Waiting and Watching

-
Prior to the election, I was involved in several debates with people who were strong Obama supporters. However, since the election, our debates have basically stopped. I think we all know that Obama won and we’re just waiting to see what he will do and what will happen. I think that once events start happening during his administration, the debates will start up again.

I’m looking forward to that time because:

• I really enjoy the back and forth of debate
• I relish the opportunity to sharpen my ideas and ability to articulate them
• I’m always hopeful of actually helping someone to come closer to a conservative point of view

Until then, I'll be here: waiting and watching.

-

Links and Original Thoughts

-
I know I've again been posting a lot of links to other sites and videos and such. With the frenetic pace of the election at this late hour, it seems like there's so much going on that it's hard to discuss.

After the election, I will most definitely be posting more original thoughts. In fact, I've been thinking about talking about the post-election strategy and work that needs to be done. That is something that is occupying more and more of my mind these days.

Stay tuned!
-

Debating Politics with Christians

-
As I mentioned earlier, I have been engaged in conversations about politics with others who hold a different perspective than I do. Most (if not all) of those people were also Christians. I must say that through it all, I have been very impressed. In the back and forth, a very unique thing has bubbled up to the surface – Christian charity to one another. I have said some ignorant things, made assumptions about others, put them into pigeon holes, etc. Others have said things that I strongly disagree with. In the midst of all of that, though, I have had the pleasure to be witness to encouragement, building up, gentle rebukes (much less harsh than deserved), and an underlying unity that belies the vigorous debate at the political level. I have seen an amazing compassion expressed, love for one another, God, and our neighbor, and an incredible concern for others. I have seen an openness and willingness to struggle and strain toward a greater understanding of the truth.

I think that we all bring God’s spirit into the discussion that helps to infuse the conversation with grace, graciousness, and mercy. It has been an honor and a privilege to do so and I hope to continue to do so. It has been a witness to me and an encouragement to me.

Sometimes, I’m afraid that our political differences will become the most important thing and there will be no fellowship after the debate. However, I have seen a much deeper and stronger force beneath the debate – Christ Himself coming through. I am greatly heartened by that.

Of course, I still feel that I am absolutely correct on every single issue (tongue firmly in check)! :-) Seriously, I do still feel strongly about my opinions and I think it’s natural to some extent for people to think that the opinions they hold are the correct ones. From that, I will, of course, want to continue to debate and try to convince people to be come to what I believe are the right ideas on things. However, I pray that I will also be open and willing to honestly examine areas where other people also challenge me. And I will do my best to do so in a gracious and generous manner, not being judgmental or condescending.

I must confess that an honest gut-level assessment of how I generally feel about others who don’t agree with me is that they are either deceived or just missing some facts. To me, my opinions and beliefs are very consistent, make sense, and seem to agree with biblical principals. So, my first reaction when others don’t agree is to be astonished – “How can they possibly think that?” I’m beginning to see how judgmental and condescending that can be.

But I struggle as well. Being firmly convinced that 1) there is an absolute truth and 2) that truth can be applied to every area of life (including politics), it’s very difficult to simply be content with others just having a different perspective and let that be. My instinct is to want to convince them that I am right. In our post-modern culture where everyone has their own truth, it’s especially hazardous to work under these assumptions. But I am becoming more aware of these assumptions and wrestling with how to deal with them. I am definitely still on a journey with all of this and I beg your patience as I struggle with how to hold in one hand my strong opinions that I believe are right, with a respect and openness to what others say in the other hand. I’m pretty sure that in my humanness, I will drop one or the other of these many times to come. If I focus too strongly on banging away on getting my point made, I may fall into the trap of being judgmental, harsh, condescending, etc. If I focus too strongly on being respectful and listening to others, I may fail to challenge or make any sort of difference. I don’t want either one of those. I DO want to make a difference and challenge others. But I also want to do it in a gracious, open way, knowing that for every finger pointed outward, there are four fingers pointed at myself.

Given this context and feeling a stronger trust in God’s Spirit of unity among believers, I say, “Let the debate commence!”
-

I Missed the Debate

-
I had a church meeting this evening, so I missed the debate.

Anyone want to comment on what they thought? My first source I go to is Nationalreview.com, but they're site is hit pretty hard with traffic during these debates and I currently can't get in.
-

Fashionable Cynicism

-
I was in the break room of my workplace the other day and they had the TV on (to CNN, of course) and it was talking about the financial issues that were going on. So, I was standing there watching it for a minute when another co-worker came in. Without provocation, he said something like, "Bah, might as well just vote for Ralph Nader" and then left.

I've had other occasions where I've asked family or friends what they thought about the elections and they have almost invariably gone the way of criticizing both candidates and criticizing the whole process. They bemoan the corruption in the system and write it all off as not worth following.

While I totally understand the frustration with the corruption in the system (see here), these two examples strike me as what I call "Fashionable Cynicism" There is the kind of cynicism where someone is fully aware of the faults and expects the worst. That I can understand.

However, this fashionable cynicism strikes me as fundamentally false. By decrying the whole political landscape and lumping everything together as bad, these people are actually failing to engage with the issues. They are actually choosing to blow it off and just think about something else.

I can understand, believe me. Sometimes it's just too overwhelming to think about all the issues going on in the world. Sometimes it's really scary to think about it. Or you just feel helpless to do anything. Or it's just inane and doesn't make any sense. These, to me, are honest, authentic responses.

But when people stand on the sidelines and criticize the whole process, and yet are too uninformed to even understand what's really going on, that to me is just a cop out. It's their way of just not dealing with it.

But deal with it we must. The consequences of going through life uninformed are too grave. We must do our part to make sure this country remains strong.

If you're just angry with all politicians, do something to make it better! Don't just complain about it. If it's overwhelming to you, start with a small area and become familiar with that and let that lead you into more and more broad areas of knowledge. If you feel helpless to do anything to change things, rebuke that lie! You are not helpless! You can start by becoming informed. You can give money to a cause. You can volunteer. You can talk to friends and family. You can start a blog. :-)

The way I see it, people who are just generally critical of the whole political process are not much different than someone who is just talking in their sleep. I just want to shake them and say, WAKE UP! There's a whole world out there in need of engaged people making a difference and your cynicism isn't helping at all.

Also, once you start to really get informed of the events going on around us, you will begin to see that not everything is just bad. I want to shout out kudos to all the Republicans in the House. They have been fighting valiantly for us and I feel personally grateful to them this day.

If you're out there and you feel a general level of cynicism toward the whole political process, I want to challenge you to take a hard look inside yourself and see if you aren't just avoiding it. Don't avoid it! Do something about it!

Influencing People

-
In my last post, I made a point in saying that I'm interested in trying to influence people. Since I wrote that, I've been wrestling with thoughts and feelings of hesitation about that. Is it wrong to want to influence people? Shouldn't we all just "live and let live"? Who am I anyway, to purposefully and intentionally try to influence people?

My first and natural instinct is to shy away from overtly trying to influence people. It feels just too manipulative.

But a few counterweights come up in my mind. First of all, I can't FORCE anyone to do anything they don't want to do. Everyone is truly free to make up their own mind about everything and do whatever they want. From that perspective, I really have no power over anyone. I'm just so much chatter.

Second, it seems to me that everything out there is already trying to influence people to make decisions or change their mind on something. There's the endless advertising you see on TV, the internet, radio, billboards, buses, etc. There's the political machines and systems trying to get us to vote or do things a certain way. There's a multitude of activist groups, religious and civic groups trying to get us to contribute or volunteer. We are always bombarded with messages trying to get us to do something.

In fact, because there is so much out there trying to influence us is one of the reasons that I feel compelled to try to speak out myself. I'm not doing this just because everyone else is, but to try to counteract some of that stuff in the first place. If there are messages out there saying negative things about Christians, I want to say positive things. If there are messages out there saying bad things about conservatives, I want to say good things. If there are messages out there saying that we should not pray in schools, I want to say that we should. If there are messages out there saying that religion has no part in public life, I want to say that it does in fact have a part to play in public life. If there are messages out there saying that we should just enjoy our own life and not think about anything outside ourselves, I want want to say that we should take up a cause greater than ourselves.

You get the point on that. I do want to influence people not because it's a bad thing, but because I want to help steer our culture and our world into good things.

I'm also wondering: if people are feeling threatened by someone purposefully trying to influence them, shouldn't they stop and think about why they feel threatened? What's so scary about someone trying to influence them? If that person is saying something you don't agree with, you can argue back (and therefore try to influence that person yourself) or just ignore it and blow it off. If that person is saying something you do agree with, there should be no threat there.

Maybe the threat is just the feeling of conflict. I know a lot of people really don't like conflict in their lives. They just want everyone to get along. My personality tends naturally in that direction. However, I'm beginning to believe that the tendency to want to just get along can lead people to do things they normally would not do just for the sake of getting along. When people are faced with the thought of a fight, people tend to avoid that. Therefore, the person who is the aggressor begins with a huge natural advantage in getting people to go along with him. It seems that for too long, aggressive people have pushed things that are not good, banking on the fact that people will not stand up to it for fear of a conflict. I'm beginning to think that the end result of that is worse than if people would have challenged the aggressor in the first place.

Well, part of why I'm here is to challenge. I'm here to push back on the negative influences in society and try to be an influence for good. Is that so bad?

Coming Attractions

.
I feel like I've been warming up a little bit to this and haven't REALLY said anything substantive yet. This one won't actually say much either. :-) BUT, I want to try to get down some stuff that's been rattling around in my head before it rattles right out.

I haven't filled out the blog's description yet because I haven't totally fleshed it out yet. But here's a few things I do know:

• I am a Christian and a conservative and love politics and current events.
• I want to do more than just talk about stuff, though. I'm really hoping that through vigorous debate and discussion, minds can be moved and people can go into action.
• Up front, I want to say that I am interested in and will be attempting to influence people - I want to make a difference in people's lives.
• In the process, I'm hoping to sharpen and clarify my own views on things as well.
• I'm most interested in the interaction between the Church and the State. Where are the boundaries? What is appropriate? What is not?
• I'm deeply concerned about the direction of this country and it's underlying culture. I feel like I can't just passively watch anymore - I've got to do something. I want to be a part in returning the culture to a place where, as a nation, God is honored.
• I'm totally open to debating the particulars of any given issue, but I'm personally more interested in one or two levels deeper than that -fundamental presuppositions that inform people's views. It's my goal to identify and speak on that level as much as possible.

Well, that's a start at least. Hopefully, this will give me and you some fodder for meaningful discussion.