Friday, August 3, 2012

Of God and Politics



What is it about God and Religion that gets people so revved up?   What is it about Politics that causes this passion to  rise to the surface and often reach the point of anger?

There is something about these two subjects that draw us to proclaim to whoever will listen or entertain our ideas that we are going to show, tooth & nail, that we are right. We are right about God and we are right about Politics.   As a matter of fact, we are going to exercise a self given attribute called: "The right, to be right".

God is a being that I bring up quite a bit.  Politics is a subject that I participate in  with only a few.  I give my opinion if I am asked, I sometimes initiate conversations about politics but, I never "fight" about the issues or assasinate the character of the candidate.   I just don't feel the need to. (And that is not because I do not care).

I have been in rooms with many hot political debates going on. I have seen  fairly reserved, intelligent  people break out of their mold and get down right furious, turn red, and end "conversations" by telling the opposing party affiliate what an idiot they are or how blind and dumb they are for believing what they believe. (Now that's impressive).

The truth is until we die, we will always have political and religious opinions that people will disagree with.  It isn't our job to bash people because they believe that Obama is the greatest president that ever lived or George Bush is the greatest president that ever lived.   Both of these men have had some incredible accomplishments occur during their administrations and both of these men have had some disasters.  No one president is the Messiah who will save us from the mess our country is in.

Yesterday I posted something politically driven on my Facebook page (which I'm contemplating taking down) without giving my direct opinion about it to see what kind of "conversation" it would spark.  Some  people "liked" it, others did not say anything, and a few engaged in  their feelings about the matter.  
  
Interestingly enough yesterday I spoke with a woman who said that sometimes hearing, reading and seeing things in the media in regards to politics sometimes gets to be too much for her.  It becomes  intense information overload.  She then shuts down every stream of  media and then chooses to focus on what she considers real issues, like the hungry family around the corner that no one pays attention to because everyone is  too busy dissecting which candidate won't turn over his tax records, which candidates birth certificate is not  valid and who doesn't care for certain lifestyles  and who feels cheated and wants equal rights. Those things to a certain degree are important. But what about the issues in front of our faces that we ignore?

The conclusion (if there is even one) that I have come to is that bashing has never convinced me or  any one  else I know to change "religions" or political party affiliations".   You showing me about how much you know about the ugliness of the Republican Party will not convince me to rally with the Democrats.  You exposing how shady the Democrat party is will not convince me to join the Junior Republican Women's League. So where do I stand ?

I have been in "seasons" (really beginning to be annoyed by that word), where I have had to vote for the lesser of 2 evils.  I have in times past  have voted for people who's names were rarely in the media, and were not one of the top two on the ballot.  I vote issues, not party. I guess I'm non-partisan.  Some would beg to differ.

What about God? Most of my readers and friends know how I feel about God.  Most know enough about me that I don't even venture to argue about God.  I have had enough experience of Him "showing up" that confirms to me His existence.  I certainly do not have all of the answers to why things are the way they are in this life but, it does not diminish the fact that there is a real God and whether or not someone believes in Him, mentioning him in debates and "conversations" evokes something within us that causes us to want to run to Him or away from Him.  I really haven't had heard of that same effect on people when they speak of other "gods". Mmmmm, why is that ?

I guess I always had an issue with people flying off at the mouth exercising their right to free speech when it comes to God/religion  and Politics in that often those same people are not involved in local politics in their own community and those same people are not involved in effecting the community spiritually in a positive way.  But they talk a good talk .

 Are we all guilty of  trash talking  exercising free speech and not  remotely trying to get involved with the issues of local government  that would impact us first before the national issues would even touch us?

Are we all guilty of practicing the freedom of religion, our right to worship God or a god, or not to worship at all so much so that we are not concerned about our neighbors who need the hope of  God or who may need a  helping hand period?   

Are we really doing what we can be doing to bring about change in our neighborhood or  our world or are we just exercising our rights?  Something I will be thinking about.

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