Jesus Was A Republican, No He Was A Democrat

The last several election cycles have had a recurring them among the Christian community, a faith litmus test of sorts.  Both sides of the political spectrum claim to belong to the party of Jesus.  You have heard the arguments claiming that Jesus would be a Republican or a Democrat depending on the particular issue that the self-proclaimed political expert is trying to justify.  Then after the election is over both sides then deride the other with statements such as, “I do not know how a professing Christian could vote or support”, you fill in the blank with the most relevant and hated politician of the moment.  For the record, these debates never convince anyone to change their minds.  They only serve to create conflict between friends and deepen the divide between both political persuasions.

I would hope that this is not news to anyone, but there is no perfect candidate or politician.  There never has been nor will there ever will be a perfect politician.  If you ever find one that you agree with on each and every point and issue, then someone is lying.  Our human egos love to be associated with a winner.  When our chosen politician screws up we immediately switch to defense to defend and justify our chosen winner and attack the “enemy” on the other side of the aisle.  We lose sight of that which we claim to believe and focus solely on defending our ”side” and attacking the other.

We want to hold our elected officials to “higher standard” and believe that they should hold true to the Christian principles that which the vast majority of elected officials claim to believe.  When the official stumbles or does not back our own pet issue when we believe they should, then we question their faith and anyone who supports them.  My question is simply this, Who gave you the authority to question anyone’s Christian faith?  I am no theologian but I do recall when Jesus admonished to remove the tree from your own eye before you look at the speck in your neighbor’s eye.

Here is another earth-shattering truth, Donald Trump is not a perfect Christian and neither was Barack Obama.  In fact, if we honestly look back at all the men who have served as President, every one of them were flawed men.  I realize that his may shock you , but even I have my own flaws.  Look at your own church, everyone sitting in the service on Sunday morning is a sinner, better yet the pastor preaching the sermon is not perfect either.  We love to sit in judgement of everyone around us but often fail to see our own sins. 

I do believe that we need to question our elected officials and constantly hold them to which they claim to believe, but we need to also remember that they, like us, are sinners and fallen short of the glory of God.  Another reminder is that political debate is highly polarizing and very few, if any, politicians are worth losing a friendship.  Sometimes the biggest sacrifices for a friendship come in the form of the Unfollow button on Facebook.

A Fatherly Example

Fathers Day is our annual celebration of fathers.  We thank them for their example of what it means to be a man and a father.  For me it is easy to find a godly example of a man and a father, I need look no further than my own father.  He is by no means perfect, as no one is but he selflessly provided for, taught, guided, and loved his children when we were young.  Now he speaks into our lives as a trusted friend who never preaches but shares his advice based upon his life experiences when requested.

As I said, I have been blessed by having a great father and I fully realize that not all fathers have lived up to their high calling, but we have reached a point in our society where men and particularly fathers have become a joke.  If you look at how fathers are portrayed in the media and especially the entertainment industry, it is rarely in a favorable light.  More often we are shown as incompetent buffoons who are not to be trusted alone with their own children for fear that they will lose them or do something stupid like send them to church in their pajamas.

Sadly, even many of our churches have fallen into the same trap.  On Mothers Day, the sermons are a positive reflection of motherhood and how we should all revere and respect the mothers in our lives.  I am in no way trashing the moms or saying that we should not recognize them for all that they do to help raise our children, but the contrast of many Fathers Day sermons is pretty stark.  On Fathers Day, the theme turns into a sermon of what all of us fathers are doing wrong and how we need to do better at helping the mothers and raising our kids. 

Some of those that push the agenda against our fathers do so to highlight the important role that our mothers have played in our society, but do we have to denigrate the role of the father to elevate the mother?  In my opinion we do not.  Mothers are extremely important in each and every one of our lives, but at the same time so are our fathers. 

I want to impress upon you to take a few minutes this weekend to thank a father for their sacrifice and their love, but also be aware of the everyday temptations where our society belittles and dismisses the fathers in our lives.  We are not perfect, nor do we claim to be, but most of us will do anything for our wives and our children and we were taught by the example of our fathers before us.  So with that I simply say, thank you Dad, I love you for who you are and for whom you taught me to be.

Thankful!

In December of 2012 we packed up our family and moved from Baltimore city to Petal, MS.  We left Baltimore with our house for sale, believing that God would take care of us as we would have to pay rent in MS and the mortgage on an empty house in MD.  At the time, we had no idea how long we would have to wait until our house in Baltimore would sell.  Had you told us that it would be over 4 years, we would have said that we could not see any humanly possible way that we could do it.

Today, June 6, 2017 the journey of nearly 5 years of prayers and tears has come to an end.  With God’s help and guidance, we endured a house fire, an extremely difficult and costly failed lease/purchase, a frustratingly long eviction process, and numerous repairs from over a thousand miles away.  We are praising God for helping us travel this road and for seeing us through to the end where we have officially sold our house in Baltimore.

I know some may look at this and say that God clearly had not blessed us or that we are foolish for believing in some supernatural being to help us sell a house.  Or us, there is simply no other explanation of how we could have made it 4 years and 7 months with at times paying mortgage and rent, or 2 mortgages all the while paying for repairs, attorney fees, court costs, and living our lives with our 6 kids.  God has met every need that we have had during this time.  It may not have been our plan but it was His plan and for that we are extremely grateful.  This time has taught us that we can make a plan but when our plans completely derail, we only need to look to God for his help because in the end that is really all we will ever truly need.

Quit Your Hypocritical Whining!

As the inauguration of the 45^th President draws near I have decided to do a little self-examination of how I react to those politicians with whom I do not agree as well as those with whom I do.  To be completely honest, I did not decide to come to this self-examination purely based on my own desire for self-improvement.  No, the decision was made after deriding and ridiculing those from the other spectrum of political ideology from myself and realizing that their arguments and complaints were eerily like some that I have made in the past, albeit against a different President and politician.  My hypocrisy was glaringly obvious as I pointed out the hypocrisy of my political opponents.

Rational thought is completely thrown away when it comes to political and sports discussions.  Think about it, it doesn’t matter what your arguments may be for the Dallas Cowboys, you will NEVER convince a Philadelphia Eagles fan to cheer for the Cowboys.  Just as it seems that you will never convince a Democrat that a Republican is not a racist, homophobe.  The problem for this type of “fanboy” adoration is that we often fail to see the flaws in our own “team”.

When President George W. Bush added somewhere around $4-5 Trillion dollars, depending on how you do the math, to the national debt during his presidency.  During 2001-2009 the Democrats, both politicians and their “fans” screamed about the national debt, all while the Republicans and their followers redirected and justified his spending.  Since President Obama took office in 2009, nearly $10 Trillion dollars have been added to the debt while the Republicans and their sheep hypocritically rant about spending and debt while the Democrats and their lemmings rant and explain away the economics of debt and spending.  If driving up the national debt is bad under one President is bad, doesn’t it reason it is bad under another?

When it came to light that the US government was using warrant-less wiretaps to listen in on US citizens phone conversations, albeit for use against terrorism, the Republicans during the Bush tenure opined that it was for national security.  During the Obama reign the Democrats defended while the Republicans demanded action to stop it.  If the Constitution protects us from such searches, then does that not apply regardless of which party is in power?

Before I rant and rave about some perceived injustice or political decision, shouldn’t I stop and look at my own self or side as well?  For years, I have lambasted those that blindly vote only along party lines, but I have found that I have blindly defended some politician or policy based solely on some party loyalty.  I have decided that I am better than some stupid little fanboy who will accept what my side decides is correct and automatically attack the other side.  I am a white man, so white that I may or may not glow in the dark, but I am not the color of my skin.  Nor am I defined by whom I cast my ballot in an election.  Why do we believe others are defined in the same way that we claim that we do not wish to be defined?

Political discussions generally can be summed up in this analogy; “my dad can beat up your dad!”  the problem is neither dad wants to fight and could care less in which petty little fight you find yourself.  You may find this surprising but politicians, regardless of party affiliation, could not care what the peasants think or do.  They only care about where the next fundraiser is and how they will get their name in the next major news story.  Please understand this one point if nothing else.  Donald Trump, Barack Obama, the Congress, the Republican, Democrat, Green, Libertarian, or even the Communist parties are not your Messiah.  They will always disappoint and frustrate you.  They are not here to meet your every need and desire and they will never save our country or your soul.  For me it is time I remain honest to God and myself and continue to take care of and protect my family. 

Vote Your Principles

  It is election season again and social media and the airwaves are buzzing with political speech, debates, arguments, and the almighty memes.  This election is especially interesting and nasty and has left many standing around trying to figure out for whom to cast their ballot.  Never fear, I have arrived to help you cut through the fog of confusion and make your choice for the leader of the free world.  After all, everyone else is out and about dispensing their political genius on anyone who will listen or click on their link, so why not me?  Who better to tell you who to choose than some average guy in south MS?  Well, truthfully I am not here to endorse one candidate or party over the other.  That is not my right or my job, but if you ask I will tell you what I think (just be gentle when you unfriend me).  My prayer is that I will make you think a bit about the choices in front of you a little more before you make your selection.

  A few years ago, I waded into the cesspool called politics.  During my brief swim through the political sewer I learned one valuable lesson that has helped me clean most of the stench of partisan politics out of my mind.  What I discovered is nothing earth shattering or mind blowing but rather a very simple truth.  The truth is that the overwhelming majority of politicians and bureaucrats that have been elected to “represent” us in DC have no core values or principles.  It really does not matter what letter that you put behind the name, the majority of them are there for the same reasons.  To feed their inflated egos and bank accounts but at all costs keep the status quo. 

  In 2010 we witnessed the RNC pick their favored candidate in the MD primary for governor before a single vote had been cast.  That same year I heard the Chairwoman of the MDGOP openly and proudly exclaim that she would choose party over principles.  For many years now we have seen Republicans claim to be for balanced budgets, fiscal responsibility, and a smaller and limited government.  We have seen Democrats promise to end poverty, make the rich pay their fair share, bring all of our troops home, and make the world love us once more.  Through all of the promises from both sides, what really has changed?  The Democrats had control of the White House, the Senate, and the House for 2 years and yet they still clamored that the Republicans were blocking their efforts.  The Republicans have controlled both legislatives chambers for almost 2 years now and point across the aisle at the Democrats for impeding their progress.  Our country is nearly $20 trillion in debt.  That is $20,000,000,000,000.00 that our elected “leaders” have spent with virtually nothing to show for it other than empty promises and more political rhetoric to try to convince us to vote them into office again to continue the cycle. 

  It is easy to focus only on the elected officials who have gotten us to this point, but unfortunately there is plenty of blame to go around.  What are we as the voting public doing to change things in DC, in our states, in our counties, and in our communities?  What do we believe?  For what principles do we stand?  It is one thing to say that we believe in something but on election day, are we voting with those beliefs in mind?  If we did truly believe and vote according to our beliefs and principles, we would have a much different country today.  Each one of us needs to understand what our core values and principles are and for what we are willing to fight. 

  As I said earlier, this is not to tell you for whom to vote but hopefully to make someone stop and think about the choices we make every election cycle.  No one can really predict what some slick politician will do once they are elected based on their promises, so you have to decide which candidate on the ballot best meets your expectations and does that candidate believe in the same principles as you?  Trust me, there is no perfect candidate out there this time or any other time throughout political history.  If you find that you agree 100% with any politician, one of you is lying.  God has given each one of us our own unique minds and personalities, so it is impossible for any two people to agree on everything.  You need to decide if the difference in beliefs are big enough to remove your support or if the differences are on beliefs that are not as important to you as some of your core values and principles.  As a country, we need to get past the habits of choosing our elected leaders based on their gender, their race or ethnicity, their religious preference (mainly because most of them only show up in their local church before an election), how well they can read a speech from a teleprompter, or based on what letter shows up after their name on the ballot.  Choose well America, our country and our future are at stake.