for a while, make him think he's drowning, and he'll tell us where the bomb is." Well, if that's the way it's gonna be, you can officially count me out of the whole "Christian" thing because it's done. The movement is over. They tell us from the pulpit that we are supposed to be different and that people will want what we have, but I'll tell you right now, I don't want what we have. It is morally repugnant to me.

I want what Jesus left us with, the love your neighbor stuff, the stuff that American Christians now think only applies to Americans. One in eight. It's just sad. Do you want to know where I draw the line when I don't think people are really followers of Jesus? When 7 in 8 evangelical Christians think that torture is ok at least some of the time.

At what point do you go to your boss and say "I can't lie to our customers any more."? At what point do you say "This is wrong and against company policy and we shouldn't be doing it." These are ethical decisions. One thing I regret is that I never said these things to my boss when I worked at Total Document Solutions. I've let it go for this long, and now it's out. The same thing goes for the American Church. This is wrong. Torture is wrong. You've sold your soul to a political party, when it didn't belong to you to begin with.

Read your bible, hypocrites. And lets be perfectly clear what a hypocrite is. "Hypocrisy, Noun. The claim, pretense, or false representation of holding beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not actually posses." If you say you are a follower of Jesus and you think torture is even sometimes okay, you are a hypocrite. It's that simple. You are a liar, and you are doing a horrifically poor job of representing your Great God and Savior, Jesus the Messiah. This is not an issue like taxes where your beliefs on the subject don't really matter in the spiritual realm. If you think it is ok to harm a human being to get information, you are a bogus christian.

It is just sad that more atheists, humanists, secularists, and abortionists would say that torture is not ok than Evangelical Christians. That makes me sad. It really grieves my heart. So, that being said, I'm deciding to not be one anymore. I am only a follower of Jesus Christ, not a "Christian," the word was originally an insult anyway. I am a Jesus Freak. He is king, his word rules, and living and walking in his footsteps are the status symbol of choice for his followers.

I have found that the quickest way to win any argument with a "Christian" is to quote Jesus. And boy do I like being right.

WiredForStereo

Why Don’t We Make a Difference?

I was having a conversation the other night with a Honduras mission trip alum at Perspectives and he was asking a very good question. The teacher that night was Bobby Gupta and he was kind of giving us a Christian pep talk. He was telling us how Evangelical Christianity is growing faster than any other religion and how many churches had been planted and how many people were coming to believe the gospel. These are very good things to know, it's nice to know that the movement you belong to is vibrant and growing, but my friend was asking the question "why don't we make a difference?" Dr. Gupta was kind of addressing this question, but not really and my friend really wanted to know where the meat was. Pep talks are good I said, but it's like a battle. We can get the soldiers really fired up and encouraged, but if you don't give them weapons, they're gonna lose the battle.

Then it hit me. In one of my great moments of bullcraptitude I conjured a truly profound thought. I said "We live in a culture where everyone is either spiritual but not religious or religious but not spiritual." The difference is one of those groups will readily admit it, the other one wont.

Let us explore. On one hand are the religious, the typical white Anglo Saxon protestant Christian conservative republican. On the other hand you have the typically non-religious educated yuppie liberal who still believes in some form of spirituality whether it be an eastern philosophy or Crossing Over with John Edward. Yes I know there are other hands here, but keep with me.

Why are the Christians not making a difference in this country? A recent event speaks to this, at least in my mind. A few days ago, thousands of people lined up at various ponds and lakes and threw tea bags in the water. They were protesting taxes, all good and fine, but so many of them had signs protesting taxes in God's name. I believe the when Jesus was asked about whether or not to pay taxes, he said "Give to Caesar that which is Caesar's." He didn't say "F*** Caesar, don't give that m0~#&* f@(&#$ a g@& d@!* thing!"

Why aren't we fighting poverty? Why aren't we caring for unwed mothers? Why aren't we feeding the hungry? These are all things that Jesus explicitly wanted us to do, he never said anything about fighting taxes. Forget the blessed money; if Jesus wants you to have money, there isn't a tax on earth that can take it away from you. These are the things this country needs. In other countries they need clean water to drink before you can tell them about the gospel, they need food in their bellies before they can listen to stories about Jesus. In this country, we have food, we have water, what people need is for someone to care about them, to care for them, to love them.

That's why American Christians don't make a difference, because the only difference between them and the guy in the car next to them in traffic is that they go to church on Sunday or Saturday or they have a fish with no legs on the back of the car. The reason why American Christians don't make a difference is because there is no difference. There just is no difference.

I'm not trying to float my own boat, but those of you who know me, you know, there is a difference and it's not the difference you'd expect. There is a difference because I choose to be more like them than I do you. And believe me, I know, you don't take all that kindly to it, and I am willing to bear that burden. But I will live what I believe, because I'm not religious in that I'm not a republican, but I am spiritual because I am a Jesus Freak. Christianity is not a religion, you don't just do and believe stuff and are a Christian, signing a piece of paper doesn't make it so and answering an alter call has no effect.

You meet Jesus. And when you meet Jesus you are a Christian. You have to meet Jesus.

WiredForStereo

Election Aftermath

I'm going to guide this post with things I've actually heard people say, mostly people I know personally. I'll start with the election itself. I was mentioning how it seemed that it was always the more disadvantaged people, inner city and the like, who where always getting the short end of the stick as far as standing in line to vote goes. The person I was talking to actually said that maybe it's because the democrats are too stupid to figure things out. Now this is the type of thing that this whole post will be about. People who claim to be Christians are trashing people not "like them."

Facebook was the site Tuesday night for people to flame on. Understand that virtually every friend I have on Facebook is a Christian and most attend my church.

The following are Facebook status updates from people on my friend list. Each and every one of these people claims to be a Christian as far as I know, and most attend my church. Spelling is uncorrected from the original.

hopes that the majority of America has some sort of inteligence and voted for McCain.

is braceing herself for America's downfall.

OH MY FREAKIN FACE. I pray that Obama gets NOTHING done as president. Wow, I kinda want to hurl now.

thinks that the outcome of the election is Dumb!!!!!

is very excited about the christian faith right now. apparently i'm going to hell because i like obama... interesting and unfortunate.

is grieving for America...she (America!!) desired "change" rather than mercy and godliness. We have opened a dangerous door.

is hopeful that our new president will help bring about some much-needed change.

will just have to trust GOD through all this.

is hoping that people will stop being stupid about the election. yes, obama won. glory to God we live in a nation that can pick its leaders. glory to God.

is SCREW OBAMA!.

is why does everyone think i like obama???.......i freaking don't! obama can eat my tots.

is curious and optimistic about where our new president's rhetoric actually meets the road...

can see the headlines now "Obama bans Amish People".

I want you to go back in your mind to all the stump speeches and especially the concession and acceptance speeches Tuesday night. Tell me, at which party's events was there consistent booing and jeering? At which events were there things shouted like "kill him" and the like? Which party currently lays claim to the Evangelical Christian vote?

If I weren't such a follower of Jesus, I'd stop calling myself a Christian. It is one thing to disagree with someone, even vehemently so, but boos, insults, and jeers are inappropriate for anyone, much less a Christian. There is no excuse for this. How are we supposed to live for the world to see Jesus if we respect our opposition less than Jesus would? How are we supposed to stand out as examples of righteousness if the only difference between us and them is that we are more spiteful, that our political rallies are dens of anger and vitriol? This election cycle has served to do nothing if not push me further from the right.

One of my extended family members spews bigoted nonsense about Obama's muslim connection (you know what I mean.)

A University of Arkansas poll showed that 20% of Arkansans believed Obama is a Muslim, and a Texas poll showed that number at 23%.

I never supported Obama, I thought he was the best guy for the job, if not the only guy I didn't want to not have the job. I did vote for him, though. I defended him against lies as I would have done if for instance someone accused McCain of having an interracial love child like they did in 2000. But I didn't see many lies spread about McCain. My goal is truth, I don't sign on to the movement of anyone but Jesus. In four years, I'll vote for the best guy for the job, not Obama, unless he ends up being the best guy for the job at that time. Just like this time, I'll vote for the guy who I think best represents my views.

But again, it's the stuff done and said by people claiming to be Christians that bugs me, I mean really bugs me. If you have a conscious at all, you have got to step back and look at what went on this election cycle. Take a step back and look at the issues Jesus cared about. I hear all the time that the moral issues are abortion and gay marriage. Jesus never mentioned them. I could care less who marries who. Why would I vote for a candidate or law wishing to ban gay marriage when I believe that marriage is between you and God, not the law. Why would I seek to interject the government into something that belongs to God? And with abortion, 75% of women that have abortions do it because they don't think they can afford a child. So why don't we solve that problem instead of trying to make the result illegal? Jim Wallis always says, why do we keep swatting the mosquitoes instead of draining the swamp? How long are we going to keep pulling bodies from the river before we go upstream and find out who's throwing them in?

What did Jesus care about? He mentioned the poor an awful lot. And what sorts of things help the poor: a progressive tax rate, health insurance, tax breaks for people who work (I mean physically) for their money, higher minimum wage, environmental controls, and faith based initiatives. That's why I voted for Barack Obama, because he says he represents the people Jesus cared about, and he has a record to prove it.

You can disagree with me if you want, but please, don't call me or anyone else names or spew insults, it's not what Jesus would do.
WiredForStereo