Finding the Right Direction

In a recent interview President Obama came out of the metaphoric closet and said that he supports homosexual marriage.  That’s his prerogative as an American and this post isn’t about marriage, it’s about priorities and focus.

It’s amazing to me that homosexual marriage is such a big deal in this country.  Seriously, it’s a topic that gets talked about on the news almost every week, and it’s caused division in our society on a national scale.

So here’s my question: why is this minority group enjoying so much attention from the media?  Homosexuals only make up about 1.7% of the population¹.  So is it me, or is this miniscule number of people getting a disproportionate amount of attention?

I understand that homosexuals want to have their grievances heard and dealt with, I’m ok with that.  What I’m not ok with is that we have way more serious issues in this country that we should be focusing on.  Why is this topic talked about more than homelessness?  Why is it talked about more than poverty and starvation?  Why is it talked about more than abused children, illegal drugs, or any of the myriad other ills that pollute this country?

What does it say about us when the homeless population in Louisiana doubled in one year², but we didn’t hear about it?  Instead we were bickering about Jane wanting to marry Beth.

What does it say about us when the number of homeless families in Mississippi increased 260 percent in one year², but nothing is reported on TV?  Instead we’re spending millions of taxpayer dollars on litigation and legislator’s time discussing why John and Dave’s marriage in one state isn’t valid in another.

Why are we so busy servicing the complaints of this teeny tiny segment of our country when other segments are having problems just finding food and shelter?

The enemy wants our focus to stay away from the things that Christ wants us to focus on.  The Bible tells us "If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth." 1 John 3:17-18

It’s easy for the enemy to use the media to turn us the wrong direction.  They keep us focused on things of lesser value than what Christ wants us to work on.  Our priorities aren’t in the right place, and we’re not paying enough attention to the real problems in our world.

Who knows, someday it could be you or me that’s suddenly homeless.  Will it feed you knowing that instead of focusing on programs to help people in need, we concentrated on making sure George and Craig could get married?

“God, your Word tells us that this world will continue to spin out of control and into the hands of the enemy.  Help us keep our focus on you and ignore the enemy’s attempts to make our priorities unbalanced. Amen.”

¹ Lisa Leff, Huffington Post, 4/7/11, “Gay Population In U.S. Estimated At 4 Million, Gary Gates Says.”

² M. William Sermons & Peter Witte, January 2011, “State of Homelessness in America.” Homelessness Research Institute and National Alliance to End Homelessness

Hating Politics

Politics seem to permeate almost everything these days.  I remember when people just went about their daily business and were only assaulted by politics when an election year rolled around.  But now it seems to be politics every day and in almost everything around us.

The sad thing is that it affects us as humans.  I see people all the time shunning their fellow man simply because of opposing political ideology, or even the perception of opposing views.  A good example is John Cuzack.  John is a good guy, a Democrat and a concerned citizen.  A couple of weeks ago he tweeted that he read an interesting article by Tom Engelhardt about how the Office of the President has become “imperial” to the point that the president can order someone killed at any time. The article wasn’t a direct slam on the president; in fact it went into detail about how the office started to change after 9/11, and how the Bush administration made changes.  Obama simply inherited these new powers, but he’s also expanded them to give himself even more control. 

Cuzack wasn’t saying anything bad against the president; he was just saying the article was interesting and that perhaps the Office of the President has become almost king-like instead of an office of serving the people and there needs to be accountability.

Well, the response he got was mixed, but I was really surprised at the number of liberals who attacked John because they didn’t care what the article really said, they just saw something they deemed negative about Obama so they tweeted that they didn’t know Cuzack was a Republican and they wouldn’t follow him anymore, even though he had been on their top 10 follow list.

Huh?  So you love John Cuzack, watch his movies and follow him on Twitter, but he posts a link to an article saying that presidential powers are getting out of control, and you decide that he can’t possibly just be a concerned citizen, but that he must be a Republican… so now you hate him.

This is just an example of what goes on today.  We have become a nation of two camps: Democrats and Republicans, and people try to force you into one of these camps even if you’re like me and claim no political affiliation.  I see them on TV sizing up people by asking the hot-button questions, “are you for gay marriage,” and “do you believe in gun control.”  If you answer yes to these questions they put you in Camp Democrat; but a negative response will get you put into the Republican camp.  Once they have you in a camp they know whose side you’re on and whether or not they like you.  They don’t care who you really are inside, they base their entire opinion of you on the camp they’ve put you in.  You can be the nicest person on the planet, but once you’re put into a camp you’re labeled for prosecution by the other side.

A good example of this is the 2009 Academy Awards.  Every year they present a montage of Hollywood industry folks who have died the past year.  The amount of applause that occurs as each picture is displayed is a good indicator of the actor’s industry popularity.  Well that year Charlton Heston’s picture was shown, and the room was almost silent.  Now, this is a man who brought us iconic pictures like Ben Hur, The Ten Commandments, and the Sci-Fi epic Planet of the Apes.  He won a ton of awards, including the Jean Hersholt Academy Award for his humanitarian work.  He was a consummate actor and good guy, but the room was almost silent.  Why?  Because Charlton had been put into the Republican camp and this wasn’t acceptable to mainstream Hollywood.  Instead of revering him for his amazing contributions to their craft and his humanitarian work, they shunned him over politics.

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: the single greatest threat to the safety and prosperity of this country is Republicans and Democrats.  Well, there's the Tea Party too, but as far as I can tell the Tea Party is just a bunch of disgruntled Republicans.  I have certain views from both conservative and liberal camps that I agree with, but I refuse to be pushed into a camp. Politics and politicians are all the same in the end, so I choose to not participate in a party.

I vote for the person who most closely believes in the kind of America I want to live in. 

There’s no perfect candidate and it’s a forgone conclusion that the two main parties are too big and strong to not get elected, so unfortunately I have to choose one of their candidates or my vote is wasted, and I refuse to abstain from voting.  It would be irresponsible of me and all of you as citizens of this free country to ignore the election process.

We can’t help but get some of the political rancor on us.  It’s everywhere and I don’t think any of us will completely go unscathed.  Politics, liberal, conservative, racism, reverse racism, poor, rich, black, white, media, blogging... I'm just tired of all the hatred.

“God, sometimes it’s a bit depressing to watch as my fellow countrymen spend their time hating each other instead of using their skills to help one another.  I ask for patience to handle this, and wisdom as we prepare to vote later this year.  Thanks.”