Vote

Today is election day.  I know it's only the mid-terms and there is a tendency to view non-presidential elections as somehow less important.  

That could not be any further from the truth.  

At the national level, your Senator or Representative will have much more impact on your daily life than any president ever will.  Congress makes the laws, the president enforces them.  An oversimplification, but still a truth.  The men and women of Congress will be writing the laws we are complaining about months from now.  And the fact that there are far too many serving that have been in the office for too long, profited far too much off the office, and have lost their connection to the people gives us even more incentive to vote whenever they are up for election.

Most importantly, and often most overlooked, the local civic and school board elections will more directly impact to your day to day life than any national election.  They are writing the laws and policies that can have the most immediate impact on your community.

So, this is my plea - go vote.  It matters. It really does, more than you think. 

Don’t listen to the voices playing on your fear.  Our votes are generally very safe and free from fraud.  It naturally takes more than just tonight to count every vote and to know the outcome in certain tight elections. This is all normal and not a cause for undue alarm. 

If you need a voter guide for the national elections, there are several out there, like ivoterguide.com. A site like that can walk you through the ballot you will see.   There are likely local ballot information you can obtain out there as well. 

Vote, vote, vote. 

Election Day 2020

 

Today's the day.  If you have not yet voted, drop what you are doing and get out there and vote.  

No excuses. 

Work isn't an excuse.  In many states, there is job protection if you need to take time off and get to the polls.  Check here to see the protections in your state.

Vote.

If you don't have child care, bring them to the polls.  I saw many people having to do so when I waited in line.  Children are allowed, though some states have a limit on the number of children permitted to accompany a voter.  Check with your local commissioner if you are planning to bring more than one or two.

Vote.

If you don't know the times for the voting polling places, check out the information graphic below.

If you do not know where to go vote, check vote.org for your local polling place.

Vote.

If you are unsure who best represents your beliefs and interests, check votesmart.org or ontheissues.org for a breakdown.

Vote.

If you need a ride to a voting location, Uber and Lyft are giving free rides to the polls.

Vote.

Be sure to bring a photo id with you to vote. The seven forms of primary identification are listed on votetexas.gov and include a passport, a driver’s license, a certificate of citizenship, a handgun license, a military ID card, personal identification card, and a voter’s ID certification.  Check what is required in your state.

Vote.

If you do not have one of these forms of identification, you can still vote with one of the secondary forms of identification available like a current utility bill and by filling out a Reasonable Impediment Declaration regarding why you cannot have one of the primary identifications. Even if you cannot make a reasonable declaration, you can still vote on a provisional ballot.

Vote.

If you run into any problems at the polls, at least ask to vote on a provisional ballot.  Verbatim, ask the following "Give me a provisional ballot with a receipt as required by law."  This will at least allow you to mark your vote and will give you six days to resolve the identification issue.

Vote.

If you cannot walk into the polling location, have someone go in and ask for a curbside ballot for you.  It should be available to anyone who has difficulty walking and standing in line for long periods of time.  If you need any other assistance in voting, make sure you know your rights in that regard.

Vote.

This is by far the most important national election of our lifetimes.  It is imperative that we exercise the most fundamental right that we have in this country and raise our voices.  We are already seeing record voter turnout in this election and that is a win regardless of who is ultimately named the victor.

Be prepared, we may not have a clear winner announced this evening.  That is not a bug in the system, it is not a failure - it's a feature.  We must be vigilant that every vote counts.  

I know it's tiring; I know we want this to all be over.  My prayer is that the results are so overwhelming that there is a clear decisive victory.  That the map is completely blue and reflects a sound refutation and repudiation of all that Donald Trump stands for.  That it is too overwhelming to ignore.  But I recognize that decisive of an election is likely not in the cards tonight.  We are potentially in for a long haul.  We're up to this fight and we will make sure every vote counts.

This year we are celebrating 100 years of women's suffrage.  I cannot think of a better way to celebrate the ultimate granting of a right that women should have always had than for America to finally show up with an overwhelming majority of active voter participation.

Your voice matters.

Your vote matters.

Get out there, and get to it.

Vote like your life depends on it, because it likely does.

VOTE!

You Can't Be A Christian And Vote Republican

Not what I intended to write about today, but something that needed to be said with Tuesday looming.

I mean, it's controversial, right.

Provocative even.  Possibly even downright offensive.

It's a statement I really shouldn't make.  It's the kind of statement that can't be proven, that has no Biblical basis, and inflicts more damage than any good it can do.

And yet, it's likely been made in many churches this morning.  Churches of a certain persuasion, with specific demographics.  Probably among many Christians this week and in the weeks and months leading up to the election.  I know, I've seen it.

It's just been phrased a little differently.

"You can't be a Christian and vote Democrat."
"Good Christians vote Republican."
"How can you vote Democrat as a Christian?"
"The Republican Party has a Christian platform."

The statement I made in the title is no different than any of those statements above.  Each presumes that one party has a monopoly on God, which cannot be true.

Jamie and I have been going through a Tony Evans series in the past few weeks entitled How Christians Should Vote, and it has been really eye opening.  The most profound realization that I have had in this whole process is that there will be Christians who vote Republican in this election and there will be Christians who vote Democratic in this election, and BOTH will be voting godly, so long as they are voting in prayer and in support of the policies that God has put at the forefront of their personality.

This can happen because there is no one perfect candidate or party - i.e. there is no Biblical party.  Both Democrats and Republicans are a mixture of good and bad.  Divine and profane.  Just like humanity.  

And the truth is, we need BOTH parties.  Because each focuses on different aspects of the Gospel message.

Republicans stand for policies that are praiseworthy - protection of the unborn, preservation of Christian values and protection of Christian religious freedom, etc.  Democrats also stand for policies that are praiseworthy - a push for social justice, for racial equality, for gender equality, for improved socio-economic conditions.  Both parties also have deplorable practices.  In our liberty, Christians have different causes that are placed on our consciences to champion.  This can push us to one party or the other, depending on what has been laid on our hearts. 

We also must recognize that there is no ranking of sins.  All sins are equally grievous to God.  All sins equally separate us from God.  All sin leads to death.  Republicans often are single issue voters with abortion being the one issue they elevate above all others, as if it is the most important national sin to address.  Democrats equally can focus on injustice as the number one national sin.  Focus on either to the exclusion of all others leads to none of them being adequately addressed - we become too divided, too tribal, too fractured to actually get anything accomplished. 

Where Christians vote ungodly is when they adhere to party alliances above all else.  Where they believe that one party has a monopoly on righteous policy.  Where they demonize the other party as being impossibly disconnected from God.  Where they doubt the faith and salvation of people who vote for the other party.  (After all, why should we take Trump's word that he is a Christian, but doubt Kamala Harris.)

Evan's point is that we've gotten led astray by continuing to view this as a two-party situation.  Us versus them.  Democrats versus Republicans.  As if one party will be right and the other party will be wrong.  As if being right is what matters above all else.

We forget, God does not ride the back of elephants or donkeys, as Dr. Evans would put it.

Evans compares it to viewing only two teams on a football team and forgetting that there is a third group out there - the referees.  Christians are supposed to be referees.  Calling penalties and fouls as we see them, upholding and confirming legitimate plays.  We cannot side with either team on the field, but most remain impartial, aligning with a higher governing authority.

Too many Christians have decided to forsake being referees and have put on the jersey of the Republican party.  You can see this in the number of pastor's who give outright endorsements.  Who have nationalistic services.  Who make statements like the one above, like Christians can only vote Republican because theirs is the only Biblical platform.

When we do this, we lose our authority to call out penalties on either side.  We've shown partiality and corrupted the whole game.

If you need an example, I offer Al Mohler, President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, in his endorsement of Trump.  His individual choice to vote for Trump is not problematic.  Nor is any individual Christian's.  Where I take serious issue is how he spends the entirety of his article outlining how voting for Trump, voting Republican, is the only correct Biblical worldview.  

To get there, he has to conveniently side-step his hypocrisy from his comments in 2016, where he said he would not vote for Trump and said if he did, he would have to apologize to President Bill Clinton for his comments during the Monica Lewinsky affair.  He said then that character in a president matters, but now he is having to contextualize that statement.  So, he's voting for Trump and of course, not apologizing to Bill Clinton.

He also has to side-step the large constituencies of Christians that he knows historically disagree with him, particularly Black churches and Christians.  For context, 81% of white evangelicals vote Republican.  80% of Black Christians vote Democrat.  Consistently.  So if there is just one correct way to vote Biblically, there are a lot of people in trouble.  Mohler comes close to recognizing this paradox in two separate passages.  

"I agree that there are many other issues that press on the Christian conscience—questions of economic policy and foreign affairs and energy and the stewardship of the earth. The searing pain of racial injustice and the unraveling of our social fabric demand Christian response and urgency. Christians must be concerned about questions of immigration policy and refugees—and these issues defy the simplifications of the sound-bite and tweet culture."

As a workaround, he has to engage in a ranking of sins to focus on abortion as the primary issue.  He then speaks particularly to the divide between white and black Christians.

"There will be evangelicals who cannot in good conscience vote for Donald Trump. I understand their predicament. But not voting for Donald Trump, though a political decision in itself, is not the same as voting for Joe Biden. This is beyond my moral imagination.

I also recognize that I know brothers and sisters in Christ who see this differently. The vast majority of Black voters in America vote regularly and predictably for the Democratic ticket, and have since 1960. Like the pattern of white evangelical voting, this is not a surprise. There are long historical reasons why both are so. With my black brothers and sisters, I make my best case for how I see the issues. (emphasis mine) They have every right to do the same. We each have a vote. Both of us will answer to God for that vote. We earnestly seek to persuade the other. We will likely vote differently in the end. We remain brothers and sisters in Christ."

Here a recognition of some liberty in the process.  There are serious issues that have led the Black Christian community to consistently vote Democratic. Issues that the Democratic party focuses on - social justice, equality, housing, urban development, voter protection, healthcare.  Issues that are sadly, often ignored at best, or opposed at worst by the Republican party.  These Black Christians are voting their godly convictions just as white Evangelicals do.  Perhaps, instead of dismissing them, we should inquire as to why their convictions lead them to vote for the opposite party consistently.  This is what we should be encouraging, this is what we should be promoting in this election season.  

Mohler sadly undercuts this with the remainder of his article. You cannot claim one Biblical worldview for voting without the corollary that everything else is wrong, despite your allowance for disagreement with this one community.  In short, he, by the content of his writing, has dismissed the entire Black Christian community vote as being based on an unbiblical worldview.  This is especially evident when he follows this passage with a clear claim that the Southern Baptist position will align with his own.  "The convictions of Southern Baptists are clear, and I am confident that the vast majority of Southern Baptists will vote according to those convictions. That pattern has been in place for many decades."  I.e. Republican, as he has outlined it.

Had Mohler focused his article primarily on the statement in bold (I make my best case for how I see the issues), I would have no issue.  But I take serious issue when anyone tries to proclaim there is one perfect Biblical party.  No matter the party they identify.

Christians should be the consummate independent voter.  Voting their conscience and voting for the person, party, or platform that most closely align with a Biblical worldview as their prayer and conscience directs them.  That necessarily would mean voting for Republicans, for Democrats, for Libertarians, for Green Party members, for independents depending on the year and the election.  If your voting has been 100% for one party completely down ballot for the past several elections, you may need to reevaluate your voting process.

Vote.

Vote your conscience.

Vote prayerfully.

Give your allegiance to God, not to a political party.

And remember, no matter who wins this election, God is still in control.  He is still on His throne, He is still in His house.  There will be fellow Christians celebrating and mourning on Wednesday morning.  Be kind and be unifying.

I Voted

It took two attempts.

A combined hour and forty-five minute wait.

Two different polling locations.

Waiting in the cold.  

Getting out today in the rain.

But it's done.  I've voted.  And thankfully I didn't have to wait as long as I've heard some of my colleagues did.  Indianapolis had sites with 8 hour waits.  For early voting.

And still they waited.

This year is truly unprecedented.  I firmly believe this election is the most important one of my lifetime. It will have more impact on the trajectory of our nation than any in recent history.  That is why it is vital that you vote.

Make a plan to vote - Determine what form of voting works best for you.  Should you use a mail in absentee ballot that you place in a ballot box.  Should you vote early at an early voting polling location.  Should you vote on Election Day.  Make a plan that will be best for you and resolve to see it through.  Be warned that each has their potential pitfalls.  Lines on Election Day could greatly exceed even what we are seeing in early voting.  Due to recent maneuvering by the Supreme Court, I cannot recommend mail in ballots in this period leading up to Election Day unless you put it in an official ballot box.  If you place your mail in ballot in the mail at this time, it is likely it will not be counted (despite our history of doing so in the past).  If you plan to place your ballot in an official ballot box and are in Texas, be aware that thanks to recent moves by the government, there may only be one in your entire county.  If you plan to vote early, be sure you know the location of your ballot box or the location and hours of early voting locations.  There are six in our county with a variety of open hours, allowing everyone to find the most convenient voting location for their situation.

Vote Early - With the record voter turnout that we are already seeing, it is my recommendation to vote early if at all possible.  To ensure your vote is cast, to hopefully lessen your wait, to help make this an election that could be affirmed on election night, it benefits us all to vote early. 

Be Informed - There are so many tools at our disposal to get informed regarding the issues on our ballots that it is inexcusable not to do so.  Vote411 (http://www.vote411.org), Ballotpedia (http://ballotpedia.org/Sample_Ballot_Lookup), Ballot Ready (http://www.ballotready.org), and HeadCount (http://www.headcount.org/your-ballot) are just a few.   Many states even have their own My Ballot sites.  We live in an age of a wealth of information at our finger tips.  Please take advantage of it to learn what the candidates stand for, where you truly align (and not just the party you've always been affiliated with), and vote accordingly.

VOTE - The most important thing is just to vote.  Even if you make no plan and just show up on Election Day, vote.  Your voice matters, your vote counts.  Make it be heard.

Wear a mask.

Stay safe.

Vote.

It's the least we can do in civic duty.

Voting Coercion, or Quid Pro Quo Deja Vu

State of Nevada “thinks” that they can send out illegal vote by mail ballots, creating a great Voter Fraud scenario for the State and the U.S. They can’t! If they do, “I think” I can hold up funds to the State. Sorry, but you must not cheat in elections. @RussVought45 @USTreasury

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 20, 2020

Michigan sends absentee ballot applications to 7.7 million people ahead of Primaries and the General Election. This was done illegally and without authorization by a rogue Secretary of State. I will ask to hold up funding to Michigan if they want to go down this Voter Fraud path!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 20, 2020

[ Sigh ]

That's not how this works.  That's not how any of this works.

It's not how our voting laws work and it's not how federalism works.

To start, it's not illegal and is in fact a vital part of our electoral process.  It is the basis in which many important populations vote, including the president himself and our armed forces abroad.

For federal elections, 30 states allow some form of vote-by-mail for absentee or early voting.  In 2016, this accounted for 25% of the ballots cast in the presidential election, or roughly 33 million ballots.

There are also five states (Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Hawaii, and California), that are conducting all vote-by-mail elections.  Oregon was the first state to conduct a presidential election entirely by mail back in 2000.  80% of registered voters participated at that time.

From polls this year, 58% of Americans favor vote-by-mail, despite the Republican and Fox News efforts to scare people into opposition.

The fear comes from a belief that Republicans lose if vote by mail is expanded to allow everyone to vote by mail.  President Trump said in March that the policy would mean, "you'd never have a Republican elected in this country again."  Georgia's Republican speaker of the House said vote-by-mail would be "extremely devastating to Republicans and conservatives in Georgia."  Partisan concerns over vote by mail also motivated the recent actions in Wisconsin during the height of the pandemic regarding their state's primary election.

A recent study, however, has reaffirmed years of prior research that neither party benefits when a state switches to universal vote by mail.  There is a negligible effect on partisan rates.  It is truly a non-partisan issue.

What it does, though, is raise across the board voter turnout.  "Vote-by-mail causes around a 2-percentage-point increase (estimates range from 1.9 to 2.4 percentage points) in the share of the voting-age population that turns out to vote."

That should be something both parties wish to achieve.  That should have bi-partisan support.

And yet, here we are.

Neither Nevada nor Michigan are doing anything that should come under President Trump's direction.  The states have vast control in forms of voting, voting eligibility, voting requirements in both state and federal elections.  The federal government has limited control.  

Trump's strong arm tactics are unsurprising, mob tactics that he has demonstrated before.  At their most base level, they are simply an overreach.  An abuse of power that he does not have.  If this were any other presidency, this would be an impeachable offense.

What is particularly galling is that the funding he is threatening to withhold to Michigan is FEMA disaster relief funding needed from the flooding resulting from the bursting of dams in Midland County, mid-Michigan.  He's once again leveraging humanitarian aid for political obedience.

We suspected he would learn nothing from his impeachment, and we are correct.

We have to start speaking out in louder voices.  To support Michigan and Nevada.  To condemn this kind of quid pro quo.  And it should be coming from both sides of the political spectrum.

Otherwise, I feel we will find ourselves in a similar state as Georgia, where the Republican governor cancelled a democratic election to fill the seat on the state Supreme Court so he could appoint the new justice himself.  From February, when the state justice resigned to May, when the election was to be held, factions in the state have been fighting over interpretations of narrow provisions of the state constitution that would determine whether the governor could appoint or whether it should go to election.  The fight progressed all the way to Georgia's Supreme Court.  To hear the case, six of the state justices had to recuse themselves and be replaced by lower court judges.  It's so complicated a scheme to get approval for the gubernatorial appointment that it should be particularly galling.

We are moving rapidly from democracy to authoritarianism in ways that should seem shocking, but instead seem common place.  

Have we become that desensitized?

Will we wake up from it?

Perhaps the ad has it right - it is mourning in America.

Vote, No Excuses

Today is the day.  Tuesday, November 6, 2018. Election Day.

Today it is imperative that everyone get out and vote. Not because there will be impending doom if you do not. Rather because every election matters. Because we need to remind everyone where the power belongs in this country - with the people. The people have been silent for far too long and we have seen far too much power taken away from us. Our vote is our reminder to the politicians that they work for us and are supposed to be promoting the best interests of all of us.

There are no excuses not to get out to vote today.

If you do not know where to go vote, check vote.org for your local polling place.

If you are unsure who best represents your beliefs and interests, check votesmart.org or ontheissues.org for a breakdown.

I won’t make any recommendations on who to vote for, other than to say do not utilize the straight party option. Vote for the candidates who best represent you regardless of party. Remember you are electing them to be your voice, so they should well reflect your beliefs.  Even if you end up marking all of the same party, go through the process of bubbling in every one, so you associate the candidate with the position.

If you need a ride to a voting location, Uber and Lyftare giving free rides to the polls.

If you are working in Texas, your employer must give you time off to vote, up to two hours.

Be sure to bring a photo id with you to vote. The sevenforms of primary identification are listed on votetexas.gov and include a passport, a driver’s license, a certificate of citizenship, a handgun license, a military ID card, personal identification card, and a voter’s ID certification.

If you do not have one of these forms of identification, you can still vote with one of the secondary forms of identification available like a current utility bill and by filling out a Reasonable Impediment Declaration regarding why you cannot have one of the primary identifications. Even if you cannot make a reasonable declaration, you can still vote on a provisional ballot.

If you run into any problems at the polls, at least ask to vote on a provisional ballot.  This will at least allow you to mark your vote and will give you six days to resolve the identification issue.

If you cannot walk into the polling location, have someone go in and ask for a curbside ballot for you.  It should be available to anyone who has difficulty walking and standing in line for long periods of time.  If you need any other assistance in voting, make sure you know your rights in that regard.

Vote.

Vote.

I cannot say it enough.

Vote.

Your voice matters. Make sure it is heard.

One Week, A Reminder

We're currently one week out from the mid-term elections.  This post is to serve as a reminder to get out and vote.

Early voting in Texas ends Friday, November 2, 2018.  You can go to vote.org to find early voting locations and times.

If you cannot vote early, likewise, check vote.org to find out where your polling place will be on election day, Tuesday, November 6, 2018.

Further, there is a world of resources on the web to find out information on the candidates and issues on your ballot, including the two below.

Ontheissues.org

VoteSmart.org

Beyond these two, there are literally hundreds of resources out there and a breadth of information available at your finger tips.  Just a Google search away.  Please get informed and get out to vote.

We need each and every person to get out and raise their voice.

Vote.  Every election matters and every vote matters.

Becoming Liberal

I've written on this before, but a confluence of our Journey Group Bible study continuing to explore the parable of the prodigal son, the message this past Sunday on mercy, and current events have brought me back to my ongoing story of becoming more liberal.  This will be a longer post, but also a bit more personal and free-form.

There's an adage that states "if you are not liberal at twenty, you have no heart; if you are not a conservative at forty, you have no brain."  Well, I don't like to think of myself as heartless or brainless, but I seem to be on that opposite trajectory.  As I age, I am becoming more liberal.  More tolerant.  In politics, in religion, in life in general.

I grew up in the small town, conservative Texas and I'm currently living in another small town in Texas very similar to my home town.  And while the specific political party landscape changed in my early years, the bent towards the conservative always remained.  Small town America is the land of the status quo.  Change happens at the pace of life.  Things remain the same for what seems like forever, and then all of the sudden small things change here and there as the new generation fully replaces the old.

This is especially true in many churches that I've seen. Things do change as new ministers and preachers come into the church and the congregation adjusts to their particular formats, but the churches would inevitably set into a particular repetitive pattern.  For years in my home church everyone could plan out exactly when the congregation would standup, sit down, when the hymns would be sung, how long the message would generally be, etc.  While there is comfort in repetition and familiarity, it also runs a great danger of rote mechanism.  Of services run on human programming and familiarity and not the Spirit of God.

It should not come as a shock to anyone that knows me that while I've spent most of my life in small towns, I've always been a city boy at heart.  I can appreciate a beautiful view of nature, but give me a thriving metropolis and a great skyline any day.  I love the vibrancy, the culture, the arts, and the activities.  I love to find a city's soul and connect with the particular feel of that community.  To understand how Austin differs from Dallas (or at least how it used to).

As such, while I can be completely comfortable in my hometown (and by extension, where I currently live), I've sometimes felt at odds with the communities in which I've lived.  I was one of those students always ready to graduate and to move on to the next big thing.  For undergraduate, I really only applied to two schools.  And my heart was truly always set on the University of Texas.  I wanted to be in Austin.  In that liberal capital of Texas.  Not that I ever thought of myself as liberal at the time, I just wanted to be in the place where everyone could find their own way and be their own thing.

This desire was a prime example of being slightly in congruent with the community.  In my hometown and in many of the surrounding communities, if you wanted to go to a big school in Texas, you went to Texas A&M.  The school was seen as upholding more conservative values and Bryan/College Station was seen as a more approachable town.  From my visits to A&M with the band, I knew I couldn't go there.  Just from visiting, I couldn't handle the weight of the traditions and expectations.  I wanted to run across the grass and wear a hat in the buildings.  I wanted to spike my hair and dye it orange.  I don't know exactly why it brought out a non-conformist streak in me, but it did.

I have to pause here and thank my wonderful parents for recognizing this difference and helping foster this part of me.  Taking me to musicals in Houston, vacations to great cities and towns across the United States and beyond, allowing me to go to Brightleaf at Duke, just as examples.  And preparing me to be ready for whatever city and college that I wanted to attend.  I know my mom would have loved me to be in a community that was closer and a little more "safe" like College Station.  She did get to see some of the most eccentric parts of Austin when we visited for college selection purposes.  But they let me make that decision and supported me all along the way.

Freshman year at Austin was a culture shock, but a great one.  My dormitory housed more people than lived in my hometown.  It has its own post office and once had its own zip code (currently it makes up a large percentage of one of the Austin zip codes). But I loved being there.  I loved the openness that allowed people to be who they were, not what they were expected to be.  I loved the diverse makeup of the student body and the overwhelming opportunities the campus presented.

Had you asked me at the time, I would have still considered myself conservative, politically.  Even through all four years at UT and everything that Austin represents to most people, I voted for President Bush in 2000 and supported him openly.  Religiously, though, I was reaching a turning point. While I had found a great church community in Georgetown, I had a gnawing sense in me that something was missing, that something more could be done.  Several questions of why we continued to do certain things or believe certain things that were tied only to tradition and not any specific scriptural basis.  Why science was considered so antithetical.  Why so many people had been hurt by churches and how that was acceptable.  I read a few books that heretical approaches.  That threw the baby out with the bath water.  Thankfully, from getting involved with terranova, I was able to read several great books on a different approach, that stripped things back to Biblical basics, but opened up greater possibilities.  A New Kind of Christian, More Ready Than You Realize, A Generous Orthodoxy, Adventures in Missing the Point.  While these did not have all the answers, they started asking the right questions.

"Our big cities are filled with younger brothers who fled from churches in the heartland that were dominated by elder brothers.  When I moved to New York City in the late 1980s to being a new church, I thought I would meet many secular people who had no familiarity with Christianity at all.  I did, but to my surprise I met just as many people who had been raised in churches and in devout families and had come to New York City to get as far away from them as possible.  After about a year of ministry we had two or three hundred people attending services.  I was asked, 'Who is coming to your church?'  Upon reflection, I answered that it was about one-third non-believers, one-third believers, and one-third 'recovering' believers - younger brothers.  I had met so many younger brothers who had been hurt and offended by elder brothers that neither they nor I were sure whether they still believed the Christian faith or not.

The most common examples of this I saw were the many young adults who had come from more conservative parts of the U.S. to take their undergraduate degrees at a New York City school.  Here they met the kind of person they had been warned about for years, those with liberal views on sex, politics, and culture.  Despite what they had been led to believe, those people were kind, reasonable, and open-hearted.  When the students began to experience a change in their own views, they found that many people back home, especially in churches, responded in a hostile and bigoted way.  Soon they had rejected their former views along with their faith.  The elder brothers had turned them into younger brothers.

We discovered, however, that younger brothers were willing to come to our church because they saw that we made a clear distinction between the gospel and religious moralism, and that provided and opportunity in which they could explore Christianity from a new perspective.

It is natural for younger brothers to think that elder brotherness and Christianity are exactly the same thing.  But Jesus says they are not.  In his parable, Jesus deconstructs the religiosity that is one of the main problems with this world.  In this parable Jesus says to us, 'Would you please be open to the possibility that the gospel, real Christianity, is something very different from religion?'  That gives many people hope that there is a way to know God that doesn't lead to the pathologies of moralism and religiosity."

Tim Keller, Prodigal God

terranova started by looking at a simple but difficult question - why did the church in a Christian school town have such a hard time getting college students to come to church?  Despite Southwestern University being two and a half miles from First Baptist Georgetown, the college and career class of First Baptist Georgetown only had a handful of students.  And so began a study to understand why so few of these students felt church to be an integral part of their life.  The most common refrain was that of the younger brother who had been put off by elder brothers and wanted no part of it anymore.  Of students who had already been hurt or ostracized by the church and were through with it all.  This lead to studies regarding the post-modern church movement and the emergent church movement, and again, while they did not provide perfect answers, they did help challenge a lot of pre-conceived ideas about what church has to be that are extra-Biblical.   To start us asking the questions that could help loosen some of the unnecessary traditions that we hold onto too tightly.  Does church have to only be early on a Sunday morning?  Why are the only forms of worship explored during the service music and sermon?  What about artists?  Is there a Biblical basis for an altar call?  Should the altar be open throughout the service for prayer and petition?  Why do we have age based Sunday School?  Would it be better to organize by topic?  To mix the ages so the young learn from the old and vice versa?

Can we be intentional in structuring church to make it approachable and graceful to the un-churched and de-churched, and not just comfortable for the current churched?  Are we using language that only makes sense to those already here?

From this framework and this beginning, I've been drawn to those churches that hold to Biblical truths, but are free to question everything else.  Unchanging message, but ever adapting methods. And as I age, I find this something that is not only something that aligns with my preferences in worship, but something that I am discovering is vital to the health and welfare of the church.  I've written before on the negative perception the church can have in America, and wondering if we have forgotten how to love our brother.  Has the church become too rigid to meet the needs of the lost anymore?  Are we too set in elder brother ways?  It's why this statement from Prodigal God has continued to impact me.  "If the preaching of our ministers and the practice of our parishioners do not have the same effect on people that Jesus had, then we must not be declaring the same message that Jesus did."

This past Sunday, the message was on the Beatitude "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy."  I think our pastor summed up my concern better than I could in the closing to his message.

"Now let me just end with this last thing.  I really thought, man, if I could just find a really great story of forgiveness to kinda wrap this thing up, then that would just be kinda like the cherry on top, you know what I mean.  And here's the deal, you can read literally hundreds of stories online, much of which are a parable of sorts, not necessarily true, others of which aren't faith based.  Others that people are making into movies like Louie Zamperini and Unbroken.  

Great Stories.  

You know here's where I've found a little bit perplexing, (and not just because I couldn't find these stories, but also because of what I've witnessed just in my own life) is that most of the stories of forgiveness come outside the walls of the church.   

And that perplexes me.  

Most people leave churches because of forgiveness issues.  Relationships are estranged, they're broken, they're confused.   And I think we are the people who have received the greatest mercy, and yet we tend to be the less merciful.  

I hope that perplexes you as much as it does me.  

Why are churches so hateful to one another?  

Why is there such a spirit of competition?  

Why are there so many malicious things said? 

Why are we so mean and hateful?  

Because it's a sign of people who do not understand what mercy has been granted to them.  And oh, how far we've come from being beggarly.  And so may we return to the heart of the beggar.  And may God do a great work in us as we deal with other people the way that God has dealt with us.  

Amen."

Brandon Bachtel, Stonepoint Church, Upside Down Week 5

And it is these questions and the perception of the church that have also pushed me more liberal politically, especially because of the increasing entangling of the Republican party with the evangelical conservative church.  With the idea that the salvation for our country lies with one political party.

Something started changing during Barack Obama's two terms as president.  While I did not agree with all of Obama's policies, I recognized him as someone who was trying to do what he thought best for the country.  He was someone who was well-reasoned, principled, and moral.  For the life of me, I could not take the vitriol, the hate, and often outright lies that were shared and fully believed about him and his presidency.  Those that ran from day one of his term of office and are still continuing today.  You could say that social media played a large part of my growing dissatisfaction as it made all of this misinformation and grumbling very, very visible on a daily basis.

By the 2016 primary season, I had reached my tipping point. Trump seemed to represent the antithesis of everything the Republican party I knew stood for.  As I've said before, I see a lot of comparison between Bill Clinton and Donald Trump.  Both known womanizers.  Both in many ways populist candidates.  And yet, somehow, Bill Clinton was to be opposed at all costs, but Donald Trump was embraced and hailed, all for the want of a particular letter at the end of their name.  I couldn't handle the dissonance.  And I have yet to be shown anything different.

This was especially galling to me because of the support that Trump developed and continues to have among conservative evangelicals.  To have pastors outright state you have to vote Republican to be a good Christian was shocking and repulsive.  And to see those pastors like Robert Jeffress continue to rise in prominence when he makes statements like "I believe any Christian who would sit at home and not vote for the Republican nominee...that person is being motivated by pride rather than principle...".  Even Franklin Graham more recently with "Christians should be aware of candidates who call themselves progressive.  Progressive is generally just a code word for someone who leans toward socialism, who does not believe in God & who will likely vote against Godly principles that are so important to our nation."

This mixture makes me think of a warning from Episcopal priest Barbara Brown Taylor.  "Jesus was not killed by atheism and anarchy.  He was brought down by law and order allied with religion, which is always a deadly mix.  Beware those who claim to know the mind of God and are prepared to use force, if necessary, to make others conform.  Beware those who cannot tell God's will from their own."

That is the ultimate way of the elder brother.  To force conformity to the social norm, to the expectation, to the "moral" requirement.  And to write off anyone who does not hold to those standards.  But Jesus in the parable of the prodigal son, revealed that this path was just as wrong as the younger brothers and was potentially more disastrous, for it blinded the elder brother to his own need for salvation.  That worldview allowed the elder brother to continue to believe he was "good" in his own eyes.

And that is the greatest issue I have with this political relationship between the church and the current Republican party.  The blindness the mix has to the effect of the relationship.  To its impact on our witness.  The great increase in number of younger brothers turned away from elder brothers now seeking to impose moralism on a religious and political level.  The increase in people turned off by this quest for political power.  That cannot handle the disconnect between the actions we call sinful and shameful on one hand but excuse on the other.  I guess you can say I am one of those younger brothers in this respect.

Throughout this process, I began to question why I originally held myself out as conservative.  Why I identified with the Republican party.  Was it because that is what my family generally aligned themselves with?  Did it adequately align with what I believe?  And it made me question why I was so opposed to the Democratic party.  Were their policies truly antithetical to what I valued?  And of course, what I found was that each party has policies I support and policies I do not.  Particular policies that are of greater emphasis in each election.   A reminder to myself that while parties provide a general framework, the individual candidate is more important to my internal decision process.  Again, I discovered better questions.

Further, I traveled more and saw what life was like in other countries.  Saw that those scary systems that some politicians would say could never work over here worked quite well for a large part of the world.  That other countries probably had a healthier division between the church and government, to the benefit of both.

I became a parent.  And I started discovering I wanted better things for my children.  That some of the answers provided as to why things are the way they are were not acceptable any more.   That we could do better and that we should do better.

I want a church that stands separate and apart and that proclaims the unabashed Truth regardless of and distinct from any political party or candidate.  A church devoid of nationalism or American exceptionalism, focusing only on the great nation to come and the broader body of believers that we belong to that cuts across nationality, race, and creed.  A church that is not afraid of questions.  That's not afraid of the answer "I don't know" and not afraid of digging in together to learn more.

I want a government that protects the rights of all its citizens, speaking up for the least of these and protecting them from the tyranny of the majority.  That fights for social justice and equality and does so in a religiously neutral fashion. 

I want us all to see greater freedom in both.

I write this not to persuade anyone regarding their vote, one way or the other.  If you would like a deeper conversation, I'm happy to have that in a more direct manner to discuss specific issues and why my vote sides in a particular direction there.  I write merely to offer background and perhaps provide color to my posts of late.  Particularly given the increase in politically related posts surrounding the mid-term elections.

I pray you all have similar deeply held convictions for your overall outlook on life.  I pray for younger brothers to recognize their need for direction and to return home.  I pray for elder brothers to recognize the inability of their works and to go in to reconcile and join the feast.  I pray for us all as we try to navigate in a continually fracturing and factioning world.

I pray we all start asking better questions.

The Meaning of Words

"I don't know what you mean by 'glory'," Alice said.

Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously.  "Of course you don't - till I tell you.  I meant 'there's a nice knock-down argument for you!'"

"But 'glory' doesn't mean a 'nice knock-down argument'," Alice objected.

"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less."

"The question is," said Alice, "Whether you can make words mean different things - that's all."

"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master - that's all."

My Constitutional Law professor used to quote this passage of Through The Looking Glass all the time.  When you control the meaning of words, you can do anything.  You can make up down, black white, and right wrong, just by changing the words.  This is the purview of Constitutional interpretation; to determine and define what the words in our laws and Constitution actually mean.

This is also the sad language of politics today.  Change the phrasing of the words and you can make any action or cause sound laudable or deplorable.  And I want to write today about something I'm seeing more frequently and something that is greatly angering me.

There's a terrible image going around on social media that sums up this sentiment greatly.  It represents a gross over-simplification of the state of political debate, at best, and outright falsities at it's worst.  It's a tool of the ever growing divide in this country, for as we know, one party just has to represent everything that is good with this country and the other just has to represent all the evils of this world.

In terms of truthfulness, this image rates right up there with the posts that point out the pure coincidence that both American and Republican end in "I CAN" while Democrats ends in "RATS".  The actual party name is the Democratic party (just as the GOP name is the Republican party), though I suppose "ATIC" does not work as well to denigrate the opposition.

To prove a point, let me show you another image, one that is just as true as the one above.

It's all in how you define the words.  Or in what words you choose to describe the particular topic.  Opposition to abortion can be "pro-life" or "anti-abortion."  A push for gun control can be "sensible gun control" or "they'll take away all your guns."  Both sides do it and it's getting worse.  If you actually believe that Democrats are all anti-police/ICE, I have a bridge in Arizona that I would like to sell you. Likewise if you believe that Republicans are all homophobic or xenophobic.

These images and the sentiment behind them are not helping our country in any way shape or form.  These posts and the ones claiming that our country will be socialist if the Democrats win or fascist if the Republicans win simply exist to further the divide in this country, ensuring that future elections and future debates will be more rancorous, more vile, and more fractured.

The only way we move past this is to recognize the manipulation in the images above and reject them.  To engage in a deeper discourse.  A deeper investigation.  And then to vote.

Get informed and vote November 6, 2018.  Vote early if you can.

Don't vote straight party - in my opinion, the ability to vote straight party with one selection on a ballot should be removed.  It's likely the most dangerous tool in politics that has been granted to both parties.

Read up on the candidates and vote for those that best represent you regardless of what little letter follows their name on the ballot.

There is a world of resources on the web to find out information on the candidates and issues on your ballot, including the two below.

Ontheissues.org

VoteSmart.org

There are literally hundreds of resources out there and a breadth of information available at your finger tips.  I realize I'm likely preaching to the choir, but a reminder never hurts.

Vote.

Not because it's the most important election of our lifetime.  Not because of some fear-based image that tries to make you believe the other side is going to destroy our country (they won't).

Vote because every election is that important.  Because every election matters.