Politics is ugly business and, really, who has ever seen a blog post, tweet, or facebook status and had their views changed? But I have been musing on some things lately and I am going to lob them out there as food for thought or liner for the litter box~whichever you think best. (I will leave comments open but if anything gets mean or out of bounds I’ll be shutting her down, CoCo. I’ll also delete any long winded comments…if you have that much to say start your own blog 😉
I have seen Proverbs 29:9 posted on a lot of Facebook statuses in response to Thursday night’s VP debate:
If a wise man has an argument with a fool,
the fool only rages and laughs, and there is no quiet.
I understand the sentiment-I watched the debate. My objection comes from making Ryan the voice of wisdom. With regard to the abortion issue, both sides missed the mark. Both sides have failed to represent the wisdom of Scripture.
I am so tired of hearing this…
But I refuse to impose it on equally devout Christians and Muslims and Jews, and I just refuse to impose that on others, unlike my friend here, the — the congressman. I — I do not believe that we have a right to tell other people that — women they can’t control their body. It’s a decision between them and their doctor. (Joe Biden)
In a word: Malarky (also Joe Biden – see what I did there?).
Because guess what? Abortion is not just an issue between a woman and her doctor. What about the father? Not to mention the fact that with all the healthcare reforms everybody is paying for it.
Here’s the cold hard truth. There is going to be an imposition of a view on somebody. There’s no way around it. Somebody’s will is going to be imposed upon someone else’s will. Either a woman will be allowed to exercise her will over her body to the point of someone else’s death, or the extent of her will is blunted to allow protection of a human being. Regardless of how that child was conceived. And that is where the right falls on it’s own sword. Because they are only willing to impose so far and the left knows it, sees it and calls it the hypocrisy that it is. Paul Ryan thinks fetuses are people, but people who can be legally murdered if their mom was raped. LOGIC!). Quote from someone obviously not a fan of Ryan.
Pastor Thabiti Anyabwile and the Gospel Coalition posted this clip by Voddie Baucham which should be watched by every Christian if they have ever uttered the words: “except in the case of rape or incest.” (I’m pretty sure that posting a Voddie Baucham clip four years ago is what caused the explosion four years ago so this may be where the fat lady starts singing.)
So what am I saying? We should just throw our hands up in the air or wring them in despair? Absolutely not. But it should give the Church great pause when Christians are clamoring for a president that denies the deity of Christ and believes that he, himself, will one day be a god.
If we think the answer to Obama will be found in a political savior than we are asking the wrong question. Our world will not be changed from the top down and if we think that by simply electing the lesser of two evils will fix the mess we find ourselves in then I’m afraid we’re going to reach up and touch the ground.
The answer is found in imitating Christ. He came and served the world that hated and rejected him. He didn’t create a perfect little religious bubble to live in isolated from the poor, the hungry, the sick, the needy, and the lost and unlovely. He lived with them. He loved them. He died for them.
The world will be changed when the Gospel is lived out everyday in every part of our lives. The weapons of our warfare are not the same as the world uses. So come November, step into the voting booth; but do not think that your work is done because you’ve marked your ballot. Our real work happens in our homes between husband and wife, parent and child. It happens in the public square between sinner and saint, employer and employee, teacher and student, human being to human being. Our real calling is to love our neighbor as ourselves.
And regardless of the outcome of an election we trust God. Knowing that His ways are not our ways and sometimes victory looks an awful like defeat.
Jesus suffered, bled, and died with our nation, our families, our cities in mind. He knew their names. He knew our names. His blood was shed for our sorry land and all our sick, disgusting sin. And the good news is that we’re on the way down. This ship is sinking. And that’s good news because we serve the God of the sign of Jonah. We need to be born again, we need to die so we can live, we need to see our cowardice so we can cry out for courage. ~ Toby Sumpter
The Common Place 