I knew I'd start taking heat from my conservative friends the moment I posted a video of a Democratic candidate. My left wing friends praised my boldness (Which by the way, wasn't in any way boldness to support their cause). I even stopped, when I was about to post it, prayed, and asked God if I should just erase the whole blog. I didn't get any voice from the sky, in fact it was clear I felt like the message overshadowed the Democrat/Republican issues, but once again I was wrong.
Oh, how I thought we were so much further along than where we are.
It's amazing! It's breathtaking to see the amount of e-mail and comments from my friends on the right. I've been overwhelming these last couple of days with calls, e-mails, and text messages from people who are seriously calling my faith into question. I'm serious, some even calling me a heretic because I posted a 'baby killer's' message on my blog. "How can you be a Christian and even begin to endorse a man like Barak Obama?" They ask.
Well, it takes a careful reader, strike that, it's almost in BOLD PRINT.... Go back and read the blog again and see I stated clearly, I won't use this platform to support any candidate. I'm not out campaigning so we rally around MY political view. I merely posted the speech because I thought it was high time we start seeing leaders who are more interested in the hope of a nation, rather than bickering about who can bring about the most change (which I find quite alarming that most of my right wing friends are putting their eggs in a scary religious basket.)
My mom was right. Talk about politics, and those little hairs on the back of everyone's neck start standing up. When are we going to get over it and start being adults who can address hard issues without always reverting back to the same old playbook of fear?
It's quite a cognitive disaster to say you want to stand up for abortion because God fights for the rights of the unborn, and turn the other cheek to the man who is a MORMON! Come on! Are we serious? Is the conservative right willing to look the other way on a religion with a history of racism, sexism, and secretive ceremony just to claim his stance on ABORTION???? Have you read Joseph Smith? Did you go to the cult classes in Sunday School? Or were you too busy carrying the signs with dismembered babies to focus on the dangerous religions creeping in all around? (I apologize to all my Mormon friends. This is a short blog, and I'd love to do a series on Mormonism, but notice quickly...I'm venting.)
Newsflash....the reason I wrote the article on Nov. 22 about changing the arena for conservative issues, is because for eight years we've had the Dream Team in Washington, and NOTHING has been done about abortion.
Let's look at a little report card of the past 8 years....
A Republican White House, traditionally a party who claims to stand up for Abortion, DID NOTHING!
A Republican Senate, again interested in the rights of the unborn, DID NOTHING! (only 6 yrs.)
A Republican House, fight for babies, DID NOTHING!
Come on folks. You've been snowed! The Parties are using you to polarize the country around the abortion issue, and we're just buying into it hook line and sinker. Some say it's all about the judges a president has the ability to pick to sit on the Supreme Court to legislate morality. Are we really willing to stake the entirety of a country's legislation on the hopes (proven unrealized at this point) that some judge somewhere is going to have the courage to overturn Roe V. Wade?
Of course abortion is a tragic moral flaw in the fabric of our laws, but all the men who promised to stand up for the unborn for the last eight years...DIDN'T! As dangerously tragic as abortion is to our nation, it's clear that politicians aren't going to do anything about it. They've tapped your fear button so you'll vote for them, and then when elected, they quickly forget to forge ahead and make policy to stop it. All the while having to do the business of running a country with thousands of other issues. Do they care about the genocide in Sudan? Do they care about welfare reform? Do they care about Health Care, Immigration, Roads, Foreign Relations, Economic Standings, Job Markets Etc. Etc. Etc.
Abortion will not be won in the halls of congress by some slick politician. It can only be won when the hearts of the people of this country realize what is happening, and change. Abortion can only be stopped when the majority of the people of America take a stand and address the moral problems proceeding abortion. Teenage pregnancy, Human Sexuality, and Options after mistakes are made; these are the ways we address the issue. That's the country we live in. It's a 'majority of the people' deal! And the majority will have to decide, or else that lying politician won't get elected next time around.
It's clear, in this democracy, you can't legislate the hearts and minds of people. My goodness, we have a death penalty and people keep on killing!
So where do we find answers to these hard issues of government's role in dealing with morality?
I guess we could do what Huckabee suggests and match the constitution up with the Bible...but wait...then we'd be a theocracy, right? Isn't that what we fight for around the world. Freedom for people to choose how to live their lives apart from their religious code? I run in circles that scoff at Muslim countries for trying to develop a system of laws centered around what they believe, and in the same breath want to make sure we force people in America to abide by Judeo Christian values. Have we forgotten how to reason in this country?
We could do what Republicans have done traditionally, keep promising to change with no results? And then we get people in the White House with strange economic policies, failed energy policies, and disastrous international relationships with countries who would love to know the freedoms Americans have. "But...they said they'd do something about abortion!" say those who vote.
We could follow the Democrats, and just let it be a free for all permitting abortion freedom as a government statute. This too seems wildly inconsistent with specific values that party places on the poor and their rights as humans in the struggle for the American dream. It doesn't make sense to provide programs for the orphans, the minority groups, even the sick and dying, and then be quick to turn around and kill and unborn human.
So what do we do?
How can we address hard line fundamental issues, so we can realize change, rather than create another debate platform to fight over? We MUST FIGHT IN A DIFFERENT ARENA, for the hearts and minds of moral fiber. Maybe that's why Jesus said, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and give to God what is Gods."
Maybe this is why God saw it dangerous to have a man leading a nation. He knew corruption, pride, and thirst for power would filter down into the veins of a man. He knew people, when left alone to journey into their own moral degradation, would turn the tide of a country into a lawless place. Maybe that's why he had the prophets pick the kings?
Well, that's not the way it goes down today. Prophets don't pick kings, we do. So, I'd love to hear your thoughts. God knows I've heard them over the last post. But seriously, Keep em coming! It's worth it. We may finally get somewhere when people are unbridled from the fear of heresy, and begin talking about hard issues dealing with government and it's role in religious circles.