politics, election, believers

i have so many friendships across the world and across demographics. its not uncommon for me to be speaking with one dear friend or relative who is passionate about mccain and moments later be speaking with another dear friend or relative who is passionate about obama. people i admire and deeply respect are voting for obama and other people i admire and deeply respect are voting for mccain. i can't throw my full support behind either one.

cameron strang has put into words the place i've reached and he's done a much better job explaining it than i ever could. read his latest entry via tim stevens' blog, "it's not up to Washington...it's up to us!" (written by cameron strang)

Could it be that the loss of religious freedoms would ultimately be the best thing for American Christians because it would cause us to stand on our own feet rather than relying on the government to legislate our faith and values for us?

thanks to jarrod spalding for the link.

KG on brotherhood

alan hirsch weighs in on election

alan hirsch has just posted an interesting thought on obama which helped me to think about our election in some new ways. i will not tell you who i want to see become our next president. but i like that alan helped me gain another perspective.

I say this mainly because I think that Obama is the symbolic choice: His election, if successful, will signal the healing of deep racial wounds and will, in effect, symbolize the utter greatness of America. Think about it! That America can elect a professing Christian, with an African Muslim (of all things!) father, a white mother, and a very strange sounding name to boot, to be its leader (and by extension, the leader of the free world) IS significant in the true meaning of the word. I can’t tell you what this will communicate symbolically to the rest of the world! imagine what this will mean to the Africans alone, let alone all those nations who struggle with race and ideological issues? And who doesn’t? And to do this in precisely this current, profoundly complex, global situation we all find ourselves in–well, that’s the historical piece.

alan's complete post is... “Obama or McCain? It’s a no-brainer!”

favorite video

dr bob

Great piece written by dr bob beltz about 'where i go to church'. thanks to mr jones for pointing it out.

It seems to me if we had a little better sense that we are all part of one church, instead of “members” of individual organizations that we identify as “my church,” there wouldn’t be so much inequality in the use of the combined resources of “the church” in the city.

smulo strikes again!

smulo has a great comparison piece called 'Sunday Driven Church'.


picture from smulospace.com

manning on love

Quote

The way I see it
Isn't necessarily
The way you seeit
Or the way it is
Or ought to be
What's more important
Is that we're all
Looking for it
And a way to see it

--Desi Di Nardo
Author and poet.
Toronto Canada

blog action day 2008

my two favorite blog action posts

jamie arpin-ricci's

james diggs'


i don't have profound thoughts...ever. but i want to do more than just post directions to some good blogs for action day. so i will share my thoughts, just as they are.

i was holding my daughter tonight, singing her to sleep. i sing to her often and thats when i make up my best songs. but tonight as i was singing to her i was so moved by the thought that there will be a day when there is no more poverty. i believe there will be a day when greed does not rule the world. when people will share because they want to...not just to ease their conscience. when people won't rule over each other, but will serve from a place of humility.

there are whole seasons of my life where i don't believe that day will come. but today wasn't that season. for a moment today, holding my daughter and singing her to sleep, i was reminded that it will happen. my action today is to believe.

a tax plan that makes sense

this is the first tax plan that i've seen that makes sense to me. i'm sure someone with a much higher grasp of the 'complexities' of taxation can tell me why it won't work. then, once it was proven not to work, it could be just like the currently used tax plan.

scot mcknight proposes it here.