Seeing Past the Donkey and the Elephant

In one of those vague childhood memories that is still with me, I can recall my first "discussion" I had on politics. It was with my mom, while we were going somewhere in the car. She was driving and I, being what I'm guessing to be around 10 years old, sat quietly in the passenger seat with my belt buckled. We had been to the polls to vote for governor or something like that. My mom was telling me that she always voted for the Republican candidates, straight ticket. That was why she didn't have to fill in all the boxes on the form. As a little kid, I just assumed that when I got old enough I would continue voting the way my parents did, and so I asked my mom, "What's the difference between Republicans and Democrats?" My mom, never being someone who really got into politics and who was faced with the difficult task of explaining the issues to a 10 year old, simply said, "Well, the Republican is the more Christian party and the Democrats are not."

That settled it for me. After all, I was a Christian and I knew I wanted to vote like a Christian when I turned 18. So without further questions I went on to vaguely support Republican politics through my teenage years. I formed a healthy dislike for Bill Clinton when all I really knew about him was that he cheated on his wife and that somehow that made him a terrible president. I supported Bob Dole when he ran against Clinton and all I remember is him falling off a stage while he was trying to shake somebody's hand. I had no idea really what either candidate stood for or wanted to do for the country. I just followed the Republican or Democrat label and that decided for me who I would pull for in elections.

My first chance to vote came in 2004 when I had just turned 18. At the time I was going to a church where it was preached from the pulpit that the Christian thing to do was vote Republican. Again, this was at a time when I really didn't care much for politics. I didn't question why we were at war in Iraq and I didn't really think too much about Bush's tax cuts for the wealthiest people along with other issues that were coming up at the time. The only person at my church who had a different take on politics was Andy. Andy talked about politics a lot. He voted for John Kerry that year. He and April were probably the only two church members to do so. But I have to admit I tuned him out a lot of the time because I really wasn't that interested. And it's not a pleasant thing to disagree on politics. I did, in fact, end up voting for Bush that year.

I say all of this because through all of those years I bought into a lie. It was a lie that my mom believed, my church believed, and I believed to be true. And that lie was that Republican politics and Christianity were one and the same. It's a lie that has been perpetuated through Christian communities in America for decades, and because of that politicians and talking heads have tricked Christians in order to get their votes. It has led to Christians in high percentages supporting policies like torture, an unjust war, and economic strategies that leave out the people that Jesus taught us to care for the most - the poor and vulnerable.

I think that this happens because a lot of times when we follow politics and vote, we get caught up in the game of partisanship and in doing so, we lose sight of the things we really stand for. When issues are split along party lines, it's easy for a person to see the other party as constantly wrong and their party as always right. For Christians, this is dangerous because neither party comes close to maintaining consistent Christian values, but we really act like they do.

I remember last month at my church when we had our annual 4th of July service. We sang all our patriotic songs and pledged allegiance to the flag. At the end of all the national praise it finally came time for the sermon, Pastor Ron went on stage and he said as calmly as he could: "I am a patriot. I am a God and country person. But, we have to make sure that it's not more about our country than God."

Pastor Ron was my hero that day. He was dead on. I have seen many times Christians getting caught up in politics, and the thing that ultimately decides their position on a particular issue is not their faith, it's their party affiliation. For instance, one morning last week I was at work and they had WDJC playing. On the morning show, they were taking callers to give their opinions on the "beer summit" in which Obama invited Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Sgt James Crowley to the White House to have a beer. This was in response to Obama's comments that Crowley "acted stupidly" in arresting the Harvard professor.

So people called in and many of them said that the president should not invite these men over to drink a beer, that as president he is a role model and by drinking beer he is setting a bad example. If you have ever read the Gospels, this should be probably striking you as ironic right now. Jesus, who is the ultimate role model and example for us Christians, drank wine. He once went to a wedding, and when the wine had run out he took some water and turned it into more wine, which was even better wine than they had at first! So what happened was Christians were criticizing the president as being a bad role model for doing something Jesus, the lord and savior, did himself.

What I'm trying to say here is God does not play along party lines, and so neither should we. The Republicans are not the most Christian party, and neither are the Democrats. Some people try to present that lie in both obvious and subtle ways. We should be careful that when we cast our ballots and decide what side to take on certain issues, we are not just playing the party game. The Bible says nothing about limited or expanded government, trickle down economic theory, or who you should or shouldn't tax but it says a lot about helping the needy, protecting life, caring for the environment, and maintaining peace. On these issues we should look beyond the red and blue, the donkey and the elephant.

On Being Mediocre at Halo

Well I just noticed that it has been almost a month to the day since I wrote my last post. I knew it had been a while, and as I have checked my blog page from time to time I have slowly grown tired of the male enhancement thing being the post that comes up. It's actually amazing that I haven't written anything this month, because SO much has happened and there is SO much to comment on. Andy is resigning, Steph is moving away, the Roberts are looking for a church, I'm about to move away to a new place, and WDJC is just as awful as ever. It's almost a situational overload, but I haven't found my way to the keyboard to type my thoughts. Maybe it's because it's all complicated, hard to encompass how I really feel. I'm sure it's a lot of things, but I can say one thing for sure, and that is that Halo 3 has played a big part in it.

You see, I play video games a lot. I always have since I was about 3 or 4 years old. And there are some good games out there, but I have gotten to the point to where I don't really get consumed with them anymore. When Perfect Dark was a new game and I was a middle schooler, I would pop that cartridge in my Nintendo 64 and literally play for hours and hours. This is a good thing now because I have a job and school to deal with, and I sometimes have a bad time prioritizing. But every now and then a game comes along that is fun and has so much replayability that I have a hard time pulling myself away from it. For a few months, World of Warcraft had my soul. Now, the game is Halo 3.

Don't get me wrong, Halo is not near as bad as WOW was. I can take Halo in spurts, but after a while it gets a little old and I get motion sickness from all the camera movement. It's a heck of a game, and a whole lot of fun to play. I've gotten to the point where I only play it when my friends are online, because I take it too seriously when I play alone. My buddies help keep me grounded, and they have been perhaps the most enjoyable part of the game. I get to keep up with Kevin and Aimee down in Tuscaloosa on an almost nightly basis because we can play and chat over X-box live. We always catch up for the first few minutes until the first match starts, and then we have to stop talking because we can't chat and kill folk simultaneously.

I have also been able to rekindle friendships with the Neelys over X-box live and Halo playing. Since we left Hopewell, I have only seen Sam at Best Buy where he works and haven't seen Daniel at all. Some nights the four of us play for several hours, and this is where the nerdy part comes in. Halo 3 has a feature where you can go back and watch all the recent matches you have played, make video clips, and take pictures of the action. And so after everyone goes off to bed or to do something else, I head to the theatre and watch all the matches over again looking for highlights and good photo ops. Yeah, it's incredibly dorky, but I enjoy it.

In Halo, I don't know if anybody can ever be good enough to be truly satisfied. Somebody who is better than you is always out there ready to no scope you or hit you with a sticky grenade from all the way across the map or kill you 20 times with only a pistol. It happens, and it sucks when it does. I used to get mad, to want to really get good at the game so that I would be the one dealing out all the punishment instead of the one constantly respawning. I've gotten pretty decent, I would say, but I've learned that I'm nowhere near being able to play with a lot of the serious Halo players out there.

For instance, last night Sam and I were playing a 2 vs. 2 match where you could only use pistols and sniper rifles. We are pretty casual players, but unfortunately we were paired up with some professional Halo snipers who were ready to no scope and head shot their way to an unquestionable victory.

But we gave it a go. The game started and we moved out cautiously, trying to keep our eyes out for our opponents, hoping to see them before they spotted us. We made our way down a corridor and one of the guys on the other team headed our way from the other side. Shots rang out, and I got hit but not in the head, so I didn't die. Everybody headed for cover. I moved back around the corner to get a shot and the red team (we were the blue team) was waiting for me. A shot rangs out, and I was dead. 1 to nothing, and as I respawned I heard another shot ring out and Sam went down as well. 2 to nothing.

So I started to move again, ever alert for my red foes. I moved into an opening and spotted red armor, one of them standing there aiming at something and not moving at all. I raised the scope to my eye and positioned the reticle right on his head and BANG, I was dead. Before I could take my shot my target's teammate took me out. This was basically how the match went. I would be walking, searching for someone to kill, and a shot would ring out and I would be dead. I would have no idea where it came from, no idea how. Sam and I had a little success. I got a few head shots on the red team and Sam gots at least one kill. But by the end of the game, the score was 25-7.

It hurts to get beat like that, and most proud men are competitive. That's hard to take, even if it is a meaningless game. And I could give you example after example of times when stuff like that happens. Games where I have never been close to winning. But I have to settle for that and when the emotion and the anger subsides, and my competitive spirit simmers down, I realize that I am perfectly fine being as mediocre as I am at that game. Because some people are too good at things that are that trivial. People have made fun of me before because I can't whistle or blow a bubble gum bubble, and I just respond with, "Why would I want to do that?" Halo is a game, it's meant for fun and entertainment, and I want to make sure I keep it that way. It's not cool to be THAT good at that game. Because, what do you give up to put so much into a video game? Sunlight, a social life, etc. Video games are great, and the most fun video games are even better. But they all have their place.

That said, does anybody want to play some Halo now? My gamertag is mathius100.