Dollar Signs & Politics

As we hit the final wekend before next Tuesday’s election day. I’d like to briefly share some data followed by some questions. I must note, I can’t wait to get to Wednesday when we realize that the world isn’t over. Okay for some of you, it might take a few more days but by the wknd, we’ll all be somewhat back to normal.

Reports indicate that Obama has raised over $600 million for his campaign while McCain only raised a mere $200ish million. In September Obama brought in a record $150 million while McCain only brought in $66 million.

Obama recently spent millions to run a 30 minute infomercial on most of the major networks while McCain did no such thing.

Now I don’t want to get into the discussion of campaign financing or anything like that. But here are some questions:

$800 million for a presidential campaign? Could you imagine what we could do with that kind of money?

Has Obama’s campaign reinvented how one must go about winning the election? Former AK Gov. Mike Huckabee this morning on Fox News praised Obama’s campaign for the way they have organized and spent their money. I must agree, even though I believe the amounts of money (either party really) spend on a campaign. It’s hard for me to really believe that either candidate is going to care for the poor and do such things when they accept so much money to become the leader of the free world. Should we blame the candidates though for accepting money when ppl so easily donate? It’s just another reminder that to really change the landscape of our country, we shouldn’t be spending money on elections, rather, we should give our money to local community organizers, nonprofits, churches, then perhaps the change we seek in Washington, will actually come to our hometown.

A reminder for everyone to vote – either way you go, it’s important and it counts. But remember this number, 1461 – that’s the number of days between elections. 1 day is important, but it fails in comparison to the 1461 in between when we really should be engaging our communities with hope, with peace, with love. Join me November 5th, 2008 as we organize ways to bring hope to our neighborhoods.

Being right and the voice of God

Recently, a good friend of mine and I continued an e-mail conversation about the upcoming presidential election. Believe it or not, there are many followers of Christ on both sides of the political dilemma. On the one side, you have your die hard, Religious Right who puts its hope in a reversal of Roe v Wade and believe President George W. Bush’s war policies are still justifiable. On the other side, you have those pro-lifers who want to broaden the meaning of life to not only the protection of the unborn, but to include the innocent victims in harm’s way in Afganistan, Iraq, and elsewhere our military is launching measures within the war on terror and in Iraq. And I’m sure on each side there are moderates. For example, some Christians really are pro-choice, even beyond rape, incest, or physical harm. That’s right, some Christians believe that. Or on the other side, there are those who are 100% pro-life but 100% against Bush’s war in Iraq.

So as the conversation continued, my friend forwarded an email on why a black man can’t vote for Obama b/c he’s a Christian. Okay I’ll read it, and not surprisingly, I agreed with some portions, and not with others. Does this make me not a Christian, a Christian, or some wierd hyrbrid Christian? Or a not-yet-arrived Christian?

And I’ve also read the likes of Catholics who can vote for Obama or Brian McLaren who is supporting Obama and lists his Christian reasons why. So my friend asked me, “well don’t all Christians feel that they are not missing God?” Or in other words, aren’t we all hearing God.

So here we have Christians on both sides of the political aisle, passionate about their convictions, and passionate about the Bible and passionate about hearing the voice of God. So who is right? Who hears the voice of God? Whose convictions are most closely aligned with God?

I think those are the wrong questions to answer. The more I thought about it, the intent behind those questions and answers is a part of the problem. By proving who is right or who hears God, we kinda miss the point and in the end, do a huge disservice to God. Why? B/c I think both sides have valid viewpoints to complex wordly problems. God clearly cares about the unborn. God clearly cares about innocent life elsewhere in the world and right here in America those who die everyday due to insufficient necessities of life. Yes we need a broader view of life but we also need to realize that being right on one side means the other side is wrong and thus missing the point of God. Maybe it’s we’re all hearing the voice of God, but we’re too narrow to listen to the rest of what he says. Maybe we hear the first thing He speaks to us, but we miss the second, third, fourth things he says. And the next person hears the fourth thing but misses the first. Perhaps when we sit together and listen to one another, then truly, we will have the heart of God beating visibly through us.

Only days left until…

3 days until Penn State travels to Columbus to play our beloved Ohio State Buckeyes. Some justification aside, national media and even some locally, along with some anxious fans fret at seeing Ohio State coming back into the national BCS picture. I, on the other hand, love it. This is OHIO STATE, being one of the premiere college football teams, in the top 10 is where we always belong. Now, it’s time for us to make our case to the world. Okay so a drubbing in 2007 against Florida, a near repeat against LSU in 2008, and earlier this year, a complete what-the-heck-just-happened against USC. But I’m 100% positive that this is why Paul encourages us to forget what lies behind and press on toward the goal. Yes, Paul looked ahead 2,000 years and saw the Buckeyes.

As a side note, Terrelle Pryor will be playing against his home state team. This is going to be fun.

A Muslim President?

Last week, I had the opportunity to experience a campaign rally for Barack Obama in my hometown. This doesn’t mean I’m voting for him nor does it mean I’m not, but I wanted to hear him speak in person and gauge those in attendance, whether young or old, white or black. There was a diverse background, several high schools permitted their students to attend. I was surprised to see that the bulk of those attending appeared to be white, middle-class folks, like me. Barack delivered a pretty good speech on the economy. What I liked most about it was it was not a negative campaign. He said nothing bad about McCain or his associates, rather he focused 100% on policy issues, then proclaiming his different policies will make our country better as we move toward the future. All in all, it was a great experience and I found him to be quite charismatic and compelling.

I came across this commentary today about whether it’s okay if a Muslim is president of the U.S. It’s an excellent piece and registers with me as its something I’ve thought about for quite some time. Many Christians wrongly associate all Muslims and Arabs to radical jihadists. I fear this is at play when they attempt to associate Barack Obama in that group. If he belongs to such radical ideology and would like to blow up the U.S., then sure, he’s clearly not fit for the job and should do jail time, if a crime is committed, or whatever should happen.

However, if he’s not apart of those fundamentalist, radical groups (which I don’t believe he is), then who cares if he’s got a Muslim or Arab background? The U.S. was founded on Christian principles but that doesn’t mean every public official should be Christian. How do we positively evaluate that? Further, it doesn’t mean that we are in fact a Christian nation today. I would argue that we’re not anyway and that we are a diverse group of people. Therefore, we should celebrate that diversity and work together on policy issues. When we demonize any other person, race, gender, religious group, we really must ask ourselves, are we truly following after Christ?

Find the article here http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/13/campbell.brown.obama/index.html

Preview Service #2

Rehab – Amy Winehouse ; Big Pimpin’ – Jay Z ; Let the Bodies hit the Floor – Drowning Pool ; It wasn’t me – Shaggy

What do those 4 songs have in common? These songs were played at Centerpoint’s PS#2 10/5/08. I’ll give you a minute.

Yes that’s right a church not afraid to use various elements of the culture in a redemptive way. The songs were used to provide comedic relief for a deeply serious subject - sin. You see, Noah got drunk, Abram pimped out his wife, Saul (Paul) killed early Christians, and David was slept with a broad other than his wife.

To hear the complete, challenging message, visit

www.centerpointlive.com / media