Great thoughts. Go have an awesome time with your son this weekend.

“But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” - I Timothy 5:8

I have worked in full-time ministry in some form or fashion since the late 90’s, and after the last bout of church work, I’ve resolved myself to caring for my family first. God doesn’t need my gifts, talents, money, time, or whatever if I can’t TAKE CARE OF THE FIRST MINISTRY THAT HE GAVE ME. We can’t ever seem to find the one thing we all need: balance. Part of our broken nature is our imbalance, our desire to appease our guilt with acts of service, our desire to earn our way into the Father’s heart.

You are right on the money.

Let me balance this with one thought, though. The biggest responsibility of a Christian is at home with their family. I have been in churches where so much pressure was put on people to be a part of every program, that the family relationships were neglected. Yes, they were excellent programs. Yes, the youth group was cleaning the houses of the elderly, yes there were fund raisers for charity. However, nobody can participate in all of it and certainly not at the expense of their families. All this and people wonder why so many children of the most active members of the church turn goth or emo, get caught in drug and alcohol abuse, and are sexually promiscuous. The fact is, too often they end up almost as neglected as the children of the drug addict in the ghetto. Regardless of how much you’ve accomplished to fill the needs of the world, having such a breakdown in relationships in your own home can hardly be what God had in mind. There is a reason for what Paul said in 1 Timothy 3:12 “A deacon must be the husband of but one wife and must manage his children and his household well.” (NIV)

Anyway, like I said, excellent thoughts, just wanted to add one more thing.

Really, this isn’t anything unusual. Remember John Brown was a religious zealot who set out to free the slaves, Harriett Tubman was known as “Moses”, Martin Luther King drew on the power of the religious community to start his fight against prejudice. Both sides of the civil war sang “Battle Hymn of the Republic” with different words.

I think what’s interesting over time is how the conservatives pitched Christian values - but they’re always along culture lines. When religious leaders first got into bed with the GOP, it wasn’t over abortion - it was because they didn’t want to pay taxes on church owned businesses in Florida (see the book “Thy Kingdom Come” by Balmer). Later it was tied into abortion and gay issues.

I’ve seen Obama doing something of the same thing - talking about his faith, but instead of rallying it towards war a la Bush/Constantine, he’s rallying it into his projects: health care, jobs for the poor, etc.

I’ll be honest - I’m more of an Obama type - I think that Christianity should be focused on the things that Jesus actually talked about (feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, healing the sick), instead of the stuff he didn’t ever refer to (abortion and gay rights). I’m certainly not a Calvinist and think that the rich are so because they’re righteous.

But no matter which side you’re on, it’s pretty clear that Bush and Co have used religious voters to their advantage. Look at 2004, and how many states had gay marriage amendments on the ballot. That’s probably the one thing that gave Bush the extra 2-3% of the popular vote he needed to get over the top - without them, we’d be talking about President Kerry, and Obama would just be an interesting senator that few had heard of.

My gripe, is how leaders of the Christian Right try to raise that banner on behalf of candidates. Is it so much Carl and his cronies, or is it pat robertson and the like that decide who they want to prop up, and more importantly, who they want to squash down in the process, so they can further their own political agendas to the nation?

Why is it that we, as Christians, seem to fear having someone in office that is less than Godly? Why is it that we view the extent of our duties as followers of Christ to simply elect “christian” leaders so our lives will look all pretty? Heck, where did the belief come from that if we have Christian leaders, even sincere ones, that our lives would be better?

Watching the insane Dr. Dobson (whom I’ve never been a critic of in the past) rant on how Obama has criticized the bible and made light of it, when he himself is taking Obama out of context. Now, I’m not a supporter of Obama, but I’m certainly no supporter of the religious leaders that try to squash him, simply because of their fear of having a man that they believe is secretly a muslim become the leader of the free world?

Of course, we all know that Obama isn’t a Muslim. They know it. Obama knows it, and we know it. But that doesn’t stop them from using slight of lips in order to put just enough fear in us.

All along, we’ve forgotten that no matter who God sovereignly places within the presidency, that GOD is the ruler of the universe. Therefore making it somewhat insignificant who we vote for, except where we become a part of God simply carrying out His plan perfectly.

Remember that God sovereignly placed kings over Israel throughout it’s history (biblical history, that is). And many, if not all, of those kings were men who did not fear God. But yet, God’s plan was carried out with perfection.

So I’m sick of being manipulated by religious leadership. By presidents that play on my faith in Christ.

Show me a man who would feed the poor, dine with sinners, and lead with humility. I’ll vote for that guy. And I promise you that Mike Huckabee isn’t the man I’m thinking of here.

Cheers,

Pedro el Stinko

The prevailing schism seems to be between those who believe there is an answer to the meaning of life and those who have resigned that there is not. One camp reasons a case for “optimism” while the other emotionally pleads “hope”. All have reason to despair and each has a unique confidence in something.

The belief that there is more or less to life has been confidently carved with your tool of choice.

So what does all this meta-physical jibba-jabba have to do with current events. Well, basically what tools do have to question the Source that He did not give you. All you can do be be in “awe” of the “sum” of His work. We live and die for this Glory in perfect justice, even though your imprefect perception can not fathom it.

It would be like an ant objecting to what is going on in the UN.