Some new stuff is up at ReLife if you want to check it out. Yes, that was a shameless plug and here are three more (the first one is sincere, the latter two are my ironic facebook observations:
Why I can’t get a girlfriend - I stole the idea for this one from another blogger, but it amused me nonetheless.
Cross-posting FTW.
So here’s my thought of the day.
It’s incredibly sad that Proposition 8 passed in California. It’s incredibly sad that gay marriage is even an issue in our country. It’s incredibly sad that we as a nation have come so far and yet are still so far behind.
I’m not overly religious, but you know what they say – knowledge is power. So I’ve tried to gain at least a basic theological understanding. I’ve tried to see the conservative stance on this issue, but I just must be blind on the specific subject.
Here’s the deal. If you’re going to take the bible at face value and entirely literal, does it not read “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”?
It is not love to force the Bible down someone’s throat.
It is not love to turn your back on someone because they’re pregnant out of wedlock.
It is not love to deny someone’s sexuality if they are gay.
It is hate. Hate is anger. Anger is fear. What have you got to fear?
Keep an open mind.
I only have a few minutes to write this before I jet off to my next engagement, but I was reading an article from Google news last week about McCain and Palin accusing Obama of “wealth redistribution”. Basically they’re attacking Obama because his policies encourage the wealthy to share their money with the less-fortunate. People like Ghandi or Jesus might want you to believe that sharing is good, but the Republicans know that when the sharing starts, America will go straight to Hell. Why? Because “… it [sharing] is one of the tenants of socialism!” (McCain at a rally).
Not that Democrats are awesome at dutifully “following God” (not that they necessarily should), but I tend to hold the “moral majority”, the “Religious Right” to a higher standard being that they claim to represent God. However, as an independent voter, I’m free to believe God wasn’t just pulling my chain when he said things like “the only religion I’m [God] interested in is to look after orphans and widows” (James 1:27) or “What you do to the least of these you do unto me”.
Quite honestly, were it not for the abortion issue (I’m personally against it but I respect people of differing opinions–especially since I don’t have a uterus) I would honestly find it very difficult to justify voting Republican at all.
In my examination of politics and the Christian faith, I feel comfortable concluding that the summation of excuses conservatives use against things like well-fare (sp?), war, gay rights, drug policies, immigration, etc seem to be rooted in hate and the justifications they provide are often “practical”. By this I mean that it is impractical to give money to 90% of homeless people when only 10% really put it to good use (I’m just using arbitrary numbers). Or that it’s more practical to “use force to make people behave peacefully” (note the irony) than it is to genuinely reach out and have patience (heaven forbid we turn the other cheek or anything crazy like that) with our enemies.
I find this to conflict with the Christian faith which states that God was born in a barn, spent a good chunk of his life being homeless, talking/living/eating with the crazies and the rejects of society, and hanging on a Roman cross like a criminal out of crazy, compassionate love for mankind. I would think it would be within the power of an Almighty God to come to earth as a powerful king with powerful armies and force the world to believe in Him, but that wasn’t what he did. In fact, Jesus rejected this method explicitly during the temptation in the desert.
Basically, all of this is to say that I feel the “godless liberals” do what Jesus would do a lot better than the Religious Right. But I think we all know bad things happen when Christianity becomes “popular” [cough]Crusades, inquisitions, witch hunts, war, etc[cough].
Just some thoughts.
Today I wrote the following at my personal blog. Here’s the trackback. PS: I was having some trouble organizing my thoughts so be gentle, por favor.
Link: The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan.
The great spiritual gift of Obama is that he has mastered this – not by suppressing it or denying it. But by confronting it, looking at it, expressing it, and channeling it to better ends. That some on the far right would now use this process of honesty as a way to describe Obama as a racist is a sign of their cramped hearts, frightened souls and utter inability to empathize. One day, they will feel ashamed. Right now, they simply have to be overcome.
First of all, I wholeheartedly disagree with the idea that God supports some nominees over others, as this blog entry would imply. I don’t subscribe to either political party so by no means am I just pissed that this post makes it out that God would vote Democrat or something.
Read more…
Something that kind of bugs me is that people on every side of an issue tend to gravitate away from the truth in any argument. People come up with an idea (or they were brought up the idea or acquired it in some other means) and try to support it by any means necessary. This is in opposition to a person that actually seeks the truth–a person who carefully examines the evidence and then makes a decision; a person who is able to admit when their theory has been disproved; a person that can decide on their own without relying on popular opinion and what is accepted by others (or rather, one who takes the opinions and testimonies of others for what they’re worth).
Could you imagine if politicians (in America, at least) actually had an interest in solving our nation’s problems as opposed to being right? I think the same goes for those of us with strong political opinions. People buy into political ideas simply because they’re represented by their political party and not because they’ve done the research on both sides of the issue and then reached a conclusion. However, that’s not to say that such a person hasn’t done the research on important issues–just that they come up with a conclusion, and then do research so they can argue about it. So they can be right. Ultimately, so they can exercise superiority over other people.
