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.

Dumb Male Enhancement Commercials

So last night I was eating a pizza in front of my TV. It was a Tombstone, pepperoni pizza and I overcooked it a little bit. Lacking the patience to wait for it to cool off, I burned my mouth on the sauce and cheese, and today my tongue still hurts because of that. I don't remember what I was watching on TV, but it was during the commercial break and I was basically ignoring the ads like I always do. A Cialis commercial came on, and I ignored it, but one phrase snapped me back into reality quickly and, I will say, almost produced extreme projectile vomiting.

They were advertising some new Cialis pill that you could take for your "male enhancement" and the announcer asked a question that I thought was rhetorical, but unfortunately it wasn't: What's your favorite part? Next thing I know, some old couple pops up on the screen and the woman says, "My favorite part is when it lasts really long."

I almost spit the pizza out of my mouth. The last thing I want to know about while I'm enjoying my dinner is some old lady's favorite part of her and her old husband's old "activities" together. I hate those commercials, even more than I hate just regular commercials. And there are some things about them that I don't get. The Cialis ad comes on with the porn music and all, but what's with the bathtubs? Maybe my education about "the act" has failed me in some way, but what does an old man and woman sitting in separate bathtubs, outside, on a hill, while the sun is going down have to do with sex? Is that a metaphor for something? It would have to be, right? Because nobody ever says, "Now, when a man and a woman love each other very much, they take off their clothes and go outside to their separate bathtubs that sit on the top of the hill in their back yard, which overlooks a meadow..." (If any of you know the answer to this, please enlighten me.)

And there are the commercials with that weirdo guy, I think Bob is his name. I guess those are supposed to be funny or something. Like Bob's neighbors are jealous of him because he takes a "male enhancement" drug and there is the most memorable shot of the guy standing there holding his water hose as it starts to slump and the water runs out. That along with other innuendos are in commercials like this. Bob is dressed up as Santa Clause at the mall and all the women there want to sit on his lap. And of course, there's the one where Bob is driving the race car, but I don't really get that one either.

My favorite (and by favorite, I mean quite possibly the most ridiculous) of these ads would probably be the Viva Viagra commercials. Because there's nothing better than getting together with your best friends in your old garage and singings songs about the pill that lets you have sex longer. I mean, I know that's what I do when I hang out with my friends... doesn't everybody? In fact, the only songs I know on guitar are worship and praise songs, and songs about Viagra. (I hope you are picking up the sarcasm here.) And don't get me started on the side effects...

I just hate these commercials, they're so stupid. Even with all the lame phone dating service ads and ones about downloading ringtones, the Cash-4-Gold commercials, and the Tag body spray, I would say that the male enhancement ads are the worst. Next time I'm eating pizza or any other meal, I hope I don't learn more than I want to know about an old couple's sex life. I don't care, don't want to find out, so please get it off my TV.

A Conversation

Quick... interesting or unique thought or observation...

Go... now.

Ok, um...

um....

um... I don't know. I got nothin'.

Come on, Matt, you have to have something you want to say.

Not really...

Just think about something that happened today and elaborate on it. You know, be thoughtful and all that stuff.

Well, I did go to the dump today.

Ok... did anything happen that would make a good lesson or... maybe something interesting... or something that will generate some comments?

Nope, although it did smell like coffee beans mixed with diarrhea. Maybe I could make that a metaphor for how the money for some people's coffee addictions could go to preventing African kids from dying from diarrhea.

I don't know... is that really even a metaphor?

I don't know.

Well, don't you have anything to say?

Can I complain about Christian radio?

Don't you already do that enough already?

Well, can I write about Barack Obama?

Look, why don't you try to take it in a different direction... you know, write about sports or your life, or Jon and Kate Plus 8?

I don't like writing about sports, I like talking about sports. My life isn't interesting, and here's my blog post about Jon and Kate Plus 8: Who effing cares?

(sigh)

Look, can I just post that YouTube video of Ashlee Simpson getting booed at the Orange Bowl or something?

Matt, that's lazy and you know it.

I don't care, voice.

You're a douchebag.

Shut up, I'm going to play Halo now.

I just found this article which gives accounts of some soldiers who landed on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day. I thought I'd share it, because it really moved me. Not only the bravery of the men who stormed the beaches that day, but the horrors that they experienced and how they had to stop thinking just to keep it from getting to them. When nations wage war, these men and women bear the brunt of it, and I think we have to do whatever we can to avoid good people having to give up their lives if at all possible. Anyways, here's the link:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/06/03/dday.stories/index.html

This is the world I see

I was talking to somebody I know the other day and he was telling me about how he had been reading through the Old Testament, specifically the book of Daniel. "Man, there's some scary stuff in there," he said. I agreed. The prophetic book has all kinds of strange imagery that can evoke fear. But this conversation has stayed with me because of what this guy said next, which is something along the lines of what I've heard preachers say for years now - that if God doesn't judge America soon, he is going to have to apologize to the people of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Of course, that's not in Daniel. It's in Genesis, but the Old Testament gives accounts of God judging the world and punishing people for wickedness. There was the flood. There was Sodom and Gomorrah. There was all the tribes who inhabited the promised land that the Israelites were promised. All of these people faced God's wrath, and so what of America, whose people are committing some of the same sins today and yet we haven't been invaded or led off into slavery? We haven't been destroyed with a flood or fire raining from heaven.

While I personally don't believe God regards the United States in the same way as Israel in the Old Testament, my issue here is not really a theological one, but a question of perspective. It's about believing whether or not our nation and the world we live in are getting worse and worse, more sinful, and more corrupt each day. Of course, certain end times theology that includes the rapture and destruction of the world as we know it (which I believe has been debunked by N.T. Wright) has contributed to this outlook as well. People are going to become more corrupt. They are going to turn away from God and practice more and more evil. It's supposed to happen this way...

But I wonder that even though things are extremely far from ideal, is it really true that we are getting worse? I mean, the present may not be all that great, but what makes anybody think that America's past is so much better than its present? At the countries founding, we had stolen land from the Native Americans. We forced them off of their land, fought wars against them, and killed them in the name of God when we were motivated by nothing more than greed and selfishness. We also imported human beings from Africa who had been literally ripped from their lives, homes, and loved ones. We shipped them across the Atlantic Ocean on ships in the worst of conditions, bought and sold them as property, and forced them to work for nothing. And then there was the fact that at our nation's founding, you had to be a white, property owning male to vote.

It seems to me that while lots of things in this world aren't great, we are at least in many ways making progress. You would think that if God was going to punish us, it would be for the things we did to blacks, Indians, and others. The fact that we might allow gay people to get married has got nothing on that. For those that long for the "good old days," when everything seemed to be nicer, simpler, and more Christian; remember that these weren't necessarily the good old days for everybody. Is there a black man or woman who would look back to the 1950s as a better time? I think not.

But, I assure you this: If tomorrow there is a loud trumpet blast and we Christians are zapped up into the air to meet Jesus in the clouds, or if some other nation invades and hauls us off into slavery, or if a terrible natural disaster (global warming? That would be ironic...) were to wipe us off the map, I promise that I will eat crow.

Trading Your Soul for Security

Love your enemies, unless they withhold vital information from you.

That is how it goes, right?

You would think so, with the way that the torture debates have been going over the last several weeks. President Obama released the torture memos detailing the various methods that were used on each prisoner: Waterboarding, sleep deprivation, varying forms of physical abuse. Subsequently, all backlash hell broke loose when conservatives were quick to criticize the president’s action. Now, on television, radio, the internet, and in coffee shops and Jack’s restaurants, people are asking the question: Should we torture?

Torture.

Just roll the word around in your head for a second.

Torture.

What kind of images, feelings, and impulses does it conjure up?

Torture.

A necessary evil? According to many, yes it is.

While we don’t want to torture, we must do so in circumstances when lives and our national security are at stake.

Ok, I understand that torture is something that we don’t want to do. I understand the “what if” scenarios that so many conservatives bring up when debating this question. What if a nuclear weapon is going to detonate on American soil and we have detainees that can give us information to stop it? What if we can use torture to save lives? I understand that people believe that in order to stop terrorists we must be willing to do some of the things that they do, to “break the rules” a little bit in a Jack Bauer sort of way. But what I don’t understand is the stance that many evangelical Christians take to not only defend the use of torture, but the action of advocating for it.

On the Christian radio the other day (I can hear some of you moaning “oh God, not again” at this point), I caught a piece of a segment in which a DJ from one of Crawford Broadcasting’s conservative talk radio stations was on and was criticizing Obama for his decision to release the torture memos to the public. Ronnie Bruce, the daytime radio host, simply agreed and stated that we are living in “scary” times and that Christians should be praying now more than ever. Indeed, things are getting a little scary.

But the scary part is not that we have a president who is willing to make the ethical stand against torture. The scary part is that we have Christian radio personalities, pastors, political leaders, and public figures who are going on the airwaves and in pulpits and advocating for it.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. Matthew 5:9

You see, when I think of some of the great religious heroes throughout history, is isn’t those who believed in resolving conflict by means of violence and torture. It has been people who advocated love and peace. For instance, Mother Teresa, who gave her life to the act of loving, living with, and caring for the world’s poor and diseased. Or Ghandi, who championed peace and nonviolence in India. Or the great Martin Luther King Jr., who stood up for equality in the form passive resistance.

In this sense, I find it kind of strange that many of those who claim to follow the Prince of Peace are the very ones saying we should use torture to interrogate terrorists. The religious conservatives who claim to hold the moral high ground in American are often the ones defending the use of torture. But what is moral about this? What is ethical about strapping a human being, made in the image of God, to a chair and pouring water up his nose until he almost drowns? Even if you think it’s necessary, do you really think it’s right?

Do not repay evil for evil. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Romans 12:17 and 21

As a person who believes in Jesus’ teachings, I can’t support that. The position against torture is easily the high ground, no matter what kind of “what if” scenarios they come up with. True ethics don’t go out the window just because a situation changes, because our security is being threatened. In these kinds of circumstances, it is more important to cling to our morals and values than ever.

I think that the church, as a community of faith, should look at itself and reexamine this issue. Shouldn’t we, as believers in the God who is the great force for good in this world, be the ones taking the moral high ground in these cases? Should we really be the ones who are criticizing the leaders who decide to do away with torture, or should we rejoice at the fact? Is it really worth it to trade away our souls for our security?

Maybe we should just ask the great question:

What would Jesus do?

Or how about a better question:

Who would Jesus torture?