Fear and Loathing in STL

Another one of those days marked by self-loathing. I don't have many of them, and thank goodness for that. I'm not very good at it.

I found out some more stuff today that just serves to convince me that I got the message wrong when I thought God was calling me to something more than volunteer service. The depression is wearing off. I'm not good at that either. I like to laugh too much; but it hurts beneath the surface. I imagine that 'this, too, shall pass'.

I was just thinking about a radio talk show that I was listening to the other day. Now, as a rule, I don't listen to talk radio, for a million reasons; most of which have to do with the unbridled rancor and crass attitudes of the hosts. But in a moment of weakness I paused on one of them long enough to be drawn in by the sheer lunacy of the topic--is Barak Obama the anti-christ? Obviously, it was a Christian themed station and the callers were (possibly) well-meaning souls desiring to express their concerns about someone who doesn't meet their criteria of a qualified candidate. (Holy crap...I kept a straight face almost all the way through that last sentence.) I just wish that for 10 minutes these ultra conservative types would pull their heads out of their behinds and look around at what's going on around them. In defense of the host, he seemed to be pretty fair-minded and didn't really believe that Obama was the devil's chosen, but he could have shut it all down and moved on.

Jesus gave us 2 things to do that would show the world who he is and how much we care about him and his teachings: love God and love each other. And then he even told us how to do that: take care of the people who can't take care of themselves. Feed the hungry; cloth the naked; support the poor--get them back on their feet; give drink to the thirsty; visit the prisoners. And, guess what...if we don't follow through on these instructions he's going to look us right in the eye and say that he doesn't know us. It will make him sad; he won't like doing it; but he's going to show us the door. Read it for yourself in Matthew. He told John to write in one of his letters that any one of us who claims to love God, but hates a fellow human being is a liar! We are so full of hate in the name of God that people are turning away from the church because of it. The souls that Jesus holds so dear are turning away from him because of what they see in the church.

While this isn't true of all Christians or all churches, the people who have the loudest voices in this country--who claim to represent us and God--are sending this message. I have a message for these guys: Stop pretending to speak for me! I don't need or want your help!

I read some cool things that Tony Campolo had to say about all of this in a book I'm reading right now. I'll try to reproduce some of it in a future post. Great insight into the true nature of what the church should be and what we should expect from our government.

If you think Obama or Clinton or McCain or anyone else in our God-forsaken political system is the anti-christ: please get into therapy.

Read the Beatitudes (in Luke) and resolve to be humble, merciful, makers of peace. God loves us all--even those of us who blow ourselves up in Jewish shopping malls. Our sin is his sadness. The mercy and grace of the cross are our only claims to who he created us to be.

Mike