Saddleback Showdown - John McCain

A couple of weeks ago, Barak Obama and John McCain went on national television and allowed themselves to be individually examined by Pastor Rick Warren. He asked them questions about their world view, what its means to be a "born again" Christian, abortion, taxes, gay marriage, and several other great questions. I'm going to do 2 posts - one for Obama and the other for McCain. This will not comprehensively cover every important thing they talked about. I will choose just four. This post is about McCain's responses.

What about Jesus?

McCain claimed that he is a follower of Christ. He said that he is "saved and forgiven". What? I wish he had elaborated. Saved from what? Forgiven for what? How? Who? I realized that he may have assumed that everyone understood his "Christianeeze" - the jargon of Christianity. However, it doesn't take much to realize that some people mean entirely different things in using these words than what Christians have historically and Biblically meant. Mormons use those terms too, but if you study what they believe it doesn't line up the same. Instead of fully examining the question, McCain gave an emotional and heart-wrenching story of how his Christian faith connected him with a North Vietnamese prison camp guard. Grant it he was also trying to get people to connect with him not Jesus. He really wants to be elected. I think that is a problem.

Abortion?

I was amazed how direct he was about what he thinks about abortion. I agree with him, all people are entitled to human rights at the moment of conception.

Taxes?

It sounds good doesn't it. He said he wants everyone to be rich. I agree with his definition of "rich" - having what you need to be happy. I think that he's naive in thinking that there is no need for re-distribution of wealth and that there is no class warfare. The gap between people who have wealth and those who don't is growing. The middle class is disappearing. I think that he and Obama agree in trying to better the lives of people. They just disagree on how to do it. I think he's right the government has been overspending. I would have liked to hear the year and administration that allowed the money to be spent on the study of Bear DNA, but it was an effective joke. I disagree with the thought that the government should be scaled down because people cannot be trusted to love their neighbor as themselves when money is involved.

Gay Marriage?

I really liked his response to the question on the definition of what marriage is. Changing the definition of marriage is a bad idea. I did notice that he was very carefully politically. He did not openly challenge the morality of same-sex marriage so he would not alienate people, but he said that the issue should be decided by states themselves and not the federal government. It fits with his ideas of smaller, less-controlling government. The problem is that unless this country makes a decision as to whether or not we will follow God or not on the issues of abortion and same-sex marriage we are going to continue to see division and failure, if not a civil war, as a nation just like slavery divided the nation 140 years ago.

Is there Evil?

I thought the question was vague. I'm not sure what Rick Warren meant by the question...."evil" in what sense? Did he mean the evil in each one of us that can only be destroyed by the power of God? To McCain, evil equates to the Radical Islamic Fundamentalism. He blames it for producing Osama Bin Laden and the horror of September 11, 2001 and the wars on terrorism taking place today. I agree that Bin Laden must be found and brought to justice and I believe that Islamic Fundamentalism is antithetical to Christianity. It cannot be reasoned with. It cannot be ignored. It can't be reconciled. They really want to kill us. They must be stopped. The problem is that as near as I can tell our government made the terrorism possible when we supported and trained Bin Laden against the Russian in Afghanistan and then pulled out and did not fulfill promises made to the rebels. It's blow back from bad foreign policy that we are paying for now. Of course what the terrorists are doing are evil and must be stopped, but are we really any better? Ask the South American and Caribbean countries we have invaded. Ask the people in Africa and other parts of the world who were exterminated and we did nothing because they did not have oil. Ask the black folks that were lynched, oppressed, disenfranchised. Ask the Native Americans, those that survived the genocide. As a nation we are called by God to do better by people. If we don't do better how can expect the rest of the nations to do good to us?

Saddleback Showdown - Barak Obama

A couple of weeks ago, Barak Obama and John McCain went on national television and allowed themselves to be individually examined by Pastor Rick Warren. He asked them questions about their world view, what its means to be a "born again" Christian, abortion, taxes, gay marriage, and several other great questions. I'm not going to rehash the entire discussion, just pick out 5 major themes. I'm going to do 2 posts - one for Obama and the other for McCain. This post is about Obama's responses.

What about Jesus?

Obama did better in explaining what Jesus means to him as a Christian than McCain. He actually used the word "sin" as that thing Jesus saved him from. The only thing that bothered me about his response is that he said "hopefully" his sins would be forgiven. If you are a "born again" Christian and have put your faith and trust in Jesus, your sins, by definition, are promised from God to be expatiated. You will not be punished, although you and I should be, because Jesus took our punishment for us. He may have been trying to sound humble as to not alienate non-christians. It is one of the gripes of non-christians that Christians are so sure, so confident, and are even sometime called "arrogant". It's not arrogance we just know that God will do what he promised he would do. What other religion can give you that kind of blessed assurance of reconcilliation with the one who made everything?

Abortion?

Obama's response on Abortion really bugs me. I realize he is trying to sound humble. He does not want to alienate any would-be voters. The problem is that if you are Christian it does not matter what you or anyone thinks. All that matters is what God thinks. We know what God thinks about Abortion because the Bible tells us. If God tells us all lives belong to him, do we really think that He is pleased about surgically sacrifices children because they are inconvenient to the lifestyle we want to live? Men are just as guilty because some men father children and abandon the women to raise them. I see no difference between that and the ancient Canaanites sacrifices their babies to idols as burnt offerings. God destroyed them. Rick Warren had also asked Obama when does an unborn baby becomes entitled to human right. I thought Obama, under the guise of humility, tried to weasel out of answering by asserting that the authority to answer was "above his pay grade. " Agreed. But God did answer it. All he had to do was say what God said. It's a question that falls in line with what all Christians struggle with. Are we going to obey the one to whom we belong? Are we going to go with God's judgement or are going to try to figure it out on our own. Unfortunately, in this area, Obama has decided to figure it out on his own as most of America....this is why keep coming up short.

Taxes?

I think Obama did a great job when he talked about taxes and about who he would tax and how it would affect people. I think that Obama's economic plan is a little more realistic than McCain's. McCain is saying that he wants to cut taxes for everyone, but I don't see how we are going to balance any budget without people paying more in taxes and wealth being re-distributed by the Government to close the gap between the "haves" and the "have-nots". Like it or not the gap between rich and poor is getting wider (and only the rich is benefiting). When I was a kid in the 80's a salary of $50K - 60K a year as great for a four-person family. However with banks failing, people loosing their homes, not being able to have health insurance, and generally working harder but not living as well, I don't see why we would not want the government to do something. I'm not placing the blame solely on Republican economics but "trickle-down economics" never helped me nor anyone else I know. McCain's ideas about less government and everyone taking care of their own insurance has not really worked out that well the past 8 years. Are you living better today than you were in 1999? Me Neither. I've got to add that at least on this point I think Obama won.

Gay Marriage?

I liked Obama's definition of Marriage. I just not sure I like the idea that he is unwilling to define it in the constitution. Here is an opportunity to "draw a line in concrete" and establish an ideal that we and our children will live by. The reason why marriage is not defined in the constitution because the framers, never in their wildest imaginings, ever thought it would be a question. Western Civilization is in trouble. Countries in Europe have already recognized homosexual unions as viable marriages. They are also on the brink of falling away from Christianity and towards Islam. Obama said he did not believe same-sex unions threaten his marriage or our society. If we do not categorically define marriage and leave it up to people anything will go. Society will slide further into disarray. It's a slippery slope to more debauchery. When I was a kid, if someone said "I love ____" someone else would say, "If you love ____ so much why don't you marry it." This will literally happen. People would start marrying their pets and there will be no logical reason to say that its wrong. Pedophilia will have to be recognized as legal. Why would polygamy be illegal? Eventually none of it will be illegal.

Is there evil?

I thought that Obama answered this question much more circumspectly than did McCain. He more broadly defined it than McCain did. It's more than just the Islamic terrorist that hate us. He points out that we need to be humble and remember that although we must confront evil leave room for God to define who and what is evil. The problem I have is that not everything that I consider evil is what Obama considers evil. I think abortion is evil. He doesn't. This is why God's laws and viewpoint must be the standard for what evil is, not us. We are so tainted by own sins, and so blinded by the thought "I'm not as bad as so and so" that we cannot be trusted to know what is wrong and what evil truly is. Evil is what God isn't. It's the absence of his purpose and direction, contrary to his will.

Democratic National Convention 2008 part 1 - Into Post

The last week of August 2008, the Democratic National Convention was held in Denver, Colorado. I viewed all the major speeches and will probably post about each speech that I thought was noteworthy. In this introductory post, I want to just make general comments. I've go to admit that the goal was to make Obama and Biden look as electable as possible. I heard more saber-rattling than substance. By this I mean that I heard more about Bush and the Republicans have messed up our economy and our Foreign Standing among the nations of the world rather than how we are going to fix it. I also found out that for the first time at the DNC, a church service was held the Sunday of that week to officially kick off the convention. I posted a video earlier that shows the whole hour service. I call it a church service but in order to make sure not to alienate or offend anyone it was called an "Interfaith Gathering". They had clergy from all the major religions to speak and honor their view of God. Selections from the Torah, Bible, Koran, and other holy texts were read before each speaker. Each speaker was able to say what ever they wanted to say.

Each speaker spoke about our "Sacred Responsibility" in a different context. For example Bishop Blake, the Presiding Prelate of the Church of God in Christ, spoke of "Our Sacred Responsibility to our Children". He spoke about prioritizing Children all over the world and protecting them. In addition he brought up the contradiction of loving and caring children but supporting abortion. He said that children are a gift of God. He said he disagreed with the Democratic Party's Pro-Choice stance, but agreed with Obama's plan to cut down on abortion by giving women more choices.

Another example was Sister Helen Prejean. She is a Roman Catholic Nun and Anti-Death Penalty Activist. She spoke of "Our Sacred Responsibility to Our Nation". She focused on her pet-issue. Her contention was that abolishing the death penalty is part of our responsibility to the nation. I thought that she appealed to emotion and the guilt of misapplying the death penalty. She pointed out how only poor people who murder white people actually end up on death row. I think she's right about that, but then she went to a very troubling place theologically. She said that our opinion on the death penalty brings up our view of God. I agree. Unfortunately she said that the Bible conflicts itself on God's character. Either He is forgiving and merciful or He is vengeful and harsh, is what she put forth and that we must pick which view we want to base our lives on. She then said that some Christians believe that God sacrificed his son to pay for our sins and that in the death penalty criminals pay for their sins to go to heaven. This is not what the Gospel is, but it is something you can get out of Roman Catholicism. To hear the Gospel mangled like that really offended me. She rejected that view and seemed to me to suggest Jesus' death on the cross had no redeeming value for anyone - all to disparage the death penalty which has nothing to do with saving anyone from hell.

There was a lot of good and bad said during the meeting. The CEO of the convention is a Pastor out of Washington DC named Leah Daughtry. The goal of this meeting was to show the world that you can be religious and still be a Democrat. Mark Z. Barabak, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, on August 19, 2008, says the there is a "God Gap" between the Republicans and the Democrats. The Republicans are often depicted as being "people of faith" more so than Democrats. The problem I have is with trying to be all things to all People. Orthodox Judaism Islam, and all the other religions represented contradicts Christianity. They say Jesus is not the only way to God that their way is just as valid. Christians say Jesus is the only Way. We can't all be right. Holding hands and singing "Kum Bah Ya" is not going to erase this division and all depends on what you think about Jesus. Is it what Jesus said about himself or not? Everyone who spoke was very careful in all they said not to offend anyone. Pastor Daughtry even referred to God as he/she - what ever you believe God to be. In effect this is allowing people to make up their own God instead of how God truly revealed himself in the Scriptures. Not good.

The last point that I would raise is how many Muslim women spoke on behalf of Islam while in a Muslim country this would have been the case at all. Islam was depicted as a religion of peace and enlightenment on par and equal to Christianity while it does not take any time to show that there are very many discrepancies between the Koran and the Bible and in faith and practices.