Confession

Sometimes confession is a private thing, sometimes a public thing. I believe that in this situation public confession is required. You see, I have a problem, and I need help and accountability for that problem. I need you, my brothers and sisters, to walk me through this difficult [holiday] season of my life. So here is my confession.

Many are the stresses and pressures in a person's life. The burden to perform and to succeed is so great that it often leads us to make poor choices. While not making excuses for my actions I do feel it necessary to lay blame at the feet of a liberally biased media as others in need of confession have also done in recent days. Certain persons in said media have felt it necessary to begin playing Christmas music already. In fact, some stations have begun pumping out the holiday cheer 24/7. This is obviously a gross aberration and completely inexcusable. Their glorification of one holiday over another is so devastating and it is certainly the lesser holidays such as Thanksgiving that suffer most.

Add to that the fact that it is impossible to walk into any commercial establishment on the planet and not be overcome by red and green and silver bells and all that stuff and it is no wonder that I have found myself in the situation I am in today.

And so here is my confession...I have spent the entire morning listening to Christmas music. It started off innocently enough. An accidental brush of the radio led to the self-proclaimed local Christmas station where I paused a little too long. The next thing you know I'm rationalizing as any addict would. It would just be one song. Nobody would even know. Oh, but the next one is so good too and soon I can't stop. And now I have given in fully to this vice. I'm sitting here in my song-induced stupor. So much so that I'm swaying as Bing sings about that Holy Night right this very minute. I know how this will hurt those around me. I know that soon all this holiday cheer will make me irritable and unapproachable. I know that a month from now I'll be drowning in a sea of over-played, beat into the ground Christmas music, and yet I can't stop. Eleven months of Christmas-music sobriety is down the tubes just like that.

So...please keep my family and friends in your thoughts as we walk through this difficult time together. I will be seeking immediate intervention as I attempt to break the stranglehold of consumerism I find myself in. But until that time, Deck the Halls and Ring those Bells and Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

Oh...One More Thing

I've got one more to add to the list from earlier. Can someone explain to me exactly how it is that the existence of gay marriage is a threat to the religious liberty of Christians? I've heard that thrown around A LOT this election season and never with any real explanation as to how that works. I think it would actually be much easier to make a case for the reverse, that outlawing gay marriage is a threat to the religious liberties of others, but I can't figure out how the decisions of individuals within a society can effect my religious liberty in such a way as they describe it. Actually, I could make a case for it but I sure hope it's not the case that those who use that line are trying to make. I mean, I suppose that if a key tenet of my religion was to forcefully impose my beliefs on others, regardless of their own personal beliefs or convictions, then allowing gay marriage could cause me problems. However, since we wrestle not against flesh and blood and since the weapons of our warfare are not physical then I don't see any logic to what they are saying. Unfortunately way too many people just sit and soak it up and regurgitate it to others without any real thought to if it actually makes any sense.

Some Things I Don't Understand

Well I've been on quite the sabbatical from the blogosphere. It's one part busy schedule and one part apathy that have kept me from blogging but I am working diligently to get back at it. I have been trying to post this particular blog for a few weeks now as it has been heavy on my mind. I have to post it today because it will be outdated after tomorrow's elections.

Having watched this particular political process unfold I have come across some things that I don't really understand as it relates to Christians and our rationale for choosing political candidates and for taking particular stances. I just wanted to throw a few out there and see if anyone else can explain how we justify those things that we support.

• I've heard it said many times over the years that our current president is a "godly" man. I assume, by referring to him as godly people mean that he exhibits characteristics of Christ in his life, and particularly in his presidency. While I'm not close enough to critique his private life, I can certainly see things in his presidency that raise red flags. For example, last month he signed a bill into law that allows him to personally authorize torture in order to ascertain information he believes necessary to maintain national security. Now, torture in an of itself is not a particularly Christ-like characteristic and I don't know how we reconcile of view of a president as godly and his very vocal support regarding the need for such a law. Furthermore, the extent of this law is so far reaching that any "non-citizen" can be held indefinitely, coerced to share information that they might not even have, and then have absolutely no means of relief from such treatment. They don't have to be terrorists, they don't even have to know terrorists. So, while accomplishing some good in the area of national security, this law also allows for the potential torture of innocent people. Furthermore, the law is retro-active, which is only necessary if we, as a country, were already taking these actions prior to it being legal. So, how can we call the president a godly man as he champions such things? Where does this fit into the scheme of turning the other cheek and blessing those who curse you? How does this stand up to the litmus test of becoming a servant to all and esteeming others more highly than yourself?
  
• Second, I'm fully convinced that political party trumps all else when it comes to Christians picking a candidate and I don't understand why that is. Within our own state we have a governor who has successfully led the state through the worst budget crisis in history, worked in a bipartisan way to enact the largest tax cuts in state history, and worked to bring teacher pay to the regional average in order to stop the hemorrhaging of quality educators to other states that has been going on for years. Beyond that he's an active member of the First Baptist Church of Shawnee, a Sunday school teacher, and a deacon. His opponent has continually supported the president in racking up HUGE budget deficits at the national level (despite calling himself a fiscal conservative) and voted to allow the president to authorize torture. What about his religious background? He is a practicing member of the LDS church. While not passing judgment on him myself I have been a Southern Baptist my whole life and I grew up being taught that his church got lumped into the category of cults. Southern Baptists consider the Mormon faith to be aberrant and non-Christian. So, they can't worship with this guy, they can't spend eternity with this guy, and yet he's the prime pick of Christians all across the state to effectively lead us. And why is that? Simply because he's a Republican. That bugs me. I don't understand how we can make Christian and conservative mean the same thing. I don't understand why all else is irrelevant in picking a candidate. I got my weekly letter from Jerry Falwell the other day, basically attempting to challenge, shame, and guilt me into heading to the polls tomorrow and vote for the Conservative Republican candidate who so closely shares my values. No talk of specific issues, just a blanket endorsement of every candidate with the Republican party affiliation. When and why did that become the only issue?
• Finally, I'm sure many of you share my great distress over the level of negative campaigning that everyone seems to be doing. I saw that negative ad spending outweighs positive spending by a 2 to 1 margin. Unfortunately, I've seen several examples of candidates who play the Christian cards being the worst offenders. Being critical of a person's public actions is one thing, ripping their private lives apart so that you can get elected is quite another. Beyond that, candidates are taking all kinds of opportunities to distort the facts or to knowingly and willfully misrepresent the truth so that it paints the opposing candidate in a bad light. There were several examples of that yesterday on Meet the Press. How can Christians justify doing such things? It would seem that they believe the need to win overrules the need to treat your opponent with dignity and honor.
  

Well...there is still a great deal more that I don't understand, but I'll just leave it at these few for now. If you're out there and you've got any insight feel free to share them. Sadly, I am counting down the minutes to when this political season is over. I don't know how much more of this I can take. The media is hyping up this stuff up to make it a battle of the ages (it's the only way to get the ratings up in a non-presidential year). If you believe what they tell you then the eternal fate of our country hangs in the balance!! Somehow I doubt it's quite that important.