My best friend and cousin, Chad, recently asked me if I would baptize him while our family is together this Christmas season.  Being asked to be a part of such an incredible chapter in his journey with Christ has been one of the greatest honors of my life.  Chad and I are going through some spiritual practices together as we both prepare for this sacred moment.  Perhaps my favorite of these has been to begin each day by saying the Apostle’s Creed.  It has become my pledge of allegiance and starting each day by audibly declaring the one in whom I put my trust and belief has been something I hope to continue for the rest of my life.

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting.
Amen.

I caught this on Hulu today and thought it was great.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights from Seth Brau on Vimeo.

I really appreciated this creative and important video.

Many of you have heard of the website change.org where citizens can post ideas for change in the government, the top 10 of which will be presented to President Obama on his first day in office.  One that I am particularly hopeful about is establishing a Department of Peace and appointing a Secretary of Peace.  To read more and to add your own vote to this go here. It is currently the #6 idea, and if it keeps up the momentum it will be one of the final 10 presented on day one.  Please go vote.

Tonight as a nation we elected Barack Obama to the highest office in our country.  I am grateful for the opportunity our country has been given at this time.  An opportunity to practice a new kind of politics that is about finding common ground and working towards a more just society rather than the politics of polarization whose goal is simply to win no matter the cost.  I am grateful for the opportunity we have to become good stewards of God’s creation.  I am grateful for the opportunity our country has to cooperate with and work alongside other nations for peace.  I am grateful for the opportunity we may have to ensure that no citizen is denied health care or is denied coverage.  I am grateful for the opportunity we have to turn the page on trickle-down economics that do not honor the “least of these” among us.  I am grateful for much tonight.

But while I am grateful for the unique opportunities I think Barack Obama presents in this time, I am not breathing a sigh of relief, as if somehow President Obama would steer history towards the Kingdom of God, as if the fate of the world lies in the hands of people as unimportant as Presidents and Senators.

No.  I firmly believe that the fate of the world lies in the hands of a poor Jewish carpenter born to a teenage mother in the Middle East.  A carpenter who followed God - not to a position of power and honor - but to his own unjust execution by people who held power and honor.  I believe in a God whose Kingdom is like a mustard seed, a small annoying virus that works from the grassroots until it takes over.  And this is why I am grateful for tonight, but I am not overjoyed, I am not elated, I do not think “THIS is the moment we’ve been waiting for.”  Nor do I despair, like some of my Christian brothers and sisters who opposed Obama.  I do not despair, as if the fate of the world rests on Barack’s shoulders, as if God’s hands are tied by people as unimportant as Presidents.

I, like many of my Christian brothers and sisters, do not agree with President Obama’s stance on abortion.  But I am praying that despite our opinions on the matter that we will be able to work with him towards a more just society where abortions are fewer and fewer.  That is common ground I believe I share with Barack.  We should not demonize him for the next four years, and waste an opportunity to work with him towards a common goal, just so we can elect a “pro-life” candidate in 2012.  By all means vote for a pro-life candidate in 2012.  But right now Barack is the President, so let’s make our voices heard, not waste time tearing down a fellow believer.  Let’s pray that Barack is a good and decent and wise leader, no matter how you feel about his politics.  I’ve been praying for George W. Bush these past eight years, though most of those years I was very opposed to his policies.  I hope you will join me in praying for Barack Obama no matter how you feel about his politics.

In some ways I am sad for Barack.  I think that he geniunely wants the best for this country and for the world.  But I also believe that few positions in this world corrupt a human being like that of the President of the United States.  I think it’s an office that takes good people and chews them up and that few people have what it takes to escape with their integrity (especially as Christians).  I hope that doesn’t happen to Barack… but I’m afraid that it will.  I’ve often thought in the past that the kind of people who want to become President deserve what it does to them, but I don’t feel that way about Barack.  So while I’m praying that God gives him wisdom and integrity I will also pray that the power he has does not corrupt him as it certianly would me.  And I’ll also be praying that when Barack’s agenda and the agenda of Jesus collide (as it does in all our lives) that Jesus would prevail against Barack and against me… for the good of us both.

If you are feeling confident about who to vote for then get out there and vote today!

But, if your conscience is bothering you… if you feel like you can’t give either candidate your “YES,” then feel free to abstain.  There’s nothing in scripture that says it’s your duty to vote.

Derek Webb put it this way, “Voting is a legal right, like carrying a gun or having an abortion. And I can abstain from doing anything that I have a legal right to if it violates my conscience.”  For more check out his essay titled, How Then Shall We Vote?

This is a letter that I sent to Focus on the Family in response to a fictional story they sent out to Evangelicals attacking Senator Obama.

Dr Dobson,
I recently read the fictional letter Focus on the Family published from a make-believe Christian in the year 2012.  The tone and content of this letter saddened me greatly.  I grew up in rural New Mexico listening to Focus on the Family in the car with my mom.  I came to faith in Christ while I was a teenager in the Church of the Nazarene, a denomination we both belong to.  I respected Focus on the Family.

But I feel that over the years your organization has begun to drift away from a focus on the Kingdom of God and has tried to serve two masters - God and the Republican party.  I do not agree with everything Barack Obama stands for.  I am consistently pro-life, and I do not agree with Senator Obama’s stance of being pro-choice.  However, Senator Obama is pushing the Democratic party towards a goal I think conservatives and liberals can both work towards - FEWER abortions.  I believe that in God’s eternal Kingdom there will be no abortions, no death penalties and no war.  I believe that peace is God’s will.  And that’s why I am consistently pro-life.  I see senator Obama, motivated by his faith in Christ, working towards a society with FEWER abortions.  And to be honest, I’m just plain tired of voting for Republicans who say they agree with my pro-life stance (only on abortion), but do nothing to work towards FEWER abortions.  I would rather see abortion rates drop than have politicians who say they agree with me but do nothing to address the problem.

I have become very disillusioned with the motives of the Republican party regarding abortion.  As I see their policies I see a party who is concerned with two main things, unbridled militarism and capitalism.  I believe that both unbridled militarism and capitalism are dangerous unhealthy things that work against the Kingdom of God in this world.  I believe that the Kingdom of God is about unbridled peace and generosity.  I have become cynical about Republicans lofty words regarding the issue of abortion because I think it has become the carrot on the stick they use to gain our votes.  And once in office they go about the business of militarism and unregulated capitalism while doing little to nothing to decrease abortion rates.  And think about it - if Republicans DID outlaw abortion there would be no more carrot to hang in front of us.  In short, I think they are deceiving us and I am sad to see your organization fight so hard for a party that is lying to and manipulating Christians.

However the most disheartening part of your letter is the doomsday tone used.  When you put so much emphasis on the impending doom and gnashing of teeth that you think an Obama presidency will bring about I can’t help but be deeply suspicious that you have put your HOPE in the Republican party.  That somewhere along the way, you lost sight of your savior and opted instead for conservative politics.

I hope that Barack Obama is elected president.  I simply think he will do a better job than Senator McCain.  But if Senator McCain is elected I’m not going to lose one minute of sleep over it.  Because I believe the HOPE of the world is Jesus Christ, not some politician.  Likewise, I don’t think a politician can turn history down some distopian path that would derail the Kingdom of God from breaking into our world.  God will be God no matter who is elected.

I am not opposed to Christians participating in politics, but I am saddened by what I think is the way your organization has lost sight of its first true love - Jesus of Nazareth and has fallen in love with the Republican party.  Please… come back.  We miss having you on the side of the Kingdom.

If you’re a political junkie like myself, you might be interested in this website showing the history of every American Presidential election.  Especially interesting is the divide between the north and the south (with the south going Democratic) that began in 1860 (Lincoln) and kept popping up year after year (especially 1924) all the way until 1980.  Also interesting is to see the four consecutive landslide elections that FDR pulled off between 1932 and 1944.

www.270towin.com

Krista Tippet, of Speaking of Faith radio fame, recently did two really great interviews exploring the unexpected ways that faith is engaged in politics on the left and the right.  Each podcast is about an hour long, but is well worth the time!

Faith Life of the Party - Part I, The Left

Faith Life of the Party - Part II, The Right

I’ve been eagerly awaiting Oliver Stone’s new film W. for several months now.  I must admit when I saw the first teaser trailer I thought it was going to be a roast-fest at the expense of a president I am less than fond of.  So, somewhat deviously, I was looking forward to the chance to see Bush exposed and raked over the coals.  There’s a ton of material I thought would do the job quite well - the rush to invade Iraq, the Patriot act, Guantanamo bay, presidential “signing statements,” invoking God to bless invading Iraq, pushing Powell out of the administration, faking evidence for WMDs, the Plame scandal, Katrina, etc.  And while W. at least acknowledges most of these instances of governing incompetence or arrogance the film is less about these details and more about the journey of George W. Bush.

And I found the character of Bush to be incredibly compelling.  This is a story of an underdog, a guy with a booming personality, an underachiever trying to find his place in his own family… and in the world.  Bush’s family name gets him out of the kind of trouble that would ruin many people, and the result is a man-boy who has a hard time taking responsibility for his actions and who lives in the shadow of his cold father.  There is so much that this president has done that absolutely makes my blood boil… and during the entire film I couldn’t help but root for him.  He has screwed up so many things in his life (and the film doesn’t shy away from his rocky past) that I found myself hoping that he’d pull it together, that he would find his place in the world, that he could kick his drinking habit, that he would become a successful politician… that he would become better than his father.  This is a man about which I can count areas of overlapping ideology on one hand (I think he has done a great job in funding AIDS prevention & treatment in Africa)… and yet I just wanted him to win.

With the exception of Richard Dreyfuss‘ Cheney and Jeffrey Wright’s Colin Powell the cabinet members are were a bit two-dimensional and at times bordered on SNL spoofs.  Thandie Newton was transformed into a spitting image of Condoleezza Rice but her performance seemed like it was better suited for comedy than a serious film.  But we can forgive Stone & Co. for not mining the depths of all the cabinet members characters, because after all this is a film about dubya.  The cabinet members really are orbiting the central personality and taking the time to develop them as characters would have been really tedious.  Casting Josh Brolin in the lead role of Bush was a stroke of genius.  Brolin rose above the SNL spoofishness that some of the other characters seemed stuck in.  His portrayal of Bush was brash, insecure, but above all really compelling.

Brolin’s performance helps remind us why even if the guy doesn’t make a good president, he’s still very likable.  For all the calculating, macheovelian policy of characters like Cheney, Rove and Rumsfeld they lacked the “heart” and people skills of someone like Bush.  For his part, he seemed less invested in the overall big picture of the technocratic policy elements and trusted his neo-conservative cabinet members to do the thinking for him - just so long as everyone acknowledged that in the end he was the decider.  Then he would help “translate” their macheovelian politics into words that “real Americans” could grab onto.

So if you’re looking for a roast of Bush, you may leave feeling like you got to know the guy’s story and that despite his politics you can connect to his character on a human level.  It’s probably a good reminder, especially for a Christian like me, that every person is bigger than their faults and everyone’s story is more complex than what simply meets the eye.