Evangelical Stranglehold

For as much as I am dissappointed in American politics at large, I had a thought today that was kind of encouraging. If John McCain had to nominate Palin for his VP in order to get the evangelical vote, then maybe evanglicals still have a decent stranglehold on politics, albeit in an unusual way. I just wish we’d exercise it more often than every four years.

Why Vote?

In all of the back and forth punditry about who to vote for this election, a thought occurred to me. What do folks really think they accomplishing by voting for one candidate or the other? I thought about the single issue voters, the party-liners, and the folks trying to weigh the issues. But one more basic question kept coming up. Does any of this voting really produce any results locally? Or do we vote trusting that our one active move at the ballot box is going to be one that makes a difference?

What I am more or less asking is, is voting a way for middle class American Christian to avoid getting their hands dirty? Are they (subconsciously or not) trusting in the system to fix things when they should be taking action personally? Put another way, are American Christians guilty of the same skepticism of the gospel that some first century jews were when they expected the messiah to save them militarily or politically?

I guess what I am saying is that I think Christians ought to do much more locally to combat the problems they see. Voting once every four years instead seems like a way for your average Christians to pat themselves on the back and do nothing again until the next election. Am I wrong? Why?

Obama the Christian?

Cal Thomas just took Obama to task for his reported Christianity. And he’s did it just using basic Christian tenets. My guess is that Obama is more of a deist. Check it out here.

Right & Wrong vs. Right & Left

Few Americans would invite an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service, but that’s exactly what Minnesota pastor Gus Booth wanted when he stood behind his pulpit and told his congregation God wanted them to vote Republican.
Read Full Article Here…

My first reaction to these lines were “Good for him” as I read the first half and “Oh that moron.” when I reached the end. Humans are partially political beings, but they are more than that. I think that when we get too wrapped up in partisan politics we are saying that God’s platform aligns with a current party platform. In reality, both sides have their shortcomings. One side might have glaring faults to orthodox Christians, but the other side might have blind spots that partisan Christians open themselves up to. I wish pastor’s like this would preach right and wrong not right and left.