The Most Important Votes I Cast This Week

"This is the most important election of our lifetime."

I can't even remember how many times I've heard that phrase since 2004.  I've voted in every presidential election for which I've been eligible because I believe it is both my right and my duty as a citizen.  To be perfectly honest, however, I have discovered that voting for a major political party candidate is emotionally comparable to picking a team for which to root in a sports game.  I don't want to belittle the importance of political issues by comparing them to something so trivial as athletic competition, but my emotions are about the same either way.  If my "team" wins the contest, I'll feel happy for a few moments before reality sets in and reminds me that very little lasting good will come out of said "victory."  Maybe I'm more glad to see "the other" lose than I am to see "my team" win, if for no other reason than that I don't have to watch other people gloat who don't see things the same way that I see them.  And if "the other" wins, I'll be disappointed and imagine the day when the scales might tip the other way.  Maybe I'll be optimistic about "next year" or maybe I'll realize that there is no guarantee that "my team" will even come close to winning a future contest.  When I wake up in the morning, I'll go about my real-life business much the same way that I always have.  "The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises," to borrow a phrase from Ecclesiastes.

But on Wednesday night, in the basement of a little Baptist church in Louisville, Kentucky, I believe I cast four "votes" that have far greater consequences than a four-year cycle.  I joined my Baptist brothers and sisters (with whom I covenanted together nearly eight years ago) in adding three new members to our fellowship and removing one long-time brother through church discipline.  By the grace of God, adding new members to the fellowship is a frequent experience at our church, and it's always a joyous occasion to see what plans God has in store for the newly added brethren.  On the other hand, the disciplinary process is (thankfully) a relatively rare phenomenon, but one that is always painful.

In Matthew 16:19, Jesus promised to give the keys of the kingdom of heaven to His church.  There's been a plethora of diverse opinions as to just what our Lord meant when He said, "whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."  I don't claim to know all the details of the text's meaning, but I think everybody should agree that it at least affirms that the earthly deeds of the church have eternal consequences.  I believe these eternal consequences are on the line whenever a congregation convenes a business meeting in which they will decide who to admit into the fellowship and who to exclude from the fellowship.

If memory serves, I've had to cast four votes of discipline during my church-going life, and it's been a gut-wrenching feeling in every instance.  When I cast that vote to place my old friend under the discipline of the church, I did so with the sorrowful conviction that my friend no longer valued Christ as the Savior and Lord of his life.  I fear that all his joyful service over the past seven years was but a well-meaning deception... one that he himself may not even have been fully aware.  His sins against his family and his Lord were evident to all, and though my friend acknowledges his fault, he remains unrepentant.  In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul described the act of church discipline as the final, desperate act by which a church might see their sin-bound brothers brought to true repentance and reconciliation.  When the assembly of the church votes to discipline, it amounts to no less than a "deliverance to Satan" so that the man's eternal soul might ultimately be saved at the Lord's appointed time.  God is sovereign, but God uses His church as the appointed means by which people can prepare themselves for the inevitable Day of Judgement when only One vote matters.  In my experience, the disciplined brothers and sisters who respond in repentance are the exceptions to the norm.  In spite of that, we still ought to have hope that God will work mightily to recover the His lost sheep.

For me, political elections have been reduced to futile, half-hearted attempts to restrain sin and human depravity through legal tour de force.  I'm not ashamed to admit that fact, but I don't take pleasure in being a "single issue" voter who knows that even the best-case outcome is unlikely to change laws... let alone change hearts and minds.  It's like rooting for your favorite sports team of aging, overpaid players to make that one last run at the big trophy.  Even if they do manage to capture the championship, the odds suggest that they will lose the crown the next time around.

But when I take my responsibilities as a church member seriously, I have hope for more than simply restraining sin through Law.  I can believe that the Holy Spirit of God is working in and through the people of Christ to do a work of Grace.  When Grace changes hearts and minds, lasting life-change necessarily follows.

The most important "vote" of our lifetime wasn't in 2004, 2008, or 2012, and it won't be in 2016 either.  The more important votes are the ones we cast when we covenant together to prepare people for the Kingdom that is coming.  And that's a Hope that can truly sustain me.

Traditional Marriage: The Unexpected Flip-side of the Obama Effect

The beautiful providence of God:

The real reason "Why Gay Marriage Was Defeated in California"

From Yahoo! News
Nov. 4 may have been a joyous day for liberals, but it wasn't a great day for lesbians and gays. Three big states - Arizona, California and Florida - voted to change their constitutions to define marriage as a heterosexuals-only institution. The losses cut deep on the gay side. Arizona had rejected just such a constitutional amendment only two years ago. It had been the first and only state to have rebuffed a constitutional ban on marriage equality. In Florida, where the law requires constitutional amendments to win by 60%, a marriage amendment passed with disturbing ease, 62.1% to 37.9%. . . .

Gays came back in some polls, but they couldn't pull out a win. Part of the reason is that Obama inspired unprecedented numbers of African Americans to vote. Polls show that black voters are more likely to attend church than whites and less likely to be comfortable with equality for gay people. According to CNN, African Americans voted against marriage equality by a wide margin, 69% to 31%. High turnout of African Americans in Florida probably help explain that state's lopsided vote to ban same-sex weddings.

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The Death of Conservativism in America: Andy Griffith Goes Blue

In a pro-choice rally before Planned Parenthood, Barak Obama called for the end of the "culture wars" in America, calling them "just so 90s." Now it seems he may have his way. Last week Colin Powell made headlines in his endorsement of Obama's presidental campaign. It was a hard hit for the McCain camp, but this week's bombshell may effectively signal the death kneel of small town conservativism in America:

Oh, Andy, say it ain't so...
Still, even I have to admit that this is very well made and effective. I love Andy's comment about avoiding the "butterfly ballot." Almost prevents me from crying myself to sleep...

Why a Christian should vote against the "cool" candidate

Sorry, Donald Miller:
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From Denny Alcorn:

But Obama is savvy. He wants to attract young voters, including young evangelical Christians who are sort-of-prolife. He knows to say that he favors reducing or limiting abortions. Which is like limiting rather than criminalizing murder and rape and kidnapping and slavery. A candidate could say “I’m personally opposed to rape,” while he has a 100% voting record favoring the legality of rape. And he could say he favors limiting or reducing the number of rapes. But if he actually supports the legality of the hideous crime of rape, discerning people would see through his rhetoric of rape-reduction.

When I discovered Obama was an all-out defender of legalized child-killing, I was disappointed beyond words. And I knew that in the next election, I was not going to get to be cool.

So Obama and McCain walked into a dinner party...

Barak Obama and John McCain attended the traditional Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner on Thursday . . . hilarity ensued.

From David Espio, the Associated Press

John McCain and Barack Obama swapped self-deprecating jokes instead of campaign jabs Thursday night, the Republican saying he had replaced his team of senior advisers with "Joe the Plumber" while the Democrat claimed his own "greatest strength would be my humility."

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Granted, this is a very serious election but I found it refreshing to see the candidates take an opportunity to show some humility and make light of the more trivial aspects of this campaign.

Some gems:
Barak Obama

Contrary to the rumors you have heard, I was not born in a manger. I was actually born on Krypton and sent here by my father, Jor-el, to save the planet Earth.

John McCain

What they don't know is that Joe the Plumber recently signed a very lucrative contract with a wealthy couple to handle all the work on all seven of their houses.

Even in this room full of proud Manhattan Democrats, I can't shake the feeling that some people here are pulling for me. I'm delighted to see you here tonight, Hillary.

Obama is ready for any contingency, even the possibility of a sudden and dramatic market rebound. I'm told that at the first sign of a recovery, he will suspend his campaign and fly immediately to Washington to address the crisis.

I don't think I've felt this warm and fuzzy about the election since the JibJab video.
Now that that's out of the way, we now return you to your regularly scheduled political mudslinging and factual distortion.

BONUS: Here is President Bush's introduction of the Stanley Cup Champion Detroit Red Wings to the White House. Like a lot of people, he mispronounces "Detroit" but overall this is one of his more witty speeches. Very funny.

Sarah Palin: Only in America...

There has been much talk about Sarah Palin's qualifications to be a heartbeat away from the United States' Commander and Chief. There is much about Palin that I don't know. But from what I have seen so far, it seems that Palin is the embodiment of the American dream, an ordinary person rising to extraordinary heights. In a year that is especially notable for the first African-American man winning the presidential nomination of the Democratic party, Sarah Palin also reminds us that America is the land of opportunity.

To me, this video is illustrative of that fact:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bza63nnqiKA

Forget, for a moment, the fact that she is a woman and mother of 5 running for Vice President. In what other country can a local sportscaster from Alaksa ever hope to be running for the second highest office in the land?

EDIT: Too bad my Pistons lost that night back in 1988. Even at 24, she really knew how to talk smack about those Minnesota Northstars! Maybe that’s why they left town and went to Dallas? And if you were wondering, the Northstars were an NHL team… you know, the National HOCKEY League?

Hat Tip: Yahoo!