obama, yo mama

so, the hottest guy in american politics, at least according to me even though i live overseas and only watch the communist news network (cnn international),is barak obama. i mean, the guy has the political clout to force hillary rodam clinton to announce her candidacy for president early. people are going nuts about this dude. he's black, good looking, well spoken, a professing christian, and in my opinion, too young. i did read his 'call to renewal' keynote address and thought he said some good things, for instance:

"Conservative leaders have been all too happy to exploit this gap, consistently reminding evangelical Christians that Democrats disrespect their values and dislike their Church, while suggesting to the rest of the country that religious Americans care only about issues like abortion and gay marriage; school prayer and intelligent design."

I would definately agree that your political opionions are based on your religion. I would also agree that there are other issues that Christians should be concerned about besides gay marriage and teaching evolution in schools. I'm sure Obama is referring the the far left of the Christian circle, or regular readers of Sojourners, who constantly remind Christians that Christ is against war and hates seeing poverty. However, where, or is there a line to be drawn here? Is Obama trying to give us a middle of the road candidate so we don't have to say I'm pro life so I HAVE to vote republican even though I hate Republican views on the poor? If he is, he's not succeeding because he is prochoice like the rest of his party and he is for more government control of society.

I know this doesn't make sense yet, because neither does the election or the world, but until then, I'll just keep musing liek a redneck.

Oh, and here are a couple of other things I pulled from his speach that i don't have time to muse about just yet.

"Now this is going to be difficult for some who believe in the inerrancy of the
Bible, as many evangelicals do. But in a pluralistic democracy, we have no
choice. Politics depends on our ability to persuade each other of common aims
based on a common reality. It involves the compromise, the art of what's
possible. At some fundamental level, religion does not allow for compromise.
It's the art of the impossible. If God has spoken, then followers are expected
to live up to God's edicts, regardless of the consequences.

To base one's life on such uncompromising commitments may be sublime, but to base our policy making on such commitments would be a dangerous thing. And if you doubt that, let me give you an example. We all know the story of Abraham and Isaac. Abraham is ordered by God to offer up his only son, and without argument, he takes Isaac to the mountaintop, binds him to an altar, and raises his knife, prepared to act as God has commanded.

Of course, in the end God sends down an angel to intercede at the very last minute, and Abraham passes God's test of devotion.

But it's fair to say that if any of us leaving this church saw Abraham on a roof of a building raising his knife, we would, at the very least, call the police and expect the Department of Children and Family Services to take Isaac away from Abraham. We would do so because we do not hear what Abraham hears, do not see what Abraham sees, true as those experiences may be. So the best we can do is act in accordance with those things that we all see, and that we all hear, be it common laws or basic reason. "

Interesting.

I can't see? Why i like chapel

i grew up in a christian environment in a fairly conservative area of memphis, tn. where most of the religious or moral dialog revolved around the issue of predestination: does God know before He creates us who will choose Him, or is it our decision or choice? i was well versed in Biblical narratives on the stories of the Bible to the point the Bible became academic. i was required to attend weekly chapels where we had "spiritual" emphasis weeks where we had a speaker who challenged us to think more about God. i enjoyed these weeks, even though through the repetition of songs like "holiness, holiness is what i long for, holiness is what i need" usually were rewritten in my mind to say "a new song, a new song is what i long for, a new song is what i need." and then, since the speaker was usually a baptist, we had several alter calls where students would go and say they had found God, cried a lot, and then told everyone how excited they were that they had found a new life that had meaning. this stuff bugged me, but like i said, i had no inherent problems with the week b/c it did challenge me everyday to come face to face with god, which is never a bad thing.
so, now i'm older and instead of being a student, i'm faculty. the songs have changed somewhat, but not a whole lot b/c everytime i see the holiness song on the screen, all i can think about is my high school version. i'm also at the point where some spiritual stuff starts to bug b/c i've seen the effects of emotionally driven spirituality. its not relationship based, but based on a feeling of a group mentality which makes me feel like religion is more of a group think mentality rather than a personal relationship.
bottom line, here's what i'm worried about: last week in the chapel that i announced and therefore in some sort of fashion supported, there was a time where students were asked to take off their stand up and take off their blindfolds to see who the Christians were around them. what does this convey to our students? yes, it does show them that there are more people on the same path in life as they are. there are other people out there who are christians and who like screaming "i love Jesus," but at the same time it brings pictures to my mind of a crusade-like mentality where "christians of the world should unite" to defeat, or convert the nonChristians. yes, Christians are called to spread their beliefs with others. yes, the Lord says to go in groups and encourages us not to go at it alone. Afterall, He had 12 friends with Him. But, at the same time, does He command us to go in groups and start claiming that some of us are His and others aren't? would He ask us to work with and pray for those who are sitting down?
i liked chapel b/c it caused me to think about my relationship with Christ. am i to meet others where they are and live out Christs's life that way, or am I to differentiate myself as a Christian and then see what happens?