who is number one.
I’m glad my view of politics have been shallow for the past few elections.
In fifth grade we had “mock-elections” for the 2000 presidental campaign: Bush vs. Gore. I remember my social studies teacher made Bush sound like this amazing guy and Gore, a bafoon who thought he invented the internet.
Needless to say, over 95% of the fifth grade class at Perry Hill Elementry School voted George W. as president of the United States.
That is why for six years I claimed to be a Republican.
Now, this isn’t a blog about politics, because I literally have nothing to say about that (VOTE OBAMA ’08!… ha, that was a joke), this is about extremes. In this case: Conservatism vs. Liberal-ism.
But I don’t want to end there.
See, this may be extremely obvious to some of you, but others not: EXREMES=BAD. [Let me define this version of EXTREME before you throw a few fits. I mean this: an extreme is something you believe and stand for with no knowledge backing it up (IGNORANCE I call it). It’s forcing those beliefs on people HARSHLY and WITHOUT LOVE. It’s a belief that you let get between you and God. And though you may CLAIM it draws you closer to God, that can sometimes be the opposite.]
Facism vs. Communism.
I’ve been thinking and thinking about this topic, not really sure how to even talk about it in a blog or elsewhere. I mean, usually when I have a belief I hang tight to it. Example: Jesus is Lord. Probably not going to change my mind about that one.
[But that’s not really what I’m going with either. God is an Absolute, a Constant in this equation so let’s not declare Him debatable… not right now.]
But we can discuss the Church. Church of God vs. Church of Christ. (One word difference yet, so incredibly opposites).
My point here is this: people search and search for their stand on one subject or another and once they believe one side, they don’t let up. Example: Abortion=Bad. So instead of thinking rationally, they jump off the deep end. Like a particular Pro-Life group who runs around the country protesting at abortion clinics but doesn’t take spend anytime loving. They don’t even pray for these women who go through this. They hate women who get abortions. They hate doctors who administer abortions. (hate=extreme)
I think probably the worst one ever, especially for Christians, is the gay marriage situation. Yes, the Bible says homosexuality is a sin BUT does it say to hate homosexuals? NO. Period.
I am using very contraversial issues, I know, and I know that I’m probably putting too much unsolicited opinion in here as well. But here’s the scoop: when there are extremes, there are footholds.
“And do not give the devil a foothold.”
It makes your chosen extreme first priority, or soon to be. God needs to be the Extreme, not this issue or that.
I remember back in fifth grade I made a conscious decision that I, Lauren Deidra Sawyer (10.5 years old) was going to be a Republican because George W. Bush didn’t claim to invent the internet.
Whenever I form an opinion on something I think hey, what’s the opposite view (the antithesis!) then I rule one or the other out. I’m pretty sure everyone does that one way or another.
And so we have a tendency to hang onto our beliefs… so hard. SO HARD. We are unwilling to let go. We believe gay marriage is so wrong that we exploit the image of Christ and claim no hope for them. We are sinners, but they are worse. Or on the other side, the opposite. We want to show God’s love to them SO bad that we “hijack” Jesus and ignore the passages about homosexuality in the Bible.
Neither are right. And both will give Satan leeway to do something not so cool in our lives.
Yes, yes, before Mrs. Pickett calls me on ranting (good thing she’s not reading this!) I will acknowledge the opposition. But faith!, you say. Faith? Devotion? Humility? Love? Aren’t those all extremes? Virtues: can’t those be good in huge amounts?
Yes, but consider this: too much of anything NOT God is bad. That means TOO MUCH humility can be bad. (Humility that, ironically, leads to pride in that way.)
As Uncle Screwtape put it, “All extremes, except extreme devotion to the Enemy, are to be encouraged.”
Now I don’t want my blog to be misread. I’m not saying it’s good to be complacent or lukewarm, I’m just saying know why you believe one thing or another. Know why you call yourself a Democrat or Republican, patriot or pacifist; don’t use it to hurt the opposition. Be courteous, respect each others’ beliefs.
And don’t give the enemy a foothold.
♥ezek.
“Then quietly and gradually nurse him on to the stage at which the religion becomes merely part of the ’cause’, in which Christianity is valued chiefly because of the excellent arguments it can produce in favour of the British war-effort or of Pacifism. The attitude which you want to guard against is that in which temporal affairs are treated primarily as material for obedience. Once you have made the World an end, and faith a means, you have almost won your man, and it makes very little difference what kind of wordly end he is pursuing. Provided that meetings, pamphlets, policies, movements, abuses, and crusades, matter more to him than prayers and sacraments and charity, he is ours–and the more ‘religious’ (on those terms) the more securely ours.” The Screwtape Letters
October 19, 2007