Christian Politics

I've been working up the nerve to write a political blog because I fear the fallout, but hey, it's my blog. I can say whatever I want. So here goes.

1) I hate that the church gets involved in politics. Not because I don't believe faith should influence our vote - I do - but because the church seems to think that means vote Republican no matter who's running. And while I align myself with the Republican party on the abortion issue, on issues of economy and equality my understanding of biblical principles sway me left. (Therefore I consider myself non-affiliated.) And I refuse to vote based on one issue. Especially abortion, because in 2004 I was persuaded to vote for Bush because in his 2nd term there were going to be two supreme court seats opened, and I was assured that if I voted for Bush he would appoint Republicans and Roe v. Wade would be overturned. So in that election more than any other, I was told, I needed to vote Republican. So I did. And I've come to realize that the President maybe doesn't have so much power on that issue as I thought.

2) As a follow up to that...I kind of wonder how much the President really influences things. I mean everyone is always asking the question "Are you better off now than you were four years ago?" Well, no, at least not because of anything Obama did...but I'm also not worse off. And I don't think that answer would've been any different if McCain had won.

3) Christian persecution. I heard this sermon a couple weeks ago that seemed a bit convoluted to me. The premise was that under Obama, our church is being persecuted. Hence (this was an undertone), our faith should influence us to vote for Romney to preserve the church. All the biblical examples he used of persecution showed stronger faith and a growing church. And in the end he said it doesn't matter who wins, it's the hearts of the voters that matter.

So this got me to thinking. Let's say I buy the premise that Obama persecutes Christian freedom (I actually don't). And let's say I buy the premise that persecution helps the church grow (I actually do). If these two things that seemed to be the theme of the sermon are both true, shouldn't our Christian faith influence us to vote for the one who will help the church grow - the one who is allegedly persecuting it? I mean, I sit here with a Bible on my nightstand and 6 more on my shelf, and more days than most I forget to crack it open. If owning a Bible was illegal I would either get rid of mine, or be gung-ho for immersing myself in it. Why risk the ownership unless I'm all in? And if Obama is going to illegalize Bibles (he's so not), and that would help my heart for God grow stronger...then he should be my pick. Right? I'm not saying I hope for persecution. But let's face it, the hearts of the voters would be either all for or all out in terms of the Christian faith if we were persecuted. (And no, I do not consider Target saying "Happy Holidays" a form of persecution.) There'd be no more room for luke warm faith. Is the point really just that Christians are afraid that a little heat will compromise the cushiness of our faith?

4) Abortion. So, I don't believe in abortion no matter what. But come on Christians, if we can compromise on rape and incest to have a better chance of saving 99% of aborted babies, why not do it? We can still stand by the fact that abortions are always wrong. But a vote is never going to pass if it doesn't allow for those exceptions. And for the love of Pete, leave birth control out of it. It's like an orphanage is on fire, and there are 100 kids inside, and the firemen come and say, "well, we can save 99 but there's one we won't be able to reach" and we say, "well then forget it. We value life, and if you can't save them all, we won't compromise on that."

5) I think Romney is ridiculous. Party affiliation aside, he is just ridiculous. I fully expect politicians to lie and change their alleged opinions, but come on. The guy changes his mind more than a newborn baby gets his diaper changed. (And they seem to be full of the same stuff.) Even if I did align myself more to the right side of the spectrum, I don't think I could vote for him. And if you disagree, that's fine, but please don't try to persuade me to change my mind. It's not going to work, just as I don't expect Romney supporters to go out and vote Obama after reading this.

6) Why do born again Christians keep bringing the candidate's faith into this? They keep saying that Obama claims to be a Christian but he doesn't really know the Bible (true of many Christians, let's face it), so we should vote Romney. Umm...last I checked most born again Christians don't consider mormonism to be a truly Christian religion. So even if you don't think Obama is a Christian, fine. Either way, we're not going to have a Christian President, so get over it.

OK. Rant done. This ends my political voice for the season, except for jokes. I will now return to referring to Romney as "Mittens."

Love Your Enemies

Jesus told us to love our enemies and pray for the people who persecute us.

So when 9/11 happened, I prayed. I prayed for the families of the victims, but most of all I prayed for Osama Bin Laden. My classmates thought I was nuts. How could I pray for a man who would commit such horrendous acts?

But I felt bad for him. How deluded, how broken, how lost was this man who would commit such horrendous acts?

This came up in conversation recently and someone asked me if that meant I'd pray for the man who abducted and killed Jessica Ridgeway. I hadn't prayed for him, but as I thought about it I realized that yes, that man needs my prayers too.

When I see people do terrible things like these, I think of Emmanuel, my former two-year old neighbor. Emmanuel was abused. I could hear him get hit, but because I never saw it happen child services wouldn't help. Emmanuel, at age two, was already mimicking this behavior, taking out his own frustrations by hitting his eight-year old sister.

And while I hope above all hopes that Emmanuel can overcome this childhood, I know that the odds are that he'll grow up to be the kind of man who beats his own wife and children. That's all he'll know. His sister Shoshanda? She might have a little more hope not to repeat the behavior...though she'll probably allow herself to be a victim all her life. I think boys tend to mimic aggression, whereas girls generally respond with fear and yet continue to trap themselves in similar situations.

I think about Emmanuel because I had this picture into his probable future when he was just two. I think about Bin Laden and how indoctrinated he must've been with evil ideas from his early childhood. I don't know the history of whoever killed Jessica Ridgeway, but he too was once just an innocent child.

I'm not saying all violent behavior results from childhood or bad parenting. But something must've happened to break these people. Maybe it wasn't in childhood. Maybe it was in college or adulthood. Either that or they have a mental illness causing their behavior. A loving, decent person without a severe mental illness doesn't just wake up one day, kidnap a ten-year old, and dismember her. Somewhere along the lines, someone probably hurt or indoctrinated these people so badly that they felt compelled to respond with evil.

Does this excuse their behavior? Absolutely not. What Bin Laden did, what Emmanuel's parents did, what Jessica Ridgeway's killer did...these are all terrible acts and I am in no way trying to justify them. And I can guarantee you that if these situations were closer and more personal to me, I wouldn't be able to have compassion on these people.

But maybe it's just because of my involvement in children's ministry, both within ministry and creating materials for it, but I can't help but picture these offenders as kids. I can't help but wonder what it is that broke them. I can't help but wonder...if someone had been able to capture their hearts with the love of Jesus...would the Twin Towers still stand? Would Jessica still be alive? Can we stop attacks like this from happening 20 years from now by helping today's children build a relationship with Jesus?

Lately I've become more sensitive to the depravity of the world. I'm moved to tears when I hear how sin and brokenness has crushed another spirit. And I've been thinking, "What can I do? What can I possibly do to stop things like Jessica Ridgeway's death from happening?" And for my part, I think that's where my call lies: to reach as many kids as I can today. To help them fall so deeply in love with Jesus that when things happen that might threaten to break their spirits and propel them into a life of abusing or adultery or even murder...they turn to Jesus and find life.

Could God use something I edit to stop a would-be Jessica Ridgeway repeater twenty, thirty years from now? I'll never know. But I know this: the acts of Emmanuel's parents are ones that will likely repeat in him. All I can do is act in a way that I want kids to repeat—and pray that God will let me pass that on in their lives.

Insomnia

Sunday night I couldn't sleep. It was like all the events of the past several days hit me at once and I realized I was overwhelmed.

There were even some things that hit me that aren't problems anymore. Like my grandfather had gone to the hospital Thursday with mild heart attack symptoms. But by the time Sunday night hit, I knew that it was vertigo, that they'd given him medicine, and that his heart was fine. Nonetheless, it was like a delayed reaction of worry and sadness for that hit me.

There were things that weren't personal, but broke my heart as if they were. I watched a few minutes of the news before bed (lesson learned - stick with SNL weekend updates!) and saw about Jessica Ridgeway, and about another child abductor in Wyoming. And my heart broke for the depravity of the country.

I thought about this radio program I'd heard the other day where the deejays call someone to catch them in something, and this college girl had them catch her dad to find out he was cheating on her mom. And her fragile voice when she found out the truth, saying, "Dad? Dad? What are you doing? Dad?" echoes in my mind, breaking my heart for her and that family.

That was on top of a lot of other stressors I've been experiencing lately, some of which I'd been processing and some of which I'd pushed aside. All at once, unexpectedly, they swept over me like a tidal wave.

And so when I turned out my lights at 10:30, it wouldn't be for four more hours that I'd end up finally dozing off. I got up and worked for a little bit around 1. But mostly I laid there trying and failing to fall asleep.

Pretty quickly after I realized sleep was not in my near future, I began to pray. And I listened to some music. And although getting half a night's sleep is not my ideal way to start the week, I think I needed that time. That time for God to say, "Sorry, you're not ready to sleep yet. I've got some stuff to work through with you."

I listened to some music in this process. One of the songs I played a few times was "Blessings" by Laura Story. Mostly because of this line: "What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know you're near?"

I'm hoping just one sleepless night was enough. Definitely not hoping for a thousand. But I resonated with that line because although I was emotional and just wanted to fall asleep, I also felt God with me in my brokenness. I was able to give things to him that I didn't even realize I was holding onto. And if that's what I needed (one night) to know God was near; it was worth it.

Alone & Afraid

I have a confession to make. On Sunday I was in a very Christmassy mood. And also a very sappy mood. So I put on a movie that's been in my Netflix queue for a while, an ABC Family Original Movie called "The Twelve Dates of Christmas."

It was every bit as sappy as I could've hoped for...and more. The moment the intro song started playing, I said, "Uh oh...it's already cheezy." Not that I'd expect any less from an ABC Family Original.

The premise of the movie is that this girl (Kate), who is getting over her ex-boyfriend (who was cuter than the guy she ends up with, just saying), has a blind date on Christmas Eve. But because of her preoccupation with her ex, she botches the date, and has to keep reliving the same day until she learns to embrace friendships with the people around her and, yes, kiss the blind date guy before midnight. It's like Groundhog Day and Beauty & The Beast rolled into one low-budget, talentless film. (And I didn't feel the need to give a spoiler alert warning since you probably could've figured out the end.)

As I indulged in my way-too-early-for-Christmas-and-way-too-sappy-to-watch flick, I was struck by two themes. One, Kate said a few times that she didn't want to end up alone. She felt bad for her neighbor, elderly and single. Her mom had died a few years ago and she didn't want to be like her dad, who was alone. (Which seemed odd since she started out the movie so vehemently opposed to his new wife, and also because her marrying now would certainly not guarantee that she wouldn't also face a widow situation. But I digress.)

Throughout the course of the movie, she learns to bake with her elderly neighbor, hangs out with her already best friend, gets to know a girl her own age and that girl's significant other, helps a kid from a group home keep his puppy, builds her relationship with her step-mother, and invests in other small relationships. But in the end, the only thing to keep her from this terrible fate of being "alone" is to kiss the man she goes on twelve dates with.

Here she is building wonderful friendships, but only a man can truly fill the void in her heart. Reinforcing this "singleness is a curse" mentality, this movie demonstrates that forming solid friendships is important, but you're really alone until you find a guy who will give you his jacket when you're cold. And being single is just the pits. But if you find a man who will marry you, you'll never be lonely again!

Right.

But here's the other thing. On their twelfth date, the one that finally sticks, Kate walks into the bar for her blind date with confidence. She has been changed over the past twelve days as she's gotten over her ex (because they weren't fated to be together) and let go of her life script. And her date, whose name I've already forgotten, says she's not what he was expecting, because her stepmom (who set them up) had described her as "afraid."

Now in my mind, she still was afraid—afraid of being alone. But that aside, I connected with that thought. Because although I think I often come off as strong and confident, there are a lot of things I'm afraid of. Especially when it comes to men. Each "relationship" I've had (which I can count on one hand, in all honesty) has given me a new thing to fear in whatever future one(s) may lie ahead.

I've grown a lot this year. A lot. But I know there's still more fear that I need to let go of. Here's the thing that no ABC Family Original movie will tell you, but Psalm 46:1 will, "The Lord is my refuge and strength, an ever-present help in times of trouble. Therefore I will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea."

God is my strength. The reason I don't need to be afraid has nothing to do with how strong and confident I am. It has everything to do with my refuge, my strength, my help...my God.

Why?

My almost-three-year old niece, like most kids her age, asks "why" a lot. And while this can get a bit tiresome, one recurring thing in leadership trainings I've attended is understanding the why.

At Willowcreek's Global Leadership Summit, one speaker told an anecdote about two kids fighting over an orange. Their mother stepped in, cut the orange in half, and gave them each half. The first child peeled it, threw away the peel, and ate the orange. The second child peeled it, threw away the orange, and used the peel for something she was baking. 

It's situations like that where we often tend to make assumptions. But in such a case, asking why rather than making an assumption would've given both kids the full part of the orange they wanted, and nothing would've gone to waste.

A few weeks ago I woke up in the night to the sound of Peanut whining on the dresser. She has a little stool she uses to jump up there so she can look out the window. Assuming she was whining at something outside, I told her to come back to bed. She stayed where she was and kept whining, and again I told her to come back to bed. This exchange continued for a while until finally I realized she wasn't whining at something outside - she was whining because it was too dark for her to find her stool to jump back down. The very thing I was telling her to do was the thing she was whining about being unable to do.

It was a great reminder to me that as I seek to be a strong leader, I need to avoid assumptions and ask "why" almost as liberally as my niece. If someone complains that they are unhappy with an assignment, I need to ask why not just once, but keep digging until I understand what lies below the surface.