Category Archives: Election 2008

Obama’s Perspective on Faith in Christ is Biblical

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Here’s Obama on the significance of the Gospel: In an interview with Christianity Today magazine, Obama said this about his decision to accept Christ, What was intellectual and what was emotional joined, and the belief in the redemptive power of Jesus Christ, that he died for our sins, that through him we could achieve eternal life – but also that, through good works we could find order and meaning here on Earth and transcend our limits and our flaws and our foibles – I found that powerful.

Shallow and Insulting Reactions from Christians About the Election …

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Did you see the recent comment from “Donna”? It stirred me up! Come on people! Christian integrity and humility should compel you to allow that those who voted for Obama are NOT thereby proven to be ignorant or reprobate! I know that my response refers to the behavior and attitudes of the “religious right” as if they could be sterotyped. But in fact, in my experience, these problems VERY consistently show up in people who get their input from those sources – they are stereotypical responses. On the other hand my experience with Christian Democrats shows them almost always to be much more welcoming and open to information and to real discussion. Here’s my response (The numbered headlines are quotes from Donna’s comment.):

Did You Vote?

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Some Biblical perspective. First, our hope has to be higher than human society, politics, government, churches, or wars. Psalm 146: 3 Do not put your trust in princes,     in mortal men, who cannot save. 4 When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;     on that very day their plans come to nothing. 5 Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,     whose hope is in the LORD his God, 6 the Maker of heaven and earth,     the sea, and everything in them—     the LORD, who remains faithful forever. Second, it matters greatly to the Divine Spirit what kinds of values we support.

Scott Kleeb on Abortion: “The ideal number … is zero.”

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The ideal number for me as a Catholic is zero … and there are plenty of people I’d be willing to work with if they want to get down to … that ideal number which is zero. Just below there’s a video clip (2 minutes, 11 seconds) of Scott Kleeb fielding a question in Omaha last week. (Kleeb is the Dem candidate for the Nebraska US Senate seat being vacated by Chuck Hagel.) The guy in the audience keeps shoving the term “pro-life” at Kleeb and Kleeb jumps on it pretty hard, saying that all this putting of labels on people and stirring up arguments about terms is not helping! We’ve spent 30 years fighting about it and making political hay out of it. And under recent Republican domination of our government, abortions have not gone down significantly, and there is evidence they have gone up. All of us, every single one of us in this country wants to get to zero. It’s time to actually start working on it – together. … we can work together despite whatever differences we might have for a shared and common goal. That’s what this moment is. These moments don’t come around very … Continue reading →

“They Said …” – Corrections, in the Service of Truth

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[This is lifted verbatim from BiPM's column this morning. Emphases are mine.] They said his name’s too foreign and exotic. It isn’t. They said he’s too young. He isn’t. They said he’s a scary Muslim terrorist. He isn’t. They said he was sworn in on the Koran. He wasn’t. They said he’s not a Christian. He is. They said he’s too distant and aloof. He isn’t.

McCain says Obama is “a decent person that you do not have to be scared of …”

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[Quotes from Politico.com ] Senator McCain on Friday (Oct 10, 08) seemed to be pushing back against the fear and hate Sarah Palin is encouraging against Senator Obama. When a crowd member said at a town meeting in Lake­ville, Minn., on Friday that he feared what would happen if Obama were elected, McCain said that Obama is “a decent person and a person that you do not have to be scared of as president of the United States.” The crowd booed. Why wouldn’t it? McCain says there is nothing to fear from Obama, while McCain’s running mate says Obama pals around with terrorists who target America. “The crowd booed.” What does that tell us about “the crowd”? This is behavior that needs to go away. Seriously. How can we protect America if we treat fellow Americans that way

Government by Fear and Hysteria? Where?

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Phil Johnson over at Seeing the Forest sees one of the important differences between these two campaigns for the Presidency. Compare the reaction of Obama and his campaign to last nights “that one” comment by McCain, to McCain and his campaign’s reaction to Obama saying that McCain’s policies put “lipstick on a pig.” Basically the Obama reaction was to ignore it, while the McCain campaign and supporting Republican noise machine went into a several-day hissy fit. I was visiting with a college student recently who told me it seems to him that our government is constantly trying to scare us to death

The Debate’s Most Telling Moment

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I have to urge you to go read this diary by greenrose2 over at dailykos. It’s titled “an unsung moment of the debate.” … it was in watching the replay that I picked up my absolute favorite unsung moment of the debate. It came when Senator McCain was stumbling with Ahmadinejad’s name. He was stumbling hard, almost unable to get the name or any semblance of it pronounced. Very quietly, but audibly Senator Obama can be heard saying something. In the first viewing, I knew he had said something there, but was unable to decipher exactly what he had said. In listening to the replay it’s easy to hear his comment. Was it a put-down, an insult, some sort of mocking coming from Obama? Nope.

Is McCain Really Lying? Does It Matter? [Update 9/15]

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Does McCain really lie as a campaign tactic? And don’t tell me that “Obama does it too” (which, by the way, is not true). That’s a junior high style of argument. Do not neglect to answer the question about McCain (and by implication about Palin). Does McCain lie regularly as a deliberate campaign tactic? IF he does, should that matter to Christians? Or is it enough that Dobson supports him, no matter how he behaves? Here’s a short (less than 4-minute) youtube video showing McCain lying about Obama and about himself.

Fear, Prayer, and Human Hearts – Another Confused Email

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Scary Email I received an anonymous forwarded email the other day that combined a bit of good spiritual advice with a lot of classic Republico-Christian fear-mongering. Actually, it wasn’t totally anonymous. It was signed (several senders back) by “Carolyn”. This is the scariest election WE as Christians have ever faced. I know what SHE thinks are the reasons. Americans seem to be ready to vote for a black Muslim Democrat. How could things be more frightening? (Obama is not a Muslim, but the other two charges are true.) What she SHOULD mean is that many Americans are still supporting government by cliche, diplomacy by temper tantrum, continuing dishonesty about abortion and “moral values,”