It's Finally Over

2 years and $1 billion later, the 44th president of the United States has finally been elected. Congratulations to Barack Obama! I am cautiously optimistic about his presidency and am interested to see what he's going to do. Having a Democratically controlled house & senate, along with a Democratic president, scares me, but I am operating on faith that Obama will try to reach across party lines as he has stated in his campaign. He certainly won't have many excuses for not getting things done! I'm interested also to see who his cabinet will be as well.

I am absolutely thrilled that an African-American has been elected to the white house. It's time and it's amazing to see how far we've come. Jim Crow laws were in effect in this country scarcely 60 years ago and look where we are now. Wow. My fervent hope & prayer is that the young African-American at-risk young men in this country would see and begin to realize that their fate as poor and disadvantaged is not sealed, that they can aspire to the highest office in the land. It's no longer impossible. The ceiling has shattered.

For those who love John Piper as much as Chris & I do (and for those who don't, you should watch this too), here's a video that my friend Matt linked on his blog:



As I mentioned before, one really great thing that has happened during this election season has been opening up dialogue between lots of different people. I've been having a pretty insightful conversation with some college friends of mine who are spread all over the country, both Democrats and Republicans and Independents. It's been really interesting and challenging for me. Here are my closing thoughts on politics that I wrote to them and then I'm going to stop talking about politics for awhile and focus on more interesting things, like how my kids both hate to have their hair washed and what we ate for breakfast in the morning.

"...the best thing to remember is that we're Christians, not Americans. I wholeheartedly agree. But, the last time I checked, the Kingdom of God was not up for a vote. I think that what's best for God's Kingdom doesn't come in the form of a vote or politics, it comes through servanthood, sharing the gospel, being a light and witness to our neighbors. I am disillusioned with the *political* Christian Right as they seem to believe that it's through politics that revival is going to come to our nation. 8 years of George Bush has proved that very wrong...

...I think too often we, as Americans, think that we can cast a vote and think our responsibilities end there, but if we as Christians want to further the Kingdom of God, we need to be working with organizations that are actually doing that and not with politicians who are in less of a position to actually affect people's lives and allow the gospel to go forward."

Is November 4th Here Yet?

For those on Facebook, I opened up a can of worms in a note that I wrote asking for help from my pro-life, Obama-supporting friends. I guess I should have known that I was asking for trouble as I know my friends on Facebook and know that they like to make their opinions known :) In addition the comments on the note, I got many Facebook messages there and the discussions are ongoing.

It makes my head hurt thinking about politics, although in a good way. Most of the people who posted in that note are friends from college with whom I would stay up talking about everything and anything until all hours of the night. I loved that -- iron sharpening iron, challenging each other in a safe environment, thinking and shaping our own philosophies and learning from people who have different opinions than ours. I miss that. I enjoy going to a house church because we get some of that good discourse in a safe environment.

I also miss the chance to just think about things. I often feel like I don't have enough time/energy/will to think through tough issues. I'm an extrovert, which means I'm an external processor and poor introverted Chris serves as my CPU, who takes my raw data and turns it into something structured and understandable by other human minds. And, having kids means that I'm often thinking about diaper changes, meals and other menial things far more than I would like and don't have time to think about my political philosophy.

My questions/thoughts that I'm currently wrestling through are as follows (and I might open back up that can of worms on Facebook, but we'll try here first):

1. What kind of government does the bible support or mention? What I can recall are: theocratic monarchy, an oligarchy, a dictatorship.
   
2. When I'm standing before God's throne, is he going to judge me by who I vote for (among other things)?
3. Why am I making such a big deal of this when my vote is really insignificant in this election, living in Illinois?
4. Will Roe v. Wade ever be overturned in my lifetime? And even if it is, that just sends the decision to the states.
   
5. There have been 2 Democratic presidents since Roe v. Wade was judged, the rest have been pro-life Republicans and I haven't seen much progress.
6. I really dislike having a one party majority in the executive & legislative branches, and it looks like that's where we're headed.
7. I'm troubled by Obama wanting to sign the Freedom of Choice Act (which would remove all restrictions on abortion) as one of his first acts in office.
8. Do I really feel okay with Palin potentially being President?
   

Abortion is a big deal to me. It's not my only thing, but it is a large issue for me. The idea that you can terminate a life because you don't want it is personal to me, being an unwanted child at one point in my life. Yes, there are lots of other things that I care about -- health care, taxes, war, energy, etc. But I need to satisfy this question in my head before I feel comfortable voting for a candidate.

Those are my thoughts right now. I welcome any and all comments -- I won't be as restrictive as I was on facebook, unless it gets out of control.

Our First African-American President?

So, with the election looming and all polls pointing to the probability that we'll have our first African-American president, I have been wondering...

1. How do you think a black president will affect the state of race relations in our country? For better, worse or of no effect?
2. Will it help the poor, urban black community (especially at-risk young black men) to think bigger/aspire higher than they may have before?
3. Does it make a difference that his father was a Kenyan migrant vs. having roots as a 17-19th century slave?

Although I'm of a more conservative persuasion, I am really excited to (potentially) be living through a historic time...