www.duregger.net » a response….

a response….

The following is an email response of mine, concerning this article by Ken Blackwell, to the friend who sent me the article….

_____________________

My words:

Political editorial opinion is an jungle…. an absurd mess to wade through, trying to filter out fact from opinion, it is hard to know what really is the truth of the matter. I think Blackwell is an uber-republican who has taken stances on issues that are extremely opposed to Obama’s.

The fear, for me, remains the same: that republicans use the “evangelical right” to push their nominee’s to the forefront of political elections. At the same time knowing that these issues are NOT going to be addressed once the nominee is in office. Case in point: Bush was in office for 6 years with a majority rule in Congress, and the only abortion law passed was a partial birth abortion law that affects only 0.17% of all abortions in the US. All this rhetoric, is a ploy to get the vote. Who is to say what is worse…? Abortion or Killing of Innocents in the Middle East (US as the World Police, foreign policy of the Bush Administration)… both are wrong. How do we choose the lesser of two evils? In 2004, there were 238 abortions per 1000 pregnancies… and now the body count is up to 85,000 Innocents killed in Iraq, not counting those lost in battle on both sides… Which can we have the biggest effect on?

http://www.iraqbodycount.org/database/

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss5609a1.htm

On the Homosexual agenda… what does it matter if Adam can now marry Steve? Really. Does it affect the commitment of marriage formed in Christ, on your marriage day? No. A marriage at its core is between God, Man and Wife. The church is the place that holds the marriage accountable, encourages the marriage and witnesses the marriage.

It’s a church/state issue… A church can decide who to marry and who not to marry… under God. The state issues a marriage license, a piece of paper that gives them some rights under the law (of man)… rights that have already been given to many under the “partnership” clause in many insurance coverages, adoption clinics are already letting singles and partners adopt. Their is a separation of Church and State that we do not want to mess with here.

Commenting on the absurd statement (in the email this statement was at the bottom, not written by my friend… the following statement is, in my opinion, absolutely absurd):

Subject: Kind of scary, wouldn’t you think
Remember–God is good, and is in time, on time–every time. According to The Book of Revelations the anti-christ is: The anti-christ will be a man, in his 40s, of MUSLIM descent, who will deceive the nations with persuasive language, and have a MASSIVE Christ-like appeal….the prophecy says that people will flock to him and he will promise false hope and world peace, and when he is in power, will destroy everything. Is it OBAMA??

Is Obama the Anti-Christ? Well, whose to stop him if he is? If it has already been “ordained by God?” (depending on your translation of Revelation, its either gonna happen, already happened, or not gonna happen at all).

Suffice to say:

Issues are important, Foreign policy is huge, economic policy is huge, and should not be ignored…. then it just comes down to who you want to lead the nation. A Woman, a Black Man, or a Geriatric White Man who happens to be a former P.O.W… if only the choice were that easy, right?

Look up Christian Anarchy or the book “Jesus for President” by Shane Claiborne to see where many emergent/missional/anabaptist christians are leaning… that is a position of Christ is our King, who cares what the government does…. I’m not there yet, I still think it is important to get involved… for now.

Comments

Brandon on March 27th, 2008

I get sent numerous Obama articles from friends and those I work with. They tend to make me laugh as (a) “I’m there”, pretty much and (b) they assume I have the same political values, or at least should.

Least this one isn’t a “He’s a muslim and poops on the American flag” email forward that people seem to get a kick from…

Don on March 27th, 2008

I agree that the issue climbing death toll is of the utmost importance, but at the same time the issue of abortion is just as touchy. It all depends on who you talk to.

However,I have a problem comparing ratio’s to totals and as such I took a look at the links (thanks by the way) and while around 84-90,000 deaths is a very large number, 839,226 abortions is nearly ten times that.

Still that is comparing one years total of abortions to just over 5 years of war (please correct me cause I am more than likely wrong).

It is really difficult to find any other way to compare the two. Deaths/Abortions per week? There is too much information for these ratios to even be accurately comparable, as is the same with any other method to try and compare these two issues.

In my opinion, these are apples and oranges (as far as data and statistics go) and as such the question should not be “which is the lesser of two evils” because neither one is a ‘lesser’.

But what should the question be?

Sam I Am on March 28th, 2008

yes… apples and oranges, that is why I used the stats and ratio’s as a comparison. We forget that these numbers correlate with Human lives… lives that are no more. It is easy to look at a number and say, “oh, this one is higher so it necessitates action.” But in this line of thinking we dehumanize the issue.

I agree we cannot then answer the question, “which is the lesser of two evils,” because neither on is a ‘lesser.’

My point in bringing it up was to initiate a rational call to action. Which one can we positively change with our vote? Is Obama feeding our ‘hope’ by saying he will stop the war in Iraq, while knowing that he cannot? Bush won the election with these issues, specifically the ‘evangelical right’ rallying around he statements against abortion and the homosexual agenda. He had he chance to push legislation, but his administration did nothing (except break a few laws, start a war on a verb, and encouraged our nation spend ourselves out of recession…. which didn’t seem to work).

So in my mind Don, that is the question, which can we affect?

Ali on April 5th, 2008

Just a thought, but do we need to be reminded of the non-existant-because-there-were-too-many-to-count death toll in Iraq before the US stepped in? Just a thought - incalculatably more innocent lives were inhumanely destroyed under the former administration (if you can call a dictatorship such).

And with the homosexual thing - are you saying that we should just shrug off something that God abhors just because it’s not directly affecting us? Romans 1:32 says not so good things about those who approve of the evil around them (whether or not we’re partaking in it).

I agree that there’s probably nothing we can do (politically) to reverse the trend of increasing sinfulness in culture, but one thing we cannot do is give in because it’s happening anyway.

Sam I Am on April 9th, 2008

God abhors a lot of things we do nothing about.

24Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,25because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

26For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature;27and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.29They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips,30slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,31foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.32Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

Do not mistake my words for approval of such acts, I am not condoning evil, rather I am promoting righteousness without condemnation. It is not our place to judge and condemn those with sin (any sin), but rather love one another as Jesus loved us.

Because once we start hating the sinner, we cannot draw the line between the homosexual and the haughty, the murderer and the gossiper.

Ali on April 9th, 2008

I agree that that’s one of the pressing issues for those who ache for righteousness - walking the line of hating the sin as God hates it, yet feeling compassion for the sinner as Christ did.

I’m thankful that you don’t approve “such acts” that the scriptures above deem “dishonourable actions”, lest I’d have to cyber-slap you. Because there’s also a thin line between loving the sinner and tolerating/accepting/okaying the sin.

It’s all about balance in how we conduct ourselves in the world and an inbalance in how we seeking to please the Lord over people (such a no-no in today’s self-esteem-indoctrinated, seeker-sensitive world).