Lessons from Mr. Bonhoeffer

Politics are not the task of a Christian. -Dietrich Bonhoeffer

There's no way to sugarcoat it, so I'm just going to come out and say it: I cannot stand Sarah Palin. Whew, that feels so much better.

I liked her at one point in time, back when she was McCain's running mate in the '08 election. She caught a lot of flak, but I stood hopeful that she would knock them all dead and prove herself worthy of an executive position, because, even though my opinions have changed drastically since then, I thought she had more executive experience than Barack Obama.

But now, as of 2010, I cannot stand her. A book about how awesome she is and a show that makes too many references to the "Russia" pun from SNL has quickly lowered my respect for her.

I cannot stand Sarah Palin.

Is this opinion important? No, because, as Mr. Bonhoeffer stated, it's not my job as a Christian to get deep into politics, which is what I see so many Christians doing. As proven many times over, it ruins our reputation, seeing as how we cling to the Republican Party as the savior of our nation and tell everyone else where they can go.

New flash: God loves Democrats, too. The GOP is not God's hand-picked race. When He looks at us, he doesn't see our blue t-shirts or red ties. He sees us as what we really are: helpless lambs in need of a Shepherd. He doesn't choose by political party, so why do we make it seem that way?

Honestly, if Jesus were here in these times and he saw how the Republicans acted and claimed Him in all of it, He'd find some more tables to turn over.

And if the Right had interaction with Jesus today, they would shun Him, just like the Pharisees did, because he hung out with the "liberals" of that time. And you know how contagious and ungodly those dadgum liberals are.

Jim Wallis had an excellent point. Here's an excerpt from the introduction of his book, God's Politics:

God is not partisan: God is not a Republican or a Democrat. When either party tries to politicize God, or co-opt religious communities for their political agendas, they make a terrible mistake. The best contribution of religion is precisely not to be ideologically predictable nor loyally partisan. Both parties, and the nation, must let the prophetic voice of religion be heard. Faith must be free to challenge both right and left from a consistent moral ground.

"Voting based on morals" is a joke. Find me one moral person on Capitol Hill and I'll be the first to cast my vote for them. Until then, I'll be here at my politically apathetic stand, waiting for prophecy to unfold.

When it comes to this, I'm with Bonhoeffer. It's not my place to get involved in one of the most corrupt professions in the world. I'm here to be a light for Him.

I still don't care for Palin, but what does it matter? My goal to do His work, not waste my time and breath fighting a senseless battle.

And back into my liberal hole I go.

Default Unchanged

If you'll take a moment to look at my Facebook profile picture, you'll see me on the left, standing at a podium, and my brother, Nick, standing off to the right. The story behind this picture took place a couple months ago at a Missionary Kid retreat where my brother and I participated in a talent show in which we performed a skit where I acted as a professor for Dating 101 and my brother was the teacher's aide. In this skit, I gave my lecture while Nick acted out the various things I was talking about. Hilarity ensued.

My reason for explaining the story behind my profile pic? It's what everyone's been doing on Facebook for the past couple of days. Nearly every one of my Facebook friends have been switching their defaults to a cartoon characters in honor of victims of child abuse. The idea is to remember what childhood was like, thus coming to the revelation of how awful it is to have it ruined.

Basically, if you are a good person and you hate child abuse, you WILL switch your default. Because it would be a travesty if you didn't.

Well, I plan on going against the fad and leaving the memorable moment of my brother and I wowing the masses with our comedic skills up for all to see.

Does this mean I am condoning violence against children and excusing pedophilia? Am I saying that I don't care about one of the biggest social issues in our country by not participating in a newly found internet meme?

Absolutely not. In fact, I am just as distraught as you are about this issue.

So why am I not doing this? It's ineffective. I'm not going to save children from having their innocence taken away by putting Bugs Bunny as my default. I can flood your news feed with statuses about how terrible child abuse is and beg you to copy and paste it if you feel the same way. I can even go the spiritual route and update about my God who is more powerful than any child rapist, but that would be a waste of Facebook space.

Like I said, this is an issue that I find horrifying. And yes. I do wish that no child would ever have to go through anything like that.

Now, don't go switch your default back to the original pic on my account. What you want to do with your profile is none of my concern.

I just would like to present to you a question: why exactly are you switching your default? Do you really have a passion to help prevent this horrible crime? Or is it because all the cool kids are doing it and you don't want to look like a stiff, uncaring jerk by not having Marvin the Martian up until Monday?

Well, here's a bit of good news: you don't have to switch your pic. I'm not and I can probably show you a couple of others who aren't either. It's NOT a big deal. And God won't smite you for not doing what's popular on Facebook right now.

The sad truth is that we cannot stop child abuse altogether. We can hide every kid and arrest and execute every pedophile we find, but we cannot stop this awful crime.

We can try to prevent it though. Churches and business can do background checks, more security measures, etc. There are many ways were you can get involved and do something to help the cause that Facebook is trying to promote.

I'm sure it was a good intention in the beginning. All I'm saying is don't switch your default just because everyone else is. If you truly are passionate about this and you want to make a difference, get involved. Don't go with the current fad and act as if you did your part.

That is all. Carry on.