JC Penney and Gay Marriage

I posted on fb a bit about JC Penney coming out saying they were closed on Thanksgiving (unlike Walmart and Target, et. al. who are choosing to open their doors on turkey day).

A dear, sweet Christian friend private messaged me to tell me that JC Penney has a history of "coming out."  She wanted to inform me that JCP openly supports gay marriage and uses gays in adverts.

Oh boy.

If you know me, then you know my history, and you know the difficult line that people like me walk when many Christians attach a status of leprosy to gays.  I want to tell them, "Don't worry, you can't catch it!"  

My cousin was gay and died of AIDS two years ago.  My best friend growing up came out gay.  Having lived in San Francisco for many years, I have many gay friends, some of whom are married. 

I don't condone their lifestyle, but at the same time I know them as humans.  I love them as God as told us to love all sinners.  They know I'm a Christian, and they know my beliefs.  I try to be the best example of a Christ-follower to them because they hear so much hate preached against them from Christians, who were told by Jesus to love their fellow man.

I think that's the important part that most Christians miss.  Jesus was clear: 

1. Love God

2. Love Your Fellow Man.  

Period.  

We don't have to love what people do, we have to love people.  We are to love people where they are.  We don't have to support sins, but we have to love those THAT sin.  

After all, aren't we ALL sinners?

Face Off with Facebook

I'm an admitted and addicted fb poster.  I go there everyday, multiple times a day, and probably post or share a minimum of 2 to 6 times daily.  It's consuming.

I am working on cutting down my fb time. I only have so many hours in a day and I really need to get the laundry done, or at least take out the recycling.  I would love to quit fb, but now it's part of my social calendar, too.  Can't have a meeting without an "events page," ya know.

I do see the lunacy in it.  Just because I'm in daily contact with a friend I haven't seen in 25 years doesn't mean we're close.  I know what she ate for breakfast and who she voted for in the election, but could we even survive a lunch together?  I don't know.

The election did me in, as far as posting my political views on fb.  It was a nightmare and I even ended up "unfriending" a recent addition to my friends roster.  She felt my timeline was her posting venue for all things far left, including wacky conspiracy theories.  She left link after link, but no real substantive debate.   

Even my waaaay liberal friends know that you comment, have a little discourse, and then you move on.  She never moved on, she moved in.  I tried the nice approach, explaining to her both publicly and privately the rules I have for my timeline, but she just didn't understand.  Or, maybe she didn't want to.  I'm not sure, but I am sure that I don't need more of that.

There's only room for one conspiracy theory nut on MY timeline, and it's me!

I have a love/hate relationship with fb.  I couldn't live without it, I'm sure.  How would I know what events to attend without the event calendar?  How would I know what Mahayla fixed for dinner?  Or what trending cartoon Bob just posted?  And, let's face it, we all love the kittens.  Bring on the kittens.

God Doesn't Belong to a Political Party

This chick?  No more politics!

Okay, okay, you think I'm only saying that because my guy lost, or because of the negative attitudes and adverts, or because my liberal friends hijacked my Facebook timeline.*  

While those things were certainly annoying, they are not the reason I'm giving up politics.

I'm giving up politics because God has made it VERY clear to me that I'm to follow HIM, not a political agenda.

It was actually like a warm wave washing over me, I felt so relaxed and content in my release of all things political.  I eschewed Fox News, CNN, talk radio, and anything political on Facebook and Twitter.  The most I've done is scan the headlines to see if there's anything important--and there never is.

I haven't taken the slightest interest in the latest Washington sex scandal, the healthcare debate as it pertains to pizza, or which side will push us off a fiscal cliff.  I really don't care.  I can't control it, so it can't touch me. 

The politicos have led us to believe that we are important in the process, we count, our vote matters.  

In truth, it doesn't matter one bit.  Not a particle.

Let's face it, the politicians in Washington are after two things: money and power.  They care little of what happens to us, and even less about our causes.  They USE our pet causes to advance their careers.  They don't care about gay marriage or family values or gun rights or entitlements.  Maybe they do a bit, but in regards to their careers, they don't.  They use those hot button issues to drive voters to the booths so they can keep a steady stream of blood flowing into Washington to satiate their vampire hunger.  They need blocks of voters (regardless of issue) to vote for them so that they can do two things: stay powerful and rich.

In a similar vein, one must also reason that the press also benefits from this political warfare.  They stay powerful and rich as long as the voting blocks are riled up.  MSNBC and Fox News have determined their core markets and have gone after them with a vengeance.  While certain personalities on either side of the spectrum may fervently believe in one cause or another or one side or another, what ultimately matters is the money and power they receive from pandering to their audiences.  If the winds shifted to cause bank rolls to move in another direction, you'd see them follow suit, too.  The press uses the voting block just the same as the politicians.  

In the end it really doesn't matter if the Democrats or the Republicans win or lose.  It doesn't change my life one iota.  Sure, you can argue that the Democrats will turn our country into a socialist regime or the Republicans will set us back socially 50 yrs, but in reality neither of those will happen when their sides win.  We'll continue to teeter-totter on the triangle of a governmental system designed to support and encourage averages not fringe elements.  Things will change, but that will have more to do with us as a people in our society and daily interactions than what is regulated in Washington.

So, with such little control over things I used to think were so vital, so necessary for our country, I have turned to God. Solely to Him to meet my every need.  I worship, pray, and read the Bible instead of delving into the political spectrum.  I find His word and His direction so much more appealing and satisfying.  It is ultimately God not politics that will change MY world.

___________________________________________________

*Just kidding liberal fb friends, there was only one person I had to "unfriend" due to the fact she felt my timeline was her personal posting venue.  She needed to use her own timeline as her pulpit not mine, so I benevolently gave her that opportunity.  The rest of you presented wonderful discourse, and I thank you!



  

Preach the Politics, Pastors!!

A good friend drafted a Facebook post asking for reactions to the photo inside a church that used an Oval Office set for the pulpit and preached on a series entitled "Hail to the Chief," with the chief being Jesus.  Voter registration was being taken in the lobby and a Ronald Reagan bust displayed prominently on the Oval Office set.

Needless to say, my dear Christian friend friends' subsequent reactions centered on the axiom regarding no political preaching from the pulpit.

Sigh.  My reaction? 

Preach the politics, pastors!!

Why?

Here's the deal: political discussions SHOULD be prominent in our churches because being Christian means putting God in every aspect of our lives, not just "at church" or "during worship."  So, Oval Office set, preaching politics and voter registration?  I find that just fine, thank-you-very-much.  The Ronald Reagan bust and endorsing specific politicians?  I'm not good with that, even as a former Reaganite.

We need to understand God's view on the political positions of our day so we can vote according to His will, not our own.  Too many people exclude God from the voting booth, when He should be front and center.  We MUST bring God into the voting booth with us, so the governors of our land will be instated by God not by man.  

The whole exclusion of God from politics and politics from churches seems to me to come directly from the enemy.  If you can keep the church silent on political issues, then the only voices will come from humans.  If you can keep people from thinking about God while they are in the booth, then you can keep them voting with their emotions and feelings rather than God's will.  This smacks of enemy stealth to me. 

In 1954 an amendment was made to the IRS tax code specifying that tax-exempt organizations were prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for elective office.  

It is commonly believed that this amendment prohibits churches from talking about politics.  Ask most Christians and they are fervent in their belief that politics and church don't mix.

They couldn't be further from the truth.

I believe that Christians have been duped into believing an enemy lie.  To me this passage states that tax-exempt organizations such as churches can't support or oppose any specific candidate, a person not an issue.  I believe it provides leeway for churches to talk about political issues that affect our daily lives, just not the behavior of endorsing candidates.

In an event called "Pulpit Freedom Sunday" on October 7, 2012 over 1000 pastors have pledged to talk about and endorse certain candidates.  While I can't go as far to agree with their preaching about candidates, I am encouraged that a discussion of politics will enter our churches. 

We live in an age where churches have watered-down their messages to attract larger "audiences," and not only have eschewed political issues, but rather any inflammatory Biblical teachings.  God's Word has become a cafeteria line of picking and choosing that which mollifies the masses and discarding any prickly subject that would repel church goers. 

I hope that Christians as they approach the voting booth on November 6 will study, prepare and pray for God's guidance in their choices.  

Emmanuel.

Election Prayer

Here's what I posted on my Facebook status update this morning....I am not going to post any more political messages until the election.  Every time I want to post something political, I will pray to God.  I will pray to Him to work within us Americans, so that the outcome of Nov. 6 will create a America that will be a leader and a healer of less-fortunate nations, a symbol of freedom to the shackled world, and a giver of hope to the hopeless.  If America isn't a dominate world leader, we cannot effectively help others.  We cannot offer freedom, hope or goodness to ourselves let alone any foreign people.  We must be the best country in the world, because our dollars equate food, medicine and shelter to millions in the far reaches of the earth.  We offer immigrants freedom from oppressive governments and religious tyranny, and in that freedom is opportunity and a chance at a better life, not for us, but for those who have not been as blessed.  I feel each one of us should pray for that kind of America, one that creates blessings and opportunities for others so that we can satisfactorily rest at the end of the day knowing we did everything we could to reach out to the world and leave it a better place.  I pray the election of Nov. 6 will provide that kind of America, what can be a gift not only to our individual freedoms and pursuits of happiness, but those of the entire world.  Please God, help our country become one that focuses on helping other nations.       

Disrespect Obama, Go to Jail

This is frightening.  NC teacher berates student for bringing up something negative about Obama's past--something that Obama himself wrote about in one of his memoirs--and she calls it "disrespecting the President."  She tells him that he can be arrested for such an act, then goes on to insinuate that he could be arrested without having his rights read.


It's sad to watch this video and realize the student knows more about the laws in country than the teacher.  He could probably teach the class better than she.


If this is what passes for intellectual discourse in public education count us out.  We will continue to homeschool, thank you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjpWaESn_9g

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/05/21/nc-teacher-captured-on-video-suggesting-student-could-be-arrested-for-obama/?intcmp=trending

Hunger Games

So, now I've been classified as a "hater" because I don't want to be entertained by the trendy movie "everyone" is dying to see. Seriously? I'm a "hater" because I don't want to be entertained like others want to be entertained?

Let's get it straight: I am not a Hunger Games "hater."

I just have a problem with the portrayal of children being randomly selected to kill other children. It's a personal issue, and I totally take it for that. I know the story and context and the horrendous fact that we already living it! Hello, sweatshops, kids drafted into wars, and children working and living in deplorable conditions throughout the world, anyone?  There's a reason we buy Fair Trade.

Our society could get worse if we don't watch out. That's why the "Hunger Games" and other examples of this type of fiction are so important! These themes are vital to our continued advancement as a society. I'm jazzed by the kids who are totally getting the message of these books and the movie. They should! They need to!

But, please, just because I have a problem with the way the themes are portrayed, don't call me a "hater." I simply have a different point of view about what I can personally handle in the fiction I read and see. There are a ton of great books I'll never read because I need peace in my psyche more than I need visions in my head.

Some of us are more sensitive than others to certain issues. I don't hate the Hunger Games, I just don't want to read the books or see the movie. It's a preference not a political stance.