Politics, Preachers and Pundits…oh my

Welcome to Election season.  Where more negativity is spread around than a meeting of the Hatfields and the McCoys.  Where name calling is an art, and no one is safe.  Where taxes are a scare tactic and more money is spent trying to preserve someone’s job that creating many others.  I’m not a big fan of election season by the way.

It seems every year the election season heats up just that much more.  Maybe its because back in the day, there wasn’t much between the two?  It seems like there really is nothing that unites Republicans and Democrats, and all that divides them.  It seems like people who were once friends are now bitter enemies because one voted for “insert Democrat” and the other voted for “insert Republican”.  For the record, I’m glad that my parents did a good enough job raising my siblings and I in a Republican house that attended an AG church that my brother voted for the current president, neither my brother or I attend an AG church and we all still love each other.  That is success in my opinion.  All of their children can express themselves, can think for themselves, and can all appreciate the upbringing my parents gave us.

The other thing that election season brings is preachers talking politics from the pulpit.  Now there is a nasty reputation that some preachers are politicians who work in the church and I’ve met enough good, genuine pastors in my life to not believe this.  My good friend Josh posted this http://joshherndon.com/2010/02/02/pastors-politics-and-the-pulpit/, and I tend to agree.  I don’t want a state-controlled church, and personally I believe we are all too fallible to have a true theocracy.  I don’t want pastors telling me to vote for someone because it’s what Jesus would do.  I want the Bible explicated to me in a way that states what Jesus said, through the lens it was intended to be.  If you want to speak on Gay Marriage then great, why does it always coincidentally happen in October?

I happen to think that there is not one politician that anyone can clearly say, Jesus would or would not vote for them.  Do any politicians truly act selflessly the way Christ would? Do any politicians truly care for the poor the way Christ would?  There’s a video I can’t seem to find that has Michael Moore talking about Christ’s concern for the poor and that the way to heaven is with the poor.  How are the Republicans addressing the poor and the needy?  How are the Democrats addressing the poor and the needy?  To say Christ would not have voted for our current President is as bogus as saying he’d vote for Palin.  Republican does not equal God-like and Democrat doesn’t equal evil.

Josh said in his blog that we need not agree.  We need to be more than political opinions.  We need to be more than preachers, politicians and pundits…