When Barack Obama
takes the oath of office on Jan. 20, 2009, he will do so in the 30th
anniversary year of the founding of the so-called Religious Right. Born
in 1979 and midwifed by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell,
the Religious Right was a reincarnation of previous religious-social
movements that sought moral improvement through legislation and court
rulings. Those earlier movements — from abolition (successful) to
Prohibition (unsuccessful) — had mixed results.
Social movements
that relied mainly on political power to enforce a conservative moral
code weren’t anywhere near as successful as those that focused on
changing hearts. The four religious revivals, from the First Great Awakening in the 1730s and 1740s to the Fourth Great Awakening
in the late 1960s and early ’70s, which touched America and instantly
transformed millions of Americans (and American culture as a result),
are testimony to that.
Thirty
years of trying to use government to stop abortion, preserve
opposite-sex marriage, improve television and movie content and
transform culture into the conservative Evangelical image has failed.
The question now becomes: should conservative Christians
redouble their efforts, contributing more millions to radio and TV
preachers and activists, or would they be wise to try something else?
I opt for trying something else.
Too
many conservative Evangelicals have put too much faith in the power of
government to transform culture. The futility inherent in such
misplaced faith can be demonstrated by asking these activists a simple
question: Does the secular left,
when it holds power, persuade conservatives to live by their standards?
Of course they do not. Why, then, would conservative Evangelicals
expect people who do not share their worldview and view of God to
accept their beliefs when they control government?
Too
many conservative Evangelicals mistake political power for influence.
Politicians who struggle with imposing a moral code on themselves are
unlikely to succeed in their attempts to impose it on others. What is
the answer, then, for conservative Evangelicals who are rightly
concerned about the corrosion of culture, the indifference to the value
of human life and the living arrangements of same- and opposite-sex
couples?
The
answer depends on the response to another question: do conservative
Evangelicals want to feel good, or do they want to adopt a strategy
that actually produces results? Clearly partisan politics have not
achieved their objectives. Do they think they can succeed by committing
themselves to 30 more years of the same?
If results are what conservative Evangelicals want, they already have a model. It is contained in the life and commands of Jesus of Nazareth.
Suppose millions of conservative Evangelicals engaged in an old and
proven type of radical behavior. Suppose they followed the admonition
of Jesus to “love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you, feed
the hungry, clothe the naked, visit those in prison and care for widows
and orphans,” not as ends, as so many liberals do by using government,
but as a means of demonstrating God’s love for the whole person in
order that people might seek Him?
Such
a strategy could be more “transformational” than electing a new
president, even the first president of color. But in order to succeed,
such a strategy would not be led by charismatic figures, who would
raise lots of money, be interviewed on Sunday talk shows, author books
and make gobs of money.
Scripture
teaches that God’s power (if that is what conservative Evangelicals
want and not their puny attempts at grabbing earthly power) is made
perfect in weakness. He speaks of the tiny mustard seed, the seemingly
worthless widow’s mite, of taking the last place at the table and the
humbling of one’s self, the washing of feet and similar acts and
attitudes; the still, small voice.
How did conservative Evangelicals miss this and instead settle for a
lesser power, which in reality is no power at all? When did they settle
for an inferior “kingdom”?
Evangelicals
are at a junction. They can take the path that will lead them to more
futility and ineffective attempts to reform culture through government,
or they can embrace the far more powerful methods outlined by the One
they claim to follow. By following His example, they will decrease, but
He will increase. They will get no credit, but they will see results.
If conservative Evangelicals choose obscurity and seek to glorify God,
they will get much of what they hope for, but can never achieve, in and
through politics.
Well, this past week has been kinda rough. My power was out along with the rest of Ohio. Except I was in the last 3% to get their power back. My power went out at about 2:30 pm on Sunday and came back at about 2:30 pm the following Sunday. We lost a lot of food. It really sucks taking garbage bags full of "good" food out to the curb. But really my biggest complaint was that I had no cold beer. All the stores were sold out of ice, grilling supplies, batteries, flashlights, generators, car invertors, and other things. Luckily I already owned a car invertor, so we were able to keep our cell phones charged. But we had no tv, internet, fridge, air conditioning, stove, microwave, etc. Luckily our water heater is gas, and I have a battery operated alarm clock, my wife has an unlimited supply of candles, and I have a pretty nice grill now that its fixed. Actually in a weird way, I didn't totally mind not having power. It kinda felt good to sorta "unplug". It slowed life down a bit. Even as a blue collar worker in a smaller town, life just goes to fast sometimes and I go to bed many nights wondering where my day has gone. It freed up some time to spend with my wife. Me and my brothers actually sat down and played 3 games of Risk in a row. Each of us winning once. The weather was nearly perfect. It was cool enough that we could open the windows and it felt like we still had central air. We would have a fire almost every night, either in my backyard, or my brothers, or at a neighbor/friends house. It inspired many good conversations of so many topics, I'm not even gonna start listing.
But all that being said, power it back now. And with the power comes tv and obviously I'm online right now. Not that they're bad things by themselves, but they do take up a lot of time if I'm not careful. Speaking of TV, all my shows are coming back now. The Ultimate Fighter season started last week. The Office starts this thursday. Lost doesn't start until sometime early 2009. But I have a new show to watch starting this thursday. Survivor! Dont laugh, I'm actually serious. I'm going to probably watch this season because Paloma Soto is going to be a cast member. Kinda weird. Haven't seen her in years. We were in the same class back in school. So it should probably be kinda entertaining. Here is a clip of her.
I finally got around to go see the new
Batman movie. BUT, while walking into the theatre, we saw Rich
Franklin outside so I couldn’t resist giving him a holler and telling
him to kick Matt Hammills ass. He replied, “Thanks! I’m looking
forward to it!” You gotta love running into your sports heros. But
anyways, back to the movie.
I was overall very pleased with it. The acting was very good.
Heath Ledger (Joker) was of course great and creepy. I was pleasantly
suprised by Aaron Eckhart (Harvey Dent/Two Face). They did a great job
showing Harveys mind being slowly twisted and bringing out his darker
side. Maggie Gyllenhaal is a much better actress then Katie Holmes.
Of course this was a big summer blockbuster, and they want all the kids
to be able to come pay to see it, so it did have a couple cheesy
moments and times where it could’ve been a little edgier and darker.
But the cheesy moments weren’t too much to ruin the movie… in my
opinion.
I really liked how they redid his armor. They updated it to
actually look like believable armor instead of some plastic costume. I
was actually thinking in my head, “Why don’t they update his suit to
look like more modern armor.” and then I saw it and thought, “Sweet!
I’m suing those bastards for taking my idea!” Actually Bungie should
take them to court because his armor is pretty much a rip off of Master
Chief from Halo, with exception of the helmet.
Anyways, I know thats not much for a movie review, but then I never
claimed to be much of a movie reviewer. If you'd like to comment, that'd be awesome, but please leave your comments on my other blogsite or both - http://www.pressstartgamers.com/wordpress/?p=14
We got a bird dog this week. He is a six month old Brittany Spaniel. The neighbor of a guy at work bought a Brittany Spaniel for their daughter, but then she decided she didn't want it any more, so they kept him tied up in their back yard and just ignored him. Didn't feed him or anything. My coworker and his wife felt bad for the dog, so they'd give him food and attention, and they asked if they could find a home for the dog. His neighbor said yes, so he came to me and asked if I'd be interested in a bird dog.
He looked so sad and pitiful. He was all skinny and super hyper for attention when we first got him. He is so much healthier looking and happier now. We named him "Mo". He gets to run around our back yard without being chained down, and its incredible how much he's changed in just a couple days. He's so smart and he's great with Mini-Matt. We took him to the park where they have a big pond with ducks and geese. He looked like he was in heaven. He absolutely loved the water, and wanted to hunt the ducks so bad. I'm seriously considering training him to hunt. Bird hunting is definitely in his blood, and I feel like I'd be letting him down if I didn't take him hunting. I'm a deer hunter though, I've never hunted anything else, but I'd love to learn. A guy at work is a bird hunter and has a couple trained bird dogs, so I'm thinking of asking him to help me out with training and what not. Heres some pics of Mini-Matt playing with Mo and giving him a hug.
Heres some cool vids of guys bird hunting with their Brittanys.
