Today at the risk of alienating many people I respect, I feel like I must say something. Christians today have the most unique opportunity to share the love of Christ to an entire world. Over the centuries, there have been many who devoted their lives to just that cause. Many gave their lives in the effort.
We have computers, Internet, 24/7 news channels and a whole slew of other ways to communicate. In the beginning, there was only word of mouth and letters. We have come a long way.....or have we?
During this bitter election cycle there have been a lot of people pleading their case for their preferred candidate, myself included. The left has picked their GOP champion, the one they feel least likely to beat Mr. Obama. The right has chosen their candidate, the one that most represents their values. I have often joked that Liberals are the most tolerant people I know...so long as you agree with them. Sadly, I can now say the same for many of my Right leaning friends.
I agree with the Right that this current president has been a Great Divider rather than a healer of our Nation. We are now in the middle of a Class Warfare that has totally ripped this country to shreds. It is the Haves versus the Have-nots; the Left versus the Right; the Christians versus the world; you get the idea. Neither side is giving in and both are determined to win even at the cost of destroying this nation.
While I agree that President Obama has done much to divide this nation, I believe he is as sincere in his beliefs as the other side. The problem is that both have some good and many bad points, however like a couple of siblings fighting over a toy neither is willing to give in.
I personally voted for Newt Gingrich because I felt he had the best chance of bringing this nation back to center and healing the huge rift that has torn our country in two. Many on the Right refused to forgive that his past was not impeachable. On the Left, they called him a Crony, a career politician, and worse.
I would like to address a few things to both sides of the aisle.
Mr. Obama is the quintessential Crony politician. He has hired more of his buddies and donors than any president in recent history. He has rammed through the Congress, in the name of humanity, a massive insurance "reform" that mandates everyone must purchase insurance. There was no debate and the only way people could see what was in the bill was for them to pass it into law...curious as to why most items do not take effect until AFTER this election. He has made it clear that the views he takes are governed by the poll numbers. His positions change often.
Mr. Romney began the GOP debate cycle with the air of a right of assertion to the throne of the GOP and he has played every dirty card he could at every opportunity to sling mud at his opponents. In short, I call him Obama Lite. A friend posted on Facebook yesterday that every time he sees Mitt, he has the urge to buy a used car.
Mr. Paul has a few good views but his stance on homeland security is scary to me.
Mr. Santorum while a good man as far as I can tell, is too far right to ever win the office. He has the backing of the far right, which in my opinion would be like being endorsed by Rush Limbaugh at the moment.
Many of my friends have pushed for Santorum and are very vocal as to why. He is a "Godly" man who agrees with their values. There is a saying that the marriage of politics and religion make for an ugly baby. I don't know if the baby is ugly but the outcome of the marriage is a train wreck waiting to happen.
I do not mean to demean the "values" voters. We all vote our values to a certain extent. I for one, would not vote for anyone who espoused abortion as a means of contraceptive or choice because a life is involved. Those are my values. I personally do not like Capitol Punishment, but there is at least criminal activity involved in the taking of this life...still, if life unborn is to be valued, then all life is to be valued.
Voting your values is what opens up room for coming together. What divides us is when neither side is willing to budge on their values. I mentioned to someone yesterday that I could vote for a candidate who advocated gay marriage or civil unions so long as they could balance the budget. I was immediately hit with many replies that the reason America does not have a balanced budget is the "Godless" actions of this nation. Meaning abortion, an something called the "Homosexual Agenda". As if all the homosexuals in the world were plotting to overthrow the US Government and make us into another Sodom.
Many think that by my not calling out all gays as sinners, I am being untrue to my values. Nothing could be furthe from the truth. In fact, it strengthens my commitment to my values. When Jesus walked this Earth, he called out the Religious leaders more often than the sinners. I am beginning to see why my Savior hated Religion. Religion is the perversion of the faith. WHAT? Somewhere someone just said "Oh no, he didn't just say that!"
Let me explain. Religion is taking the faith and organizing it into a set of tenets that one chooses to follow. This is why there are so many different religions in the world. We all have different ideas of how our faith should be practiced. If not there would be one big religion and there would be no reason for Catholics, Baptists, Muslims, Mormans, Pentacostals, etc.
Just because a man or woman is a homosexual does not make them "Godless". Is homosexuality inborn or acquired? That is for the scientist and God to determine but I would lean to the thinking that we all have things which are born into us that we have no control over. The color of our skin, genetic diseases, mental illness, cholesterol and maybe even homosexual tendencies. None of those make a person Godless. Do I believe homosexuality is a choice? Yes. Everything about life is a choice. Even the things we have no control over directly, what we choose to do as a result of those things, is our choice. So I guess I am saying I can see both sides of the born this way or not argument.
Getting back to the Godless argument, the definition of Sin is the absence of God. (If you do not have faith in God, then you most likely will call sin by another name such as morals, conscience, etc.) in the eyes of God, all sin is equal and none is greater than the other. By this reasoning, if I call a homosexual Godless then I must also call a liar Godless. Likewise, a thief, an adulterer, a tax cheat, a murderer, a white collar criminal, ad infinitum. All of those people choose to commit their sin so by the above definition they would all be Godless. According to my detractors, homosexuals and abortion advocates are the Cheif of the Godless hordes. But in the strictest sense, even the liar makes this a Godless nation. Which in turn gets me back to the fact that Jesus despised religion. Religion allows us to pick and choose what we will follow and it also allows us the superiority to call anything we choose to dislike as sin.
It was good enough for the Catholic Church during the Crusades and the Inquisition. It was good enough for Adoplh Hitler and his followers, and it is good enough today to tear this country apart. it is good enough for a select group of radicals perverting Islam to justify killing the "Infidels". Religion or opposition to religion is tearing this country apart and if common sense does not prevail, then the world is doomed, and the United States specifically.
It is ok to have faith and beliefs. It is ok to not have faith and beliefs. I have faith and I believe God gives us all free will to choose how we live. I believe our lives are determined by our choices (hence the name of this blog) and our choices determine our outcome in life. Now that being said, I also believe others can and do make choices that directly or indirectly affect our lives. By this I mean a drunk could drive a car and maim me by his choice to drive drunk. I had no say in the matter and if I had the choice, I would not have chosen to be hit. But since I was hit, my reactions and choices determine whether I live a productive life or a poor pitiful me kind of life.
There are all kinds of people in this world. People of faith and not. We all must live together. Whether you believe in God or not, there is a basic moral principle that is taught in All major religions: treat others as you would like to be treated. Jesus said it; Mohammad said it; Buddah said it; and many Atheists or Agnostics said it too.
Why do we call out homosexuals as "Godless" yet we ignore the "Godlessness" of the person that cheated his employer at work today by surfing the internet at work? How about the man who has lunch with a woman not his wife, in a quiet restaurant? Or the woman who bought a dress at the mall today but hid the receipt from her husband? All are guilty of a sin, which makes them Godless.
There is also the fact that not everyone on this earth is a person of faith. It is okay to vote your values no matter which side of the fence you are on. We all have the right to believe as we do. What we do NOT have is the right to force our opinion onto others. We should agree to disagree on certain issues. Not everyone on this earth looks at Homosexuality as a sin, even some people of faith. And while it may be a sin in your eyes, it does not endanger a life. It is between those two people and their God. If you are a person of faith then believe they will answer for their sin to their God. If you are not a person of faith, then believe they will be happy together. A person of faith must remember, God did not appoint YOU the judge of the world. You can not judge a person by your standards because you are not their judge to begin with. You especially cannot hold a non Christian to Christian standards. You are not the police of the world.
To the non faithful person, by the same token you are NOT the conscience and INTELLIGENCE of the world either. Just because you do not look at abortion or contraception as wrong, does not mean you get to police the world and force them to do things against their beliefs.
The United States is made up of people of all possible mixture of faith or lack thereof. We must strive to work TOGETHER! Neither side has all the answers and neither side should be able to force their opinions onto the others. If homosexual marriage or civil unions are legal, then Christians can still be opposed, but that does not make this a Godless nation" destined to be the next Sodom. However, calling people names because they do not agree with you is wrong....no matter which side of the fence you are on.
As a Christian I have stated my view on homosexuality that the tendencies may be inborn but the choice is up to the individual, much the same as murder or theft. The Jesus I know ate with the sinners and called out the "holier than thou" religious. Granted, he did tell the sinners not to sin anymore but he still chose them because they recognized their own faults and the religious tended to call out the faults of others. He even quoted one in the bible who said "I am glad I am not like that other guy." (I am paraphrasing) in essence, when a Christian calls out someone who is different as a sinner or Godless, then they are essentially elevating themselves above the others and saying "Thank God I am not like them, I am without blemish."
America is NOT a Christian country. It is a country made up of all kinds of people and while a majority are Christian or other people of faith, that does not make us a Christian Nation. If we want to go back to the America that exhibits values identified as Christian but are really just Moral values, then it is time we began to follow the Teacher who told us to love one another and stop trying to be the conscience of the world. A true Christian will be known more by their actions than their hate filled words of love. If you want to win converts, stop trying to beat them to your way of thinking and give them an example worth wanting to know more about. Actions really do speak louder than words. TODAY I CHOOSE TO SET THE EXAMPLE!
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