Congratulations to him and all his supporters.

Here is my prayer for the next president. May he run the country well for the next four years. May he strive daily to follow after God’s purpose for this nation. May those of us who have Christian conservative convictions do the following. May we pray for him daily, support him where we can, and may we fight for the soul of our country to follow after what we believe is the best path for America and may that be God’s path and way.

May God bless America.

There is also something about electing a black president that does catch part of the American dream. I grew up in the South and I have seen racism in my own family and also in the culture around me. It disgust me to see that in the 21st century. Obama is a articulate well spoken man. He first seemed to be someone that could lead well. That would definitely help heal some of the wounds that run deep between the races, parties, and ever changing social landscape of America.

Yet in the end I could not vote for the man. Martin Luther King Jr. once said “I have a dream of a day when people will not be judged by the color of the skin but by the character of their heart.” I try my best to each day follow that God inspired advice. With that in mind there are two major reasons I could not vote for Barak Obama.

First I don’t like his policy on human life. The most important issue to me by far is the sanctity of human life. Obama is radically pro-choice (that choice is murder). His words on the subject are callous. Referring to his daughter in a hypothetical situation of being found pregnant he said: “I wouldn’t want my daughter punished with a kid.” That is beyond callous. As a Christian there is no way that I can vote for a guy who thinks children how ever they are conceived could ever be considered a punishment.

Second, the day before the general election I still have no idea who Barak Obama is. What is his religious views? It seems to be black liberation theology. Why wasn’t that explained in the mainstream media. Are the guys at getreligion.com the only ones that can talk about religion and how it shapes a candidates thought process? If that theology is his position then it is nothing more than Marxism mixed with black racism. That certainly does not reflect the uniting ideas of true equality as found in the New Testament. What is his understanding of fairness? I don’t understand how 40% of the 95% of people he is promising a tax refund can even qualify. Those who don’t pay taxes can not get a tax cut. There is nothing to cut. I don’t like it when politician or anyone plays the semantic game. It sounds like welfare to me. How is that fair? How does his religious views effect this? What about the concept of equal sacrifice? I think the fair tax is far more biblical than wealth redistribution. By the way the fact that Rick Warren had Obama for a hour answering questions about his faith and policy and never asked these questions is seriously disturbing to me. Shame on you Rick for not helping clarify these issue for your fellow Christians.

I think Barak Obama may win. Yet he will do so because the media as a whole dropped the ball and didn’t really seek to see who this man is. To be honest I don’t think any of us really know. He could be a really great guy or he could be the worst candidate to ever become president. The mainstream media simply didn’t challenge the man or his history. The media was and still is in love with the idea of a charismatic black man that could atone for all the sins that America has done to black people in America.

I really want to know more about his relationship with the people in his life. What about Resco, Bill Ayers, Jeremiah Wright, and what about leftist groups like Acorn? Why hasn’t the media helped clear this up? Where has he traveled to, how have those experiences shaped him, and what is his view of a a fair and just society.

I and my wife voted early on Friday afternoon. Our wait was about a hour and half long. Last Monday I had made up my mind and we finally made it to the polls for early voting last Friday at noon. I held my eight month old daughter for about half that time as she slept in my arms as we snaked up to the slow moving line waiting to vote. It took me a long time on how I was going to vote for the presidential ticket. I had originally planned not to vote unless it was for a Third Party candidate. I really want to see the end of the two party system of just Democrat and just Republicans. Sadly none of the major Third Party candidates appealed to me that much. Barr is a joke. He has hurt the Libertarian ticket in my opinion maybe beyond repair. Chuck Baldwin seemed interesting but he didn’t even make the ballot in NC. For full disclosure, I voted for Ron Paul in the Republican primary, my wife voted for Huckabee. Neither of us where die-hard McCain supporters.

I really liked McCain in 2000. The McCain of 2008 seemed to be inconsistent. He seems like part McCain 2000 mixed with whoever the Republican spin doctors were that tried to remake him. They wanted him always smiling and didn’t want him to get angry or appear to be too emotional. I hate spin. I voted for McCain in 2000 in that primary and wished he had won. I think Bush was a awful president on pretty much every single fiscal issue that his administration has touched. The GWB version of compasionate conservatism did lend to the fiscal mess America is now in. It was coupled with a version of a dead Republicanism that had died after the 1998 Clinton scandal where the RNC was obsessed with impeachment and forgot about reforming America, coupled with bad housing policy from the Democratic Carter era that got steam under Clinton and again under Bush, and American greed for “the good life” which has led to the big mess our economy is now in.

Bush did do some good for the country but on a whole it was not a well run administration. In 2008 I voted for Ron Paul in the primary because I felt McCain wasn’t being himself. Huckabee didn’t impress me in that he didn’t seem to articulate what he would do as President, Thompson didn’t have the fire to fight, Romney just didn’t impress me until ironically his succession speech, and Giluini is pro-choice so I couldn’t support him on those grounds. Ron Paul for better or worse is always Ron Paul. I think McCain listened way to much to his campaign advisers. As a result his just didn’t seem genuine. The story of John McCain is very remarkable an admirable. Ironically, in the last month of the campaign he has seemed more like the McCain of 2000. He started talking more about his views (excluding the pandering bailout package which he supposedly supports) and started to sound more like a old school Reagan style Republican. I liked that and decided to vote for him for that reason, as did my wife.

Oh, as for the pick of Sarah Palin as VP, I think Palin was a mixed bag for the ticket. Her first appearance was awesome it really helped rally the base of the RNC behind McCain. Her media appearances have been a mixed bag. My guess is she likely will be a fresh face for a new kind of Republicanism in America. Her pro-life stance is admirable. I think we will see her out there again if the McCain/Palin ticket doesn’t win this election. I think what hurt her most was listening to the same advisers that tried to change John McCain into someone he is not and told her not to speak to the press. It cut into her reformer maverick image. Listening to those advisors was a huge mistake and it may have cost them a election.

Regardless of who wins I will be praying for them. If it is Barak Obama I hope some of his positions change and that the change he brings to America curries the favor and blessings of God. If it is McCain I will pray for the same thing. It is about all I can do for now.

I am hoping that McCain gets a big boost for his pick and I hope this is only the beginning of Mrs. Palin’s national career. I also hope Mrs. Palin takes the opportunity to explain why pro-life people are pro-life and not pro-death. Mrs. Palin will have a national platform to explain her choice to have her last child whom doctors advised killing while in the womb simply because it had downs syndrome. The issue for those of us who are pro-life is just that, it is all about life. We are pro that is to say for life, even life that is not convenient or going to be easy for the woman caring it to term. I think Mrs. Palin will able to speak to that issue better than anyone else since she and her husband had to make the decision to have a child with down syndrome. I think that Mr. McCain has now made a powerful case to vote McCain-Palin. I hope that they win and the McCain ticket now has confirmed two more votes from my wife and me. The Maverick made the right choice and I hope America does as well.

to be continued in another post.

Bob Barr the Libertarian candidate for president! Not Bar Bar the possibly Republican elephant!

I get kissed by the sun
Each morning
Put my feet on a hardwood floor
I get to hear my children laughing
Down the hall through the
Bedroom door
Sometimes I sit on my
Front porch swing
Just soaking up the day
I think to myself, I think to myself
This world is a beautiful place

Chorus:
I have been blessed
And I feel like I’ve found my way
I thank God for all I’ve been given
At the end of every day
I have been blessed
With so much more than I deserve
To be here with the ones
That love me
To love them so much it hurts
I have been blessed

Across a crowded room
I know you know what I’m thinking
By the way I look at you
And when we’re lying in the quiet
And no words have to be said
I think to myself, I think to myself
This love is a beautiful gift

Repeat Chorus

When I’m singing my kids to sleep
When I feel you holding me
I know

Repeat Chorus

Lying here with you
Listening to the rain
Smiling just to see the smile upon your face
These are the moments I thank God that I’m alive
These are the moments I’ll remember all my life
I found all I’ve waited for
And I could not ask for more
Looking in your eyes
Seeing all I need
Everything you are is everything to me
These are the moments
I know heaven must exist
These are the moments I know all I need is this
I have all I’ve waited for
And I could not ask for more
Chorus
I could not ask for more than this time together
I could not ask for more than this time with you
Every prayer has been answered
Every dream I have’s come true
And right here in this moment is right where I’m meant to be
Here with you here with me

These are the moments I thank God that I’m alive
These are the moments I’ll remember all my life
I’ve got all I’ve waited for
And I could not ask for more

Chorus

I could not ask for more than the love you give me ‘Coz it’s all I’ve waited for
And I could not ask for more
I could not ask for more

Around the 400s when Christianity became the established religion and went through a 1000 year period without a lot of critical thought hence the often right title of “dark ages” ensued. It stayed this way to the starting of the 1600s, Genesis 1Genesis 1 just wasn’t that big of a issue for a millennium and a half. Then came those pesky Reformers and Protestants who began to question everything. Yet sadly the Church hadn’t exactly bothered to do a lot of studying of ancient cultures including the Jewish. The Reformers and Protestants had a text but amongst the other issues of the day they certainly couldn’t spend all their time pondering Genesis 1Genesis 1 when they were trying to rediscover doctrines such as soteriology (how we get saved) and Christology (who Jesus is and what that means to us). We can and should forgive them for not coming to consensus on the issue.

They did however start a bunch of exploration and made it legal to do so, something the established Catholic Church had not done at that time. By the 1800s a lot of Christians had turned to studying the sciences and some of the new discoveries where in their view not compatible with Genesis 1Genesis 1. Sadly they should have sought to see if they understood Genesis 1Genesis 1 correctly. Enigo Montoya said: “You keep using that word. I do not think that word means what you think it means.” This has been the sad case of how Genesis 1Genesis 1 has been treated for centuries by most everyone who has approached the text. In recent centuries, people on both sides of the “Evolution-Creation” debate have used the text but it doesn’t mean they understand fully what it meant or means.

After Darwin came along and gave a scientific ground for the long standing theory for unguided creation of biological life, the Protestant and Reformed churches took a page out of the really dark days of Catholicism and stated that any questioning was wrong and dangerous. Ironic considering how they got their start. Thus they unwittingly made science which had blossomed in the Reformation countries into a over night enemy of the Church. That is dangerous business since all truth including scientific truth is supposed to glorify our heavenly Father. It is true that questions based on faulty premises could lead to false conclusions and bad reactions. Yet improper handling of a touchy situation can also spin off equally egregious problems like the emergence of Christian fundamentalism. Fundamentalism began as a reaction to the emerging scientific field blossoming around Darwinian theory. At that time biology was almost a mystical science and many believers simply didn’t know how to respond to the issue. Fundamentalist with their own skepticism and a dogmatic narrow understanding of their own key text on the matter, which is Genesis 1Genesis 1, created a “gulf” that need have never been created between faith and science. The irony is dogmatic religious skeptics ended up butting heads with dogmatic misinformed and ill-informed devout believers creating a rather nasty impasse for both sides. The problem is both were arguing on faulty presuppositions about Genesis 1Genesis 1.

Let me be clear. I am a conservative. I do not believe we can not redact everything but certainly we must be willing to go “I wonder if when I read this I’m getting the same thing the first hearers and then readers got out of it”" and “how much of my 21st c. baggage including religious indoctrination and scientific pre-conceived notions have made me miss what God intended for this text?” That is exactly what a true conservative does. They ask questions about their own views to make sure that they line up with the truth and defend that truth even when it requires tedious work that may be at times uncomfortable. The truth is always worth it.

We live in age with a plethora of translations that are getting closer and closer to the original language. William Tyndale said “a boy that driveth the plough shall know more of the Scripture than the clergy” (David Daniell, introduction to Tyndale’s New Testament, trans. William Tyndale, 1989). This of course is true since a ploughboy or plumber, mother, IT director, or anyone else dedicated to the Truth can be used more by God than the supposed learned clergy. However, I am seriously beginning to believe that the plough boy in the field can read the text and be spoken to by God yet without the context of why what he is reading was originally wrote it will be lost to him. For him to get this clarifying element he would need to study the basics of the Hebrew language and culture. That same ploughboy would have his head spin and praise how awesome his God is when he gets the full picture of the text in the original context.

So what are we going to do? We are going to try and strip away 34 centuries of cultural baggage. We are going to attempt to find out how Genesis 1Genesis 1 came about, what it meant and what it means, and how to rethink Genesis and see what God is doing in our world. We are going to do this by getting into the culture of Moses (or whoever wrote Genesis) and understand how Genesis 1Genesis 1 came to be at the front of the Bible.