On Some Changes to My Views

We all grow and adapt throughout our lives. We start off believing in some things, and later on sometimes we change.

Change is never easy and sometimes it can be agonizing. We feel like we're betraying family or friends and the inner conflict we feel can be very hard to overcome.

While my belief in God and Christ are still large parts of my life, my political views have changed drastically in some regards.

I need to start off by saying that I'm pro-life. I have been since I was old enough to understand the issue. That being said I don't like the way that the pro-life community has approached the issue. I don't like that there are groups that bomb clinics. I don't like there are people that post the names and addresses of doctors in the hopes that they get killed by some nut.

I think that if the pro-life community had started opening clinics of their own, offering all services except for abortions, that there might have been fewer abortions over the years.

The other problem, as I see it, is that a large number of self professed pro-lifers only care that a baby is born. Many of them oppose any program to give prenatal care to the mothers and any program to give financial assistance to the poor families that need the help.

When I was younger I was a lot more stringent about the issue than I am now. I still think that abortion is wrong, though I totally understand getting one in the cases of rape or incest, but I just don't think that the fight can be won in the courts or in the legislature. The law is the law and I really don't think that its going to change anytime soon. I think that all the money fighting it in those arenas could be better spent opening free prenatal clinics or starting up charities to help poor families.

I didn't use to think that single payer was the way to go in the health care debate. (This is something I went more in-depth in another entry). Right now I'm on Medicaid and taking oncology medicine for a gastro-intestinal stromal tumor. I've seen what people have to go through when trying to get Medicaid and my stance changed from being against it to being for it. There's just too many people who need help to rely totally on charity. If every church in the country pooled their money, after taking out their operating costs, there still wouldn't be enough money to help all the people that need health care.

On marriage I've gone from thinking that gay marriage was wrong to believing that government should just get out of the business of recognizing marriages. If marriage is a religious institution then it should be kept that way and the government should only recognize civil unions.

Most of what I think now has changed significantly from when I was younger. The core of my beliefs, namely belief in God and Jesus Christ, hasn't changed, but sometimes I feel like I'm betraying my family for thinking the way that I do. I've talked about it with my family and they don't see the changes in my beliefs as a betrayal. In fact they understand why I think the way I do now.

Sometimes though I get depressed and feel bad about it though. I guess that's why I write about things like this. Just trying to work things out in my head.

That's all for now

May God bless you and may God be merciful unto you all the days of your life.

End of line

The Nature of Evil

Evil's not a word that we use very much anymore and that's not a good thing. Sometimes it's the only word that can accurately describe a situation. We shouldn't shy away from the Truth of a situation because describing it would make people uncomfortable, that's not honest and it doesn't help solve the problem in question.

Part of the difficulty is that people, by and large, have forgotten what evil really is. I hope, that with this post, I can shed some light on what I think evil is and what we can do to combat it.
One example of evil is the way that the Shank family was treated after Debbie Shank was injured in a horrific accident. She has severe brain damage and needs constant care. Wal-Mart paid for her care until Debbie's husband won a lawsuit on her behalf to help pay for her 24hr care. Wal-Mart then sued the shank family and won because they had a clause in her work contract gave them the right to do so. Their claim was that not only did they HAVE to sue her but they were also being generous and merciful because they were accepting less than they were owed. This is an example of evil. They knew Debbie's condition. They knew that her husband had to divorce her so that she could qualify for medicaid. They knew that her brain damage was so severe that she can't remember that her son died in Iraq and that every time she's told it's like hearing it for the first time.

What Wal-Mart did was evil without question. However the Shank's story was picked up by the media. News shows like Countdown with Keith Olberman showcased this and expressed outrage over the fiendish level of greed that Wal-Mart was showing. This, coupled with consumer outrage (and lots of prayer from Christians I hope) caused Wal-Mart to change their position and, as of today I believe, control over that money is back in the hands of Debbie's ex-husband.
During this story one Glenn Beck actually had the utter temerity to declare that the media was acting like terrorists in the way that they had handled the story. Apparently his stance was that Debbie has signed the contract so she was just out of luck. This attitude and the earlier example involving Wal-Mart itself are examples of the evil of the lack of caring about those who are in genuine need. It's selfishness made manifest and it's an ugly and evil thing.

There's also the evil of trying to lie about someone without actually lying. A good example of this can be found amongst people like Ann Coulter and some other radio personalities (including one who introduced McCain at an event, can't remember his name though) in their continued emphasis on Barak's middle name. Now while it should be abundantly clear to everyone that they're trying to pull a fast one we all know that it won't be.

For those who are wondering this is an example of lying without actually saying the lie. In putting the emphasis on Barak's middle name people like Ann Coulter are, rather coyly, trying to imply that he's a muslim when he's not. When called on it they try to spin the argument to say that they're only using his name and that there's nothing wrong with that.
If that were the case I'd agree but since I know what they're acutally doing I call them on it and call it for what it is. Evil.

To be sure there are other examples of evil in the world. They happen every day in all parts of the world. Murder, rape, child molesters, assault, etc.

How do we combat this you ask?

Well the answer is simple. The first part of combating it is to realize that God loves all of us and sent His only begotten son, Jesus, to die on the cross for all of us, and that on the third day He rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. Accepting Him as Lord and Savior is the most important step. (Remember folks I'm a Christian so this point of view really shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.)

Second we have to come together and work towards changing society. We have to change the hearts and minds of the people so we stop accepting things like the aforementioned evils. We have to get our hands dirty. We have to treat one another with love and kindness and care for the poor, the sick, the widows and orphans.

If we did all that then the world would be a much happier place to live. At least I think so anyway.

That's all for now.

May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you. May He make His Face to shine upon you.
Amen and amen

End of line.

Hatred

Each and every one of us has had to face hatred at some point in our lives. Its an isidious thing that can be as simple as someone making a snide comment about your choice of clothing, or as blatant as using racial epitaphs and violence. In any case it is not just wrong its evil. The problem is that we've run into in recent years is confusing real hate with politcal disagreements or diferences in philosophical and religious beliefs. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be an end in sight for that particular problem. What's most bothersome about it all is that so many problems could be solved if people just talked to one another.

The reason I'm talking about this is because of recent events at a site where I am a frequent poster. Gamepolitics.com is a site that talks about the gaming industry and how it relates to politics.( I mentioned them in an earlier post for those who are interested) A fellow poster there takes every opportunity he can to denigrate religion in general and Christianity in particular; even when religion has nothing to do with the news story in question. He has been asked, repeatedly, to knock it off only to have him turn around and tell us that, those of us who are Christians, are just too ignorant and superstitious to understand him and if we only gave up the things we believe in then we'd see everything his way.

Now don't get me wrong, the guy has every right to his beliefs; and I'd never claim otherwise. He's made his choice and, as a Christian, all I can really do is accept that he's made that choice and pray for him. He accuses Christians of being full of hate and wanting to legislate their faith into being the law of the land. Despite being shown the error of his logic, nope he's right and we're all just too stupid to realize it.

I'll be honest, there are things I disagree with and I'll make it known that I think certain behaviours are right or wrong. That doesn't mean I hate the person doing them, and that doesn't mean that I hate them for thinking differently than me. I actually rather like people most of the time.

My caution to everyone is this. Don't get so caught up in the "us vs. them" mentality that you lose sight of trying to actually solve problems. Remember the first rule of the fanatic: "When you become obsessed with the enemy you become the enemy". You don't have to agree with someone, but at least have the decency to listen to their arguments. Don't berate them for thinking differently than you, you can see where they might be coming from without agreeing with their philosophies. If people were more honest about that kind of thing there would be a lot fewer problems in the world.

That's all for now all. May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you, may He make His Face to shine upon you. Amen and amen

End of line.