How to Ruin a Dinner Conversation

What is it they say... never talk about sex, religion or politics at the dinner table? Well, I'm going to mix them. And in light of my recent (much-deserved) swipes at Democrat John Edwards, I'm going to provide equal time by sniping at some of the GOP field, at least in passing. Right now the "big 3" Republicans are Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, and Mitt Romney. All three are going to allegedly make some sort of a play for the votes of "values voters" or "social conservatives" like me. Well, here's a news flash: if you want my vote, start by keeping your darn pants up! The main reason I didn't like Bill Clinton had nothing to do with politics--it was that he was unfaithful to his wife. I believed, then and now, that somebody who violates the marriage covenant with his wife and with God by violating the 7th commandment is lower than low, and that such a lack of character can and will show up in other areas under pressure. Of the three main GOP guys (plus Newt Gingrich, who gets mentioned if only for being a former history teacher), only the Mormon is on his first wife. Rudy's wife found out about her replacement in a press conference, for pete's sake! This doesn't mean I'm in love with Mitt Romney, nor does it mean that I will definitely not vote for the eventual GOP nominee if I think the other choice is even worse (like Hillary). But, PLEASE! How tough is it to find a decent man in Washington these days?

Here's an area where I think we evangelical Christian types need to tighten up. I read Dobson. I like Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council. I think "family values" are among the preeminent issues of our day (which is why I think the issue of judges is so important). But we on the "Christian Right" get all worked up about the issue of "gay marriage" and all its permutations, while that encompasses, what, 3-4% of the population at best? But we have gotten so used to adultery, fornication, and divorce that we almost entirely ignore the way they run rampant through our society, leaving something like half of all families in their wake. As Jesus said of the Pharisees, we are straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel! Now don't get me wrong--I don't want to swallow any gnats, either. I'm not saying that until we deal with our issues in the hetero community that we have to give a pass to potentially damaging social changes--far from it. Adding more wrongs is never a way to get to right. But we ought to at least recognize that sexual sin comes in many varieties, and not think we're oh-so-moral for not watching "Will & Grace" while laughing our heads off at the promiscuity in "Friends" (or whatever the shows are nowadays--my TV is limited to sports and "Walker, Texas Ranger").

So, in the primaries, don't expect unbridled enthusiasm for the adultery caucus from this angle. And even my weasel-like squirming to maintain my options come general-election time won't change that. I'm very tired of voting against the "lesser of two evils." There will come a time, maybe this time, when that old line doesn't work anymore. But that's a post for a different day

Edwards Redux

I haven't been able to log on to blogger at home, so this is one of those after-hours posts from work that I hope our IT guy doesn't mind. Just a postscript to the Edwards story from a few days ago. Edwards "fired," then "un-fired" the anti-Catholic blogger. Today, she resigned "voluntarily" and apparently within the course of a few hours was back to the same kind of rhetoric that stirred the pot to begin with. Poor John Edwards. Now EVERYBODY is mad at him. If he fires her, it's potentially his Bill Clinton-like "Sister Souljah" moment with the nuts on the far left. If he doesn't, it shows solidarity with the base. But to do, un-do, and then breathe a sign of relief at the re-do--now that's a real sign of spinelessness. Even if his hair won't blow in the wind, apparently he will.

Again, apologies to all who are offended for the snarkiness. I don't think it's partisan to go after Edwards; it's just easy. Give me a few minutes to compose and I'll say something obnoxious about Rudy Giuliani, too.

A Little Political Snarkiness

I've tried. I've really tried. Those of you who know me and my big mouth can vouch for me--I've been blogging for over a month, and I have yet to post anything on politics that could be taken as anything other than good-natured and even-handed. Equal time for both sides, pleas for common ground, as much "why can't we get along" as Rodney King, only minus the riots. But today I can't help it--I'm going to be snarky about John Edwards. The big news on the blogosphere today is that he hired a blogger, one Amanda Marcotte, and now may have fired her. Seems she has posted some not-so-family-friendly stuff on her own blog--a few droppings of the f-bomb and assorted bad language, plus some vitriolic stuff that was gratuitously insulting to Christians, conservatives, and others. There are dire predictions that his initial hiring of her will hurt with the center who decide the general election, while his firing of her will offend the netroot/nutroot dem base who decide the nomination. Now, this is a little bit of nothing, substance-wise. But it is just further evidence that old John just isn't ready for prime time. A week ago he was in the news for similar foolishness--he's in the process of building the largest house in his NC county. It's a 28,000 square foot mansion with a full basketball court, squash court, 2 stages... the works. Now, I don't mind that he is buying a nice house; he can afford it, and he has earned the money practicing law. But if you're going to run for president on a campaign of being the only guy in the race who cares about the poor, and pepper all your rhetoric with talk of "Two Americas," those who are comfortable and those who struggle, it is only common political horse sense not to build a house that one of the two Americas could live in with room to spare. Again, it's not DOING IT that's the problem, it's the apparent lack of two brain cells bumping against each other that doing it belies. Somebody tell me again why this guy is among the front-runners! He got beaten for the nomination last go around by John Kerry. JOHN KERRY. You, know, the really unappealing guy who couldn't even beat a weak George W. Bush. And the main knock on him then was that he had no experience (1 term in the senate). Now, the only new experience he has is losing one more election! As I have written before, Obama with no experience seems like a blank slate onto which one can project their own hopes and dreams. Edwards with the same resume screams out "empty suit!" Now, obviously I don't plan on voting for the democrat nominee at this point. But Biden, I understand. Obama intrigues me. Even Hillary, bless her heart, has been running since around Watergate and makes some sense as a candidate. But this guy? PLEASE. OK. End of rant. Sorry. Maybe I'll post something ugly about Rudy Giuliani soon... just to be fair.

Ordering Your Private World, Week 5

Hope for the Driven Person:
“Can the driven person be changed? Most certainly. It begins when such a person faces up to the fact that he is operating according to drives and not calls. That discovery is usually made in the blinding, searching light of an encounter with Christ.” (page 48)

“Paul the apostle in his pre-Christian days was driven. As a driven man, he studied, he attained, he defended, and he was applauded… later, when he could look back at that life-style with all of its compulsions, he would say, ‘it was all worthless.’ …Paul was driven until Christ called him… when, in complete submission, he asked Jesus Christ, ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ A driven man was converted into a called one.” (page 48)

John—A Picture of a Called Man:
[27] John replied, "God in heaven appoints each person's work. [28] You yourselves know how plainly I told you that I am not the Messiah. I am here to prepare the way for him—that is all. [29] The bride will go where the bridegroom is. A bridegroom's friend rejoices with him. I am the bridegroom's friend, and I am filled with joy at his success. [30] He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less. (John 3:27-30)

Called People Understand Stewardship. Saul acted like the throne belonged to Him. John knew that “his” crowds were only “his” until it was time to turn them over to their real owner, Jesus. “His crowds may be our careers, our assets, our natural and spiritual gifts, our health. Are these things owned, or merely managed in the name of the One who gave them?” (page 54)

Called People Know Exactly Who They Are. John not only knew who he was, but also who he was NOT—the messiah. “…Those whose private worlds are in disarray tend to get their identities confused. They can have an increasing ability to separate role from person. What they do is indistinguishable from who they are.” (page 54)

Called People Possess an Unwavering Sense of Purpose. Notice that John’s purpose was to bring glory to Jesus.

Called People Understand Unswerving Commitment. John was 100% committed to Jesus, to the point of saying “he must increase, but I must decrease.”

Because of These Things, Called People (Like John) are Filled With Peace and Joy.

Becoming Called:
[1] It was now the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius, the Roman emperor. Pilate was governor over Judea; Herod Antipas was ruler over Galilee; his brother Philip was ruler over Iturea and Traconitis; Lysanias was ruler over Abilene. [2] Annas and Caiaphas were the high priests. At this time a message from God came to John son of Zechariah, who was living out in the wilderness. [3] Then John went from place to place on both sides of the Jordan River, preaching that people should be baptized to show that they had turned from their sins and turned to God to be forgiven. (Luke 3:1-3)

The Word of God Came to John… In the WILDERNESS. John experienced both quiet and dependence upon God in the wilderness.

“Look inside. What makes you tick? Why are you doing all of that? What do you hope to gain as a result? Andwhat would be your reaction if it was all taken away?”

Just My Luck

I've been following my friends the Murphys' blog (they are in Samoa--check out their blog with the link to the right if you want to read somebody who's a lot funnier than me). Lately, Philip's posts have centered on his recently-discovered termite problem. For all the times I've thought, "Gee, I wish I could have something cool like Philip to write about," this was definitely NOT one of those times. Naturally, as soon as I began to congratulate myself about not having a major home repair problem, we got one. A couple of nights ago, we got a hard freeze. No big deal, but we never saw it coming, and didn't drip the faucets. I went to take my shower the next morning, and the water sputtered once and then just stopped. Not good. Turned out it was not frozen or broken pipes (I called my father-in-law, who knows everything about hardware, and he made the very smart call to check the water meter... it wasn't spinning, so we had no leak). Of course, nobody has time at 6:30 AM on a workday to deal with such things, so for the last couple of days, we've all shared the kids' bathroom and waited for the weekend. Pop (my father-in-law) graciously offered to swing by this morning and have a look. He came by while we were both at work, and called Mrs. Sal to say there was no big deal--the shower head was gummed up, and he was going to replace it.

Well, she came home at lunchtime to find him just packing up his tool bag. He proudly took her in to show her the repairs. But he took her in to the kids' bathroom--the one that was working JUST FINE. To add insult to injury, not only had he changed the only working shower-head in the house, he had replaced it with the exact same energy-efficient model that I had unscrewed and thrown away when we bought the house because it basically just dribbles on you. So We had gone from two full baths to a bath and half down to... what, a bath and a quarter?

The story does have a happy ending, however. Once Pop realized that (A) it was the master bath that didn't work, and (B) the "broken" shower head really wasn't, he decided that the best possible solution would be to try putting those two together. Voila! All's well that ends well--I can't wait to actually shower in comfort again. Thanks, Pop!

Super Bowl Pick

Just for the record--it's 48 hours before Super Bowl XLI. I'll be happy no matter who wins, as I like both the Bears (ever since the '85 version with the Super Bowl Shuffle) and the Colts (ever since Payton Manning came back for his senior year of college). But this year, my pick is Indy. Count me among those who really hopes Manning adds a ring to the rest of his impressive credentials. My former athletic director, Frank Gendusa, was Payton's high school coach a lifetime ago, and he says that Payton is every bit as classy and squeaky-clean in person as all the ESPN commercials suggest. So, go Colts!

Slow Joe, the Modern Media, and the Death of Media Manners

I've been exhanging emails today with one of my favorite former students, now an Ivy-League collegian who had the opportunity to work as an intern on Joe Biden's campaign last year. He's a Biden fan. I admit, I also have a soft spot for "Slow Joe." He is one of the folks in politics who actually has big ideas, and makes great sense most of the time, especially on foreign policy. Of course, I don't share all his principles or premises, so I don't always agree with his conclusions. But no doubt, his entry into the presidential field makes it certain that the level of debate will be higher and more intelligent. (For the record, I think Newt Gingrich plays a similar role.) Unfortunately, Biden shares a character trait with me: he has a tendency for his mouth to run ahead of his brain. He made some news a couple of days ago when he said about Barack Obama, and the quote is loose, that he is "the first African American, who is articulate, and mainstream, and nice looking, and clean... that's storybook, man." Of course, the media and the usual suspects pounced on him: are you saying that all African-Americans are unclean? Are you saying Jesse Jackson is ugly, or filthy, or inarticulate? And don't even bring up Al Sharpton, who retorted, "you can tell him I take a bath every day."

Now here's the thing. I read that, and didn't think, "what a fool" or "what a racist." I thought, "poor Joe. You can't give them red meat like that." Of course, what he is saying is true at its core--Obama is the first African-American candidate who has a legitimate chance to win, and his personal attributes and background, including his unique transcendance of race, really are "storybook," which is one of the main reasons he does have a chance. But in this era of blogs (present company included) and youtube, every word any public figure says is guaranteed to be taken in the worst possible light by someone. And once that is done, you've got "news," and then the media will gladly run with it. Now, some of this is good--the wide-open nature of the "new media" allows for an opening up of the former monopoly on news once held by just a few "professionals." But I do find myself lamenting a simpler time when "the media" chose not to show pictures of FDR in his wheelchair because it just plain wasn't good for the country.

This doesn't mean that I want some amorphous "them" to decide what I get to see and hear. But I do wish some human charity were extended to the folks who aspire to public office. The bar is so high that many good people might ask, "who in their right mind wants that kind of treatment?" A few years ago, Trent Lott lost his senate leadership post because he said something nice about Strom Thurmond's Dixiecrat run for president in 1948. Now, he was just saying something kind about an old man on the occasion of his final birthday. I don't think anybody looks back with hindsight now and wishes Strom had won. Maybe a very few oldsters think Dewey should have, although old Harry Truman has been treated pretty kindly by history. But the news ran the "story" of Lott's "bombshell" until it took on a life of its own. In basketball, you would call either the Lott or the Biden quotes, "a good no-call." The world is full of no-calls and non-stories. I wish we (all of us) could stop nit-picking the unimportant stuff and spend time on substance.