Got this card today:
It made me laugh
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Abortion
Had some interesting conversations about the abortion issue lately, and none specifically about the politics of it. I’ve been a life begins at conception kind of guy for as long as I remember and don’t really believe abortion should ever happen with the possible exception of saving the mother’s life.
Yet I have good Christian friends who disagree with me. Some who think abortion should at least always be legal and others who find it morally acceptable until the egg implants in the uterus. I also have friends whose ideas fall in other places within the debate.
I have been left in a fog after these conversations. I’m confused about my beliefs: where are the source of my beliefs, why do I feel so passionately about them, and do I have any room for change? I’m confused about what role the church should play in these discussions: do we demand a certain belief in practice, do we leave room for honest discussion on the issues, and can we agree to disagree on such a difficult issue? I’m confused about why we even have the discussion: Are we trying to make something morally acceptable that is truly not just because it makes our lives easier by being able to control our ability to reproduce in such a direct way.
Do I try to speak prophetically against abortion from conception even though I know I will be speaking to people who honestly disagree with me? Or do I invite discussion on the issue knowing full well that through the discussion many people may take the opposing viewpoint from mine.
Abortion is such a difficult issue. It is so complex. For many it is so personal. I wish I knew how to handle it.
Yet I have good Christian friends who disagree with me. Some who think abortion should at least always be legal and others who find it morally acceptable until the egg implants in the uterus. I also have friends whose ideas fall in other places within the debate.
I have been left in a fog after these conversations. I’m confused about my beliefs: where are the source of my beliefs, why do I feel so passionately about them, and do I have any room for change? I’m confused about what role the church should play in these discussions: do we demand a certain belief in practice, do we leave room for honest discussion on the issues, and can we agree to disagree on such a difficult issue? I’m confused about why we even have the discussion: Are we trying to make something morally acceptable that is truly not just because it makes our lives easier by being able to control our ability to reproduce in such a direct way.
Do I try to speak prophetically against abortion from conception even though I know I will be speaking to people who honestly disagree with me? Or do I invite discussion on the issue knowing full well that through the discussion many people may take the opposing viewpoint from mine.
Abortion is such a difficult issue. It is so complex. For many it is so personal. I wish I knew how to handle it.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Where do we place our hope?
I just finished replying to the second email I received in the past week that tries to make you worry that Barack Obama is possibly a radical Muslim. It talks about the Muslim influence in his life, how he got sworn in using the Koran, and how he doesn’t say the pledge of allegiance. Almost all of the email is completely false including the part that says snopes.com backs it all up.
It isn’t the first time I’ve gotten this kind of email. I remember getting them about Clinton, Gore, and Kerry. What I really hate is how they are most likely created by Christians and are passed around by Christians (to be fair, both people who sent me the email were doing it for research purposes because they know I like Obama and they wanted to know if the stuff was true or not.) The real reasons these emails get created and passed around is that we want them to be discredited so that the candidate we support will be elected.
And we have good reasons why we want our candidate to get elected. We think they are the Christian candidate and can lead our country back to where it should be at. Thus, we gossip and lie (very non-Christian things to do) because we want a Christian to be elected because we think it will help the cause of Christ in this country and around the world to have a Christian (narrowly defined) living in the White House. By acting in ways that betray Christ to get a politician elected we ultimately show where our hope lies and it is not in Christ.
Even though we say we are doing what we are doing for Christ, we indeed show that we don’t really have the trust and faith in Christ that we really want our country to have. As Christians we should support who we think would be the best president for our country, but with a healthy dose of reality that will tell us that they can’t fix America. There is only one King and we should never betray Him, even if we say we are only betraying Him to help Him.
While I’m preaching, though mostly to the choir, I should point out how hard this is for me. I really don’t like Hillary Clinton all that much. I choose not to hear her speak or read articles that I know will cast her in a positive light. Why? When I really think about I think it is because I want my negative views about her reinforced and I don’t want to hear anything good about her because then it will be harder to hate her. Isn’t part of our job as Christians to see the good in people (the image of God) and honor that which of it we see and not to magnify the bad we see in them? We like to make people worse than they are so that it will be easier to do mean things to them.
This is going to be hard for me, but this election year, I am going to try my hardest to see the best in every candidate, and not try to destroy any of them. Does that mean I won’t critique their policies or leadership abilities? No. But it does mean I will value them as the beloved of my Creator and honor them because they are bearers of His image.
It isn’t the first time I’ve gotten this kind of email. I remember getting them about Clinton, Gore, and Kerry. What I really hate is how they are most likely created by Christians and are passed around by Christians (to be fair, both people who sent me the email were doing it for research purposes because they know I like Obama and they wanted to know if the stuff was true or not.) The real reasons these emails get created and passed around is that we want them to be discredited so that the candidate we support will be elected.
And we have good reasons why we want our candidate to get elected. We think they are the Christian candidate and can lead our country back to where it should be at. Thus, we gossip and lie (very non-Christian things to do) because we want a Christian to be elected because we think it will help the cause of Christ in this country and around the world to have a Christian (narrowly defined) living in the White House. By acting in ways that betray Christ to get a politician elected we ultimately show where our hope lies and it is not in Christ.
Even though we say we are doing what we are doing for Christ, we indeed show that we don’t really have the trust and faith in Christ that we really want our country to have. As Christians we should support who we think would be the best president for our country, but with a healthy dose of reality that will tell us that they can’t fix America. There is only one King and we should never betray Him, even if we say we are only betraying Him to help Him.
While I’m preaching, though mostly to the choir, I should point out how hard this is for me. I really don’t like Hillary Clinton all that much. I choose not to hear her speak or read articles that I know will cast her in a positive light. Why? When I really think about I think it is because I want my negative views about her reinforced and I don’t want to hear anything good about her because then it will be harder to hate her. Isn’t part of our job as Christians to see the good in people (the image of God) and honor that which of it we see and not to magnify the bad we see in them? We like to make people worse than they are so that it will be easier to do mean things to them.
This is going to be hard for me, but this election year, I am going to try my hardest to see the best in every candidate, and not try to destroy any of them. Does that mean I won’t critique their policies or leadership abilities? No. But it does mean I will value them as the beloved of my Creator and honor them because they are bearers of His image.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Preschool
Mandy and I started looking at preschools today for Lucy. She'll be three this summer so she could start next fall if we choose. The whole thought of her going to school for 2 1/2 hours day, four days a week makes me want to puke. She's so small and inocent. She's my little girl and I don't know if I could ever let her go to school.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Oh my goodness!
If you want to read a much better reason to vote for Obama check out this guys blog. He says what I wanted to say in my post a few down.
All aboard the Obama train! Get on now cause it ain't gonna be stopping any time soon!
All aboard the Obama train! Get on now cause it ain't gonna be stopping any time soon!
Paid Pastors?
In theory I agree with not having a full time paid pastor. I think having someone who is paid to do church keeps others from living out their full potential to be the church. Where I struggle is in the reality that most all of us do work full time jobs and can’t be there to be fulfill the pastor role during the day when someone needs a pastor in our church or in our neighborhood. I think our church is made up of tons of pastors, but none are available throughout the day to meet the needs that may or may not come up while everyone else is at work.
I almost wonder if it is a cultural thing because we are so stinking busy as a culture that we need to pay someone to be pastor while we are unavailable. Parts of me say we need to be prophetic in challenging the culture of busyness, but other parts of me say we need to be contextualizing the Gospel. Then on top of that who are we going to be prophetic to? Cause I’m not sure how we can tell people to stop being busy working two jobs when one job (in our Walmart world) doesn’t pay nearly enough for a family to survive, even without many luxuries.
On the other hand maybe we could find a new way of living together where we share more, work together more, and learn to be less busy together more. Then maybe some of these paid pastor questions would get a little bit clearer.
I almost wonder if it is a cultural thing because we are so stinking busy as a culture that we need to pay someone to be pastor while we are unavailable. Parts of me say we need to be prophetic in challenging the culture of busyness, but other parts of me say we need to be contextualizing the Gospel. Then on top of that who are we going to be prophetic to? Cause I’m not sure how we can tell people to stop being busy working two jobs when one job (in our Walmart world) doesn’t pay nearly enough for a family to survive, even without many luxuries.
On the other hand maybe we could find a new way of living together where we share more, work together more, and learn to be less busy together more. Then maybe some of these paid pastor questions would get a little bit clearer.
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
Why I support Barack Obama
Let me first say that I don’t put my hope in Obama or our political system. My hope is in God in all things, well at least I try to put my home in God in all things. I just think Obama offers the best hope in a broken system.
Let me then tell you some of my history. My dad was and always will be a politician at heart. He was a State Representative in Ohio for 3 term and held various other local offices while I was growing up in their household. He still helps candidates he believes in get elected to local offices through ingenious grassroots campaigning. My dad knows what he is doing on the local office and I mean that. If you ever want to get elected at the local level you need to give him a call.
Because I was raised in that environment I not only have a deep interest in politics, but also a deep hatred of it. I think my dad was the best politician I ever met and I wouldn’t trade the experiences I had because of it for the world. But I also saw the evil side of it up close. I saw how negative campaigning not only hurts the candidate, but also hurts their kids. Calling a candidate “Tax Man Peterson” becomes really personal to the candidates fifth grade son. Watching your dad lose party support and money, in other words getting abandoned by them, because he votes his conscience on one vote makes one to be very cynical about the whole process. Politics is dirtier than dirt and I saw it first hand.
So why do I like Obama? He seems to be above so much about what I hate. Yes, he is critical of his opponents at times, but more often than naught he talks about what he is for and not what he is against. He is trying hard to speak to all people, not just Democrats. I voted Republican in the last two elections (I’m sorry) so you know some of the hot button issues I believe in. But to be honest he probably doesn’t even agree with me exactly on those issue, but I think he hears me (or people like me) on those issues and will somehow have the ability to bring us together to figure stuff out.
What I hated about the Bill Clinton years (and this is not a slam on Hillary) is that there was always so much divisiveness between the parties when he was president. And then these last eight years with W there has been nothing but divisiveness between the parties. All they do is fight with each other because they represent their power bases on the far extremes and so they never work together and refuse to compromise or even really discuss the issues. They demonize the people on the other side of the aisle and use the power of fear to get things done.
Obama, true enough, sees things more from the left and if you believe some, maybe even the far left. But I don’t care. Heck I wouldn’t care if he saw things from the far right. When I hear him speak and act and by looking at his record he really seems as he wants to listen to all people and work for all people. The last eight years W’s strategy, as lead by Rove, was to play to his power base – the Christian Evangelicals. Even thought that may fit me, that’s not what this country needed. We need someone to play to the entire country as much as possible. Now I know most of you are thinking I’m dreaming when I say this stuff and maybe I am. But I honestly think he has the desire to do this and even a good chance at getting it done.
Obama really seems to be post partisan and post racial. I think if he gets the nomination he’ll win the general in a landslide and be able to have the mandate to actually bring people together across party lines. He is a black man, which I think we would be good for America, but he doesn’t seem to want to be a president just for blacks, but for all of us. That’s because he operates out of a spirit of hope and not guilt.
And of course in all of this I do realize he could be full of hot air, but in all honesty this is the first presidential candidate I have ever been excited about. I’m actually even considering a small, very small, token amount to his campaign. And that’s with having sworn long ago never to give money to a politician.
So am I saying issues don’t matter? No, cause I seem to agree with him more than I disagree with him and I agree with him more than I agree with anyone else. But you know sometimes your style of leadership is truly an issue. From a pastoral point of view you can preach priesthood of all believers all you want but if your church only sees you doing priestly stuff then what are you really communicating? The way you lead truly tells what you believe in your gut.
Miscellaneous things I like about him:
-He turned down a Supreme Court Clerkship (very prestigious and very hard to get) out of law school so they he could go work for the poor in Chicago.
-Only recently did him and his wife get out from under student loans. This guy’s really got to understand my situation!
-I love listening to him speak.
-Martin Luther King’s Dream is starting to be realized in him: He’s not being judged by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character.
-I think He could represent to the world the America I believe we are or at least could be.
And in all things as we get to know more about him I hope I will keep my mind open to change if necessary. But I really like this guy. I really hope he becomes president. He could be a bust, I realize that, but sometimes you see somebody and really believe he could be a different kind of leader and you can’t allow yourself to be cynical forever.
Well those are my rambling reasons why I’m supporting (at least for now) Barack Obama for President of the United State of America. I hope you all do the same, but if not we can all still be friends and work together to make the world we find ourselves in a little bit better.
Let me then tell you some of my history. My dad was and always will be a politician at heart. He was a State Representative in Ohio for 3 term and held various other local offices while I was growing up in their household. He still helps candidates he believes in get elected to local offices through ingenious grassroots campaigning. My dad knows what he is doing on the local office and I mean that. If you ever want to get elected at the local level you need to give him a call.
Because I was raised in that environment I not only have a deep interest in politics, but also a deep hatred of it. I think my dad was the best politician I ever met and I wouldn’t trade the experiences I had because of it for the world. But I also saw the evil side of it up close. I saw how negative campaigning not only hurts the candidate, but also hurts their kids. Calling a candidate “Tax Man Peterson” becomes really personal to the candidates fifth grade son. Watching your dad lose party support and money, in other words getting abandoned by them, because he votes his conscience on one vote makes one to be very cynical about the whole process. Politics is dirtier than dirt and I saw it first hand.
So why do I like Obama? He seems to be above so much about what I hate. Yes, he is critical of his opponents at times, but more often than naught he talks about what he is for and not what he is against. He is trying hard to speak to all people, not just Democrats. I voted Republican in the last two elections (I’m sorry) so you know some of the hot button issues I believe in. But to be honest he probably doesn’t even agree with me exactly on those issue, but I think he hears me (or people like me) on those issues and will somehow have the ability to bring us together to figure stuff out.
What I hated about the Bill Clinton years (and this is not a slam on Hillary) is that there was always so much divisiveness between the parties when he was president. And then these last eight years with W there has been nothing but divisiveness between the parties. All they do is fight with each other because they represent their power bases on the far extremes and so they never work together and refuse to compromise or even really discuss the issues. They demonize the people on the other side of the aisle and use the power of fear to get things done.
Obama, true enough, sees things more from the left and if you believe some, maybe even the far left. But I don’t care. Heck I wouldn’t care if he saw things from the far right. When I hear him speak and act and by looking at his record he really seems as he wants to listen to all people and work for all people. The last eight years W’s strategy, as lead by Rove, was to play to his power base – the Christian Evangelicals. Even thought that may fit me, that’s not what this country needed. We need someone to play to the entire country as much as possible. Now I know most of you are thinking I’m dreaming when I say this stuff and maybe I am. But I honestly think he has the desire to do this and even a good chance at getting it done.
Obama really seems to be post partisan and post racial. I think if he gets the nomination he’ll win the general in a landslide and be able to have the mandate to actually bring people together across party lines. He is a black man, which I think we would be good for America, but he doesn’t seem to want to be a president just for blacks, but for all of us. That’s because he operates out of a spirit of hope and not guilt.
And of course in all of this I do realize he could be full of hot air, but in all honesty this is the first presidential candidate I have ever been excited about. I’m actually even considering a small, very small, token amount to his campaign. And that’s with having sworn long ago never to give money to a politician.
So am I saying issues don’t matter? No, cause I seem to agree with him more than I disagree with him and I agree with him more than I agree with anyone else. But you know sometimes your style of leadership is truly an issue. From a pastoral point of view you can preach priesthood of all believers all you want but if your church only sees you doing priestly stuff then what are you really communicating? The way you lead truly tells what you believe in your gut.
Miscellaneous things I like about him:
-He turned down a Supreme Court Clerkship (very prestigious and very hard to get) out of law school so they he could go work for the poor in Chicago.
-Only recently did him and his wife get out from under student loans. This guy’s really got to understand my situation!
-I love listening to him speak.
-Martin Luther King’s Dream is starting to be realized in him: He’s not being judged by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character.
-I think He could represent to the world the America I believe we are or at least could be.
And in all things as we get to know more about him I hope I will keep my mind open to change if necessary. But I really like this guy. I really hope he becomes president. He could be a bust, I realize that, but sometimes you see somebody and really believe he could be a different kind of leader and you can’t allow yourself to be cynical forever.
Well those are my rambling reasons why I’m supporting (at least for now) Barack Obama for President of the United State of America. I hope you all do the same, but if not we can all still be friends and work together to make the world we find ourselves in a little bit better.
This is odd...
I think I'm more upset about Barack Obama coming in second last night to Hillary Clinton than I am about Ohio State losing in the national championship game. I'm not sure what that says about me.
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