SortaCrunchy

I Kissed (Partisan) Politics Goodbye

photo by Al Pavangkanan

In my heart, I was at the Rally to Restore Sanity over the weekend.  Have you looked through pictures of the signs in the crowd on Flickr?  Generally amazing, creative, hilarious stuff.  There's something about a giant black magic marker and a sheet of posterboard that brings out the best (and worst) in us, isn't there?

Instead of attending the Rally, I was here in small town Oklahoma, bombarded as we all are at this moment by political ads.  We've got us a hot gubernatorial race a-happenin' - Oklahoma will elect its first female governor tomorrow.  (I got chill bumps as I typed that.)  More locally, we've got a white hot District Attorney race that has been absolutely fascinating to watch play out.  Dacey is very quite confused about all the races, wondering where they will be happening and if I am running in one of them and will she able to wait for me at the finish line?

Ten years ago this month, I cast my very first vote in an election (unless, perhaps, you count the mock elections of my elementary years; if so, I'll have you know I proudly voted Reagan over Mondale).  I grew up in the Moral Majority era and it was exhilarating to cast my vote for a Brother in Christ - George W. Bush.  I smile even now as I think about how I went to bed that night believing victory was on our side only to be awakened by a middle-of-the-night phone call from my sister, frantic that the outcome was anything but clear.

Two years ago this month, that same sister and I spoke warmly on the phone as results rolled in on our side once again.  This time, however, the Other Side.

So, here's the thing.  I've been deeply, deeply invested in political opinion at various times in my life.  Not just in presidential election years, either.  I think it would be accurate to say that beginning in about 8th grade Civics class, I began to form strong opinions on politics and growing up in the United States allowed me easy access to a posture of partisanship.  Tutelage on unyielding stance and role models in win-at-all-costs dialogue abound.

But, um, I don't think I'm going to do that anymore.  Get all invested in politics, I mean.

Oh, sure, if you press then I'll tell you I consider myself a moderate Independent with Libertarian leanings.  (Yep, I registered as an Independent in a closed primary state which means I get to sit out every vote except for The Big Dance.)  But the viewpoint of the moderate is the one I most easily identify with these days. 

photo by Antonio Zugaldia

In her post Moderates: The Silent Majority?, Rachel Held Evans speaks eloquently and civilly on Christians as moderates, and I fully agree with her thoughts.  I especially loved this:

But I am convinced that Christians in America can appreciate their country without worshipping it, be politically engaged without being politically consumed, and hold opinions about healthcare and the economy without insisting that God agrees.

I should steal that and fill in the "Political Views" portion of my Facebook profile with her words. 

In the past few years, I've grown more and more interested in what it means to place priority on the Kingdom of God above anything else.  Anything.  I've come to a place of feeling like, for me, discussing politics is, at best, a waste of time, and at worst, it's a significant distraction from my real purpose here: going, telling, making disciples, all that Great Commission stuff.

I've mentioned before and I'll say again that it was reading Jesus for President that really turned my mind upside down on this whole issue.  Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw do a fantastic job of emphasizing how staggering the differences are between the kingdoms of this earth and the Kingdom of God.  Over and over they call us to allegiance to Christ and His radical call above any allegiance to Empire.

For me, there is a matter that cannot be ignored.  It is tremendously difficult for me to discuss politics while maintaining the heart of a peace maker. 

• My husband and I don't agree on many matters of politics.  How can I nurture our one-flesh relationship if I insist on salting the wounds of difference in our shared skin?  
• With the exception of my sister, my extended family is on a different political page than I am.  What is more important at a family gathering - genuine enjoyment of each others' company or playing devil's advocate to their various views?
• I live in small town Oklahoma where ultra-conservative politics and proud nationalism are the norm.  How can I dig in and become invested in this community if I am constantly alienating others with my political preferences?

See, Jesus makes it clear that He loves peace.  In fact, He Himself is our peace.  Oh sure, He freaked out and flipped over some tables that one time, but that incident of righteous anger had nothing to do with national politics and everything to do with religious culture.

He loves peace.  I love Him.  I want to love peace making the way He does. I want to love peace more than I love politibooking, more than I love the satisfaction of driving a point home beyond rebuttal, more than I love comment box debates, and more than I love sounding smarter than I am. 

So I'll walk down to my polling place tomorrow morning and take fifteen minutes to cast my vote.  Then I'll walk back home and get back to the business of serving the Prince of Peace and the Kingdom that lasts.

A Slippery Slope, Indeed

  photo by Stephen Cummings

You know, I don't often talk about politics here at SortaCrunchy.  Honestly, it's usually just not worth the relationship strain.  Like everyone else, I hold strong opinions, but the older I get, the less interested I am in convincing others of my rightness.  Or leftness, I suppose, depending on the topic.

Honestly, in all things politics, I am decidedly moderate.

On the topic of abortion (oh yes, we're going there; click away now if you need to), I am unshakably pro-life.  But in the past week, something has happened here in the state of Oklahoma that has sent my blood pressure soaring.

(I almost almost just politibooked this, but decided some good old-fashioned soap-boxing might be more appropriate.)

The Oklahoma Senate has overridden two bills vetoed by Governor Henry: House Bill 2780 requires women seeking an abortion to have an ultrasound within an hour of the procedure and have the results explained to her, and House Bill 2656 that would prohibit lawsuits against doctors who withhold information about a fetus or pregnancy that could cause a woman to seek an abortion.

It is House Bill 2656 that has left me shaking my head and checking MapQuest to see how far I would have to drive to receive maternal care in Texas.

In her CNN Opinion piece "Oklahoma, what have you done?" Mary Alice Carr writes:

Under this new law, a doctor may withhold information, mislead or even blatantly lie to a pregnant woman and her partner about the health of their baby if the doctor so much as thinks that fetal test results would cause a woman to consider abortion.

All of us are who are mothers can surely relate to the point she makes:

When I found out I was pregnant with each of my children, like every woman who has ever undergone fetal testing, I held my breath at each doctor's appointment. I didn't let it go until the doctor or the tech said, "Everything looks great." I seized up when they took out the blood work results and I didn't relax until I heard, "It all came back negative."

But a woman in Oklahoma no longer gets to exhale. Because now, when a doctor says, "Everything looks fine," she has to wonder; does it really? Oklahoma politicians have now said that she can no longer count on the sacred trust that always existed between her and her doctor. A doctor may now lie to her face and, in doing so, deny a woman what is quite possibly the most important piece of information she will ever receive in her life.

And this is what I find to be so infuriating.  In this broad stroke, the Oklahoma Senate has painted obsolete the rights of all mothers in this state. 

If Kyle and I were to have another child, and if tests were to reveal that baby had some kind of medical issue that would indicate either that the baby wouldn't live past birth or that she would have a lifetime of special needs to be met, I can assure you (with all of the accuracy I can gather having not ever sat in that chair and hearing those results) that terminating the pregnancy would not be an option to us.  Because of our religious faith and moral convictions, that would not be on the table as a possible response.

However, would you like to know what I would like to have the right to do?  I would like to be able to prepare - mentally, physically, spiritually - for the arrival of that baby.  I would like to have time to wrap my mind around the reality before her birthday arrived.  I would like to connect with support groups and research resources and prepare her older sisters for what her new life would bring to our family.

But apparently that right has now been removed from my hands.

But here's what I find to be outrageously ironic: We pro-lifers are quite adept at being gate-keepers stationed in front of that slippery slope.  We are careful to look at all possible outcomes of legislation, always mindful that "Well, if abortion is allowed in THIS case, then that sets us up on a slippery slope for abortion to be lawful in THIS case."

But the sanctioning of doctors choosing to lie to their patients?  Is no one in the Oklahoma Senate concerned about the treacherously slippery slope that this bill creates?  In that sense, the passage of this bill far supersedes the issue of abortion.

Only fourteen state senators stood up for the rights of mothers in this state in voting against the veto overrides.  I'll be taking a few minutes this afternoon to email each of them my gratitude.

/soapbox

(We can talk more in the comments, but please take care to stay on topic.  I don't want to talk about Roe v. Wade or even Oklahoma HB 2780.  Let's limit the discussion to the passage of HB 2656 if you don't mind.)

The Year of Jubilee

The older I get, the more my fondness grows for the hymns I learned standing between my parents in church each Sunday morning of my childhood.  Those were the days before words projected on screens, when the hymnals tucked into the backs of pews were taken out and used regularly.  

But I am not so old (yet) that I have eschewed learning and enjoying the contemporary praise songs that are popular today.  One of my very, very favorites that never fails to elicit a response from me of hands raised in adoration is Robin Mark's "The Days of Elijah."  The chorus goes like this:

Behold he comes
Riding on a cloud
Shining like the sun
At the trumpet's call
Lift your voice
It's the year of jubilee
Out of Zion's hill salvation comes

(click here to listen to the Twila Paris cover)

This line makes my voice crack nearly every time I sing it: "It's the year of jubilee."

Would you believe that though I was raised in a denomination that strongly emphasizes knowing Scripture from both the Old and New Testaments, that it wasn't until I was thirty-one years old that I learned anything about The Year of Jubilee?  And all that I know about it now I didn't learn in church.

I learned the meaning of the Year of Jubilee from Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw in Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals.

Thinking Thoughts

(Before I commence, I must say this post's title is totally inspired by Camaschick's Thinking Things.  If I had thought of it first, I would have totally opted for that as a blog title rather than SortaCrunchy . . .)

I don't watch the news much anymore.  I find the news to be difficult for us sensitive types who are prone to bawl their eyes out in the shower over a fifteen-second news story detailing some horrific, devastating act perpetrated against an innocent child garishly sandwiched between "Which Pump Has The Cheapest Gas Prices in Town?" and "What YOU Need to Know Before You Shop for Your Summer Wardrobe."

What very, very little news I am watching these days has to do with, of course, politics.  I've never been and probably never will be much of a political activist.  I find politics on the whole to be confusing, perplexing, and disappointing.  As a theologically conservative Christian, it becomes even more difficult to sort through what the talking heads report as Truth while those who are supposed to be preaching what I know to be Truth tread ever further past that long-ago crossed boundary line that separates Here Is What I Propose You Consider from Here is How You, Bible-Believing Christian, Must Think/Act/Speak/Vote.

I am extremely intrigued by this book my friend Mandy recently reviewed.  The description alone speaks to me.  It has moved to the very top of my "next to read" list.

In the meantime, yesterday my dear friend/writing partner/all-around-mind-twin Laura wrote a brilliant essay that puts eloquent and passionate words to some thoughts I've been chewing on for a long time.  I do hope you'll take a few minutes to go read it.  I wonder how many feel the same way?  And yes, I did ask before I linked because I am aware that linking to this will possibly open her up to some criticisms from those who agree with us on most things, but do not agree with us on this thing.

(And to be sure, Laura is not all about seriousness.  Check her toothpaste post as evidence of that!)

Thoughts?

Citizen High

As you may have heard, it's a pretty big day in The Republic.  (and by Republic, I do of course mean Texas, as that is how any good born-and-bred Texan refers to this country-turned-state.  I'm Texan born but Sooner bred, so I've had to learn the lingo from my friends who are Exes of The University.)

So

and I took the girls with me.  And isn't it amazing that we girls have been voting for less than one hundred years in this country?

D and I had some good talks about citizenship today.  About how voting is how we get to choose who makes the rules in our country (best way I could think of to explain it to a three year old!); about how paying taxes is part of being a good citizen (as we dropped off our tax info at the CPA); and how paying taxes helps us to have places like the library (as we arrived, late but ever enthusiastic, at storytime).

A good day, all in all.  And tonight I'll revel in my nerdiness as I nervously munch on popcorn and watch for today's results to see how much of a difference my idealistic vote made for my idealistic candidate.

Unwell

Completely ultra non-exciting sick update . . .

Big Sister seems to finally be on the mend, but that pesky cough and lovely runny nose are proving to be tough to kick.

Little Sister is battling all the same stuff now, as well as a painful ear infection (and the lovely tummy upset that accompanies the antibiotics).

I'm trying to keep my head above water amidst the hacking cough, up-and-down fever, raw throat, and a voice that comes and goes.

The Coach, amazingly, is managing to keep this stuff at bay, no doubt due to the copious hand-washing and moving out of our room, which for the time being has become the eye of the sickness hurricane.  What a blessing he has been, too - coming home extra early from work so I can get some rest and taking on Dacey duty for the better part of the last four days.

Anyway.

It's a good thing we aren't going anywhere today because navigating the streets near our home may prove to be difficult as our little town prepares for a big rally. 

Surely the end is in sight and we'll all be back to our glamorous selves again soon.  In the meantime, apologies all around for not getting to your comments and blogs . . .

Inspired

Got five minutes?

Watch this.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

We survived Project Birthday Party, but Operation Clean-Up has yet to be stamped Mission Accomplished. I'm off to finish that and if I get a chance, I'll get some pictures up later.

BY THE WAY, don't forget The Big Bloggy Move happens one week from today. So exciting!

Labels: bloggy move, general chatter, politics

Obama Insight

It's been quiet here, but only because things are not quiet offline. We've been weathering tummy bugs and teething woes and those two things have been more than enough to keep my hands too busy to type.

I did come across something at Christianity Today I wanted to share. I hear there are some emails flying around (again) about Barak Obama practicing Islam. If you have received such an email, or even if you haven't, I encourage you to check out this article for a Q&A with Senator Obama. It's a quick read and highly informative!

Christianity Today Q&A with Barak Obama

Labels: faith, general chatter, politics