A Thinking Woman

Homeschooling so far this year has been fun and…um…educational! (go figure!) First up on our schedule was reading a book about William Wilberforce. I love homeschooling because I get to learn new things, too!

Wilberforce was a politician in Britain in the late 1700s and early 1800s. When he first began his political career, he was one of only three active Christians in parliament. By the end of his career, there were well over 100 men serving who actively sought to follow Christ in their lives by their actions, not just by their words.

Wilberforce wrote a book full of practical advice on how to live out faith in Christ in the everyday life. His book quickly became popular in Britain and in America and was printed in five other languages. One of the reasons he wrote his book is because he was afraid that it would soon become ‘fashionable’ to disown Christ.

Wilberforce said he was afraid the time was fast approaching when it would be socially fashionable to disbelieve and the person who believed would be thought to have a feeble mind or to be uneducated.
-God’s Politician, by John Holtzmann, pg 64

Two hundred years later, what Wilberforce feared is now here. In today’s American society, it is decidedly unfashionable to be an “evangelical Christian.” There is a segment of the population that believes that those of us who follow Christ are somehow uneducated, backwards, even dumb. We have somehow been denied the enlightenment that they have received, and we are dead wrong on all the issues that matter: a woman’s right to choose, gay rights, etc.

Today the Dallas Morning News reported on McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin as his VP. I was tickled at the quote from the president of the North Dallas Texas Democratic Women.

The thinking woman is going to look at this (McCain’s selection of Palin) as just a political ploy,” said Lenna Webb, president of the North Dallas Texas Democratic Women. “Those women that were Hillary supporters, that still needed to be wooed to Obama’s side — I believe this actually will push them further behind Obama.”

Hmm. It seems that Ms. Webb believes that only Democrat women are ‘thinking’ women. I beg to differ! Oh, wait, was that a thought I just had?

McCain’s choice of Palin was exactly what he needed to do to woo not the Hillary supporters, but women like me. I have heard from many friends and relatives who are pumped up about McCain’s choice. If you read my earlier blogs about McCain, you’ll see that I have never been an enthusiastic supporter because I have had my doubts about what the man truly believes. Yet his selection of Palin wins me over to his side.

Why? It’s not just that she’s a woman. It’s because she has taken on corruption head-on. Yes, she’s only been governor for two years, but in her entire career she has gone head to head with corruption. I have no doubt that if there is corruption in McCain, she’ll call him on it. The Democratic Party keeps talking about change, but I have not seen either of the people on that ticket who have a record of kicking butt and taking names. Washington needs some serious cleaning.

I have a good feeling that many things that lurk in the darkness are about to be exposed to the light.

My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for^[a] the sins of the whole world.

We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love^[b] is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.

Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.

Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him^[c] to make him stumble. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.
1 John 2:1-9

By the way, this thinking woman, the target of McCain’s ‘political ploy,’ thinks that his strategy works!

Checkmate.

Finally, Some Common Sense!

Throughout this long, drawn-out political process, I have been amazed at the lack of sincerity on the parts of the candidates.  If John McCain had picked Mitt Romney to run as his VP, I would have voted for Bob Barr.  (Who’s he?  The Libertarian candidate).  It had absolutely nothing to do with his Mormon religion and everything to do with his demeanor and his past actions as Governor.

John McCain just threw a monkey wrench in the Obama campaign’s momentum with his selection today of Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin as his VP pick. It was almost comical to watch the political reporters’ reactions. As a voting woman and as a mother, I can relate to Governor Palin in ways that I can’t relate to Senator Biden or Obama.

Her pro-life stance is unapologetic.  She’s a member of Feminists for Life, an organization which insists that women deserve better than abortion.  Its tagline is: Refuse to Choose.  She herself faced a decision with her recent pregnancy; she learned while she was still pregnant that her son had Down’s Syndrome.  She and her family have embraced that baby whole-heartedly — proof that she values all life.

Many Democrats will go on the attack because of her stance on life, but she will stand firm.  She is right.  And I will stand behind her.

I found it so interesting that during her acceptance speech today, the crowd often chanted

U – S -A

over and over.  The sign on the podium read “Country First.”

For the first time, I can envision real reform in Washington. I know for a fact that women know how to clean house!  If any place needs a washin, it’s Washington, D.C.  Governor Palin has already cleaned house in Alaska…now on to Washington!

Democrats and the left need to understand that mainstream conservative Republicans are NOT happy with the status quo.  We want change, too, for all Americans.  We want to knock some sense into our legislators and cause some real reform to happen.  Many of us are not happy with the direction George Bush’s presidency has taken our country, but that does not mean we suddenly stop being conservative and start being liberal in our thinking.

What would be my “dream platform?”

• Energy independence in ten years
• Appointing conservative judges who do not legislate from the bench
• Stopping wasteful spending
• Throwing out the IRS and income taxes and moving to a consumption tax
• More choices in education
• Promoting personal responsibility

It’s a start!

McCain/Palin ‘08

The Question of When Life Begins

When does life begin? This is the question Pastor Rick Warren put to both Senator McCain and Senator Obama. Obama cited the complexity of the question and said the answer was above his paygrade. McCain quickly answered, “at conception.”

Obama then said that those of us who believe life begins at conception have a fundamental difference of opinion than he does and that we would never agree. He went on to suggest that we could find things we have in common and work together to reduce the number of abortions.

Today I’ve been musing specifically about when life begins. Is it really so complex a question?

My high school biology teacher taught me the fundamentals of an area of science known, coincidentally, as Life Science. The cells of living things are constantly replicating themselves in a process called mitosis.  In layman’s terms, mitosis has the following steps:

1. Interphase is the term used to describe the time when the cell is preparing to divide.  During this phase, the cell copies its genetic material and organelles.
2. Prophase is when the chromatin (basically, unorganized chromosomes) becomes organized into chromosomes.  The nuclear envelope of the cell begins to break down and spindles begin to form at opposite ends of the cell.  Think of spindles as long strings that can grab chromosomes.
3. Metaphase is when the chromosomes get lined up in pairs with the help of the spindles.  Remember, in interphase each chromosome was copied.  The identical pairs line up together, like twins.
4. Anaphase is when the twins are split up.  The spindles pull the chromosome pairs apart to opposite  ends of the cell.
5. Telophase is when the jelly in the cell divides into two cells called daughter cells.  The two sets of chromosomes huddle up into a nucleus, one in each new cell.  Voila!  The cell has now reproduced

But don’t take my word for it.  Here’s a video of a cell dividing, courtesy of YouTube:

Why the biology lesson?  Aside from all moral implications and legal maneuverings, we can see that the definition of life as we know it is whether or not cell division is occurring.  If cells are dividing and growing, then the organism is alive.  When a person dies, his or her cells stop dividing.

Why, then, was the question so difficult for Senator Obama to answer?  Why do he and others genuinely believe that the question is too complex?

Would he be able to agree with us on the timeline of when life begins for a plant cell?  When does life begin for a cow?  Biologically speaking, when the cells of an organism grow, multiply, and specialize, then it is, by a scientific definition, alive.

The question of when does life begin did not even appear on the horizon until people learned how to terminate a pregnancy without harm to the mother.  Of course society frowned on the practice when dirty coat hangers or sticks were used and the woman ended up, more likely than not, either dying from the procedure or else so scarred that she became infertile.  But when abortion became safe and legal, when the spotlight shone on the woman’s right to do with her body — and her baby — as she chose, people immediately went on the defensive and called into question whether a fetus is really a life until it is born.  It’s very easy to rationalize our behavior that others find immoral, isn’t it?

When I was a college student, there were activities I was involved in that clearly were not in line with God’s teaching about right and wrong.  I rationalized those activities because I wanted to be in charge of my own life.  I told myself that the Bible was written a long time ago and that there were parts of it that were not applicable to life in today’s world.  But deep down, I knew better.  He who protests the loudest is often the most guilty.  In an effort to legitimize my own sin, I turned my back on what I knew to be truth.

In the same way, Senator Obama and others like him who skirt around the issue of whether life begins at conception turn their backs not only on moral truth, but also on scientific truth.

The litmus test for life should be:

Is cell division occurring?

If so, then the organism is alive.

And if the organism is alive, under what grounds is it morally and ethically okay to terminate it?  Our country  (not to mention the Bible) has laws that specify when it is okay to kill another human being.  In some states, for example, it is legally permissible to kill a person in self defense.  We also have laws that prohibit killing wild animals except during certain seasons, like deer season, and prohibit killing other endangered species.  But there are no laws prohibiting us from using pesticides to get wipe out disease-carrying mosquitoes or that keep us from squashing a spider in the bathtub.  There are also no laws that prohibit us from squashing a human fetus before it is 20 weeks old.  An eleven week old group of dividing human cells — a fetus — has developed these perfect little feet:

Do these feet belong to something that has life?

William Wilberforce was a politician in Britain who stood up for truth in the midst of incredible criticism back in the days when black people were slaves and were not even treated as humans.  He led the charge to oulaw the Slave Trade and eventually slavery altogether.  It took nearly his entire life, but he persevered.

With all my heart, I wish that one of our candidates for the presidency could stand up and say about abortion, as Wilberforce wrote about the Slave Trade,

In every small question of politics, there appears to me room to consider the times and seasons.  But where a real moral evil is in question, a man who fears God is not at liberty.  Even if I thought that the immediate Abolition of the Slave Trade (abortion) would cause an insurrection in our islands, I should not for an instant stop my endeavors.  Be persuaded, then, if I would not stop because of insurrection, I shall even less sacrifice this grand cause to motives of political convenience or personal feeling.”

The blinding of so many about the truth standing in front of us is the work of powers and principalities, and our fight is not against Senator Obama and others who support abortion rights.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
-Ephesians 6:12-13

When the day of evil came for Britain, William Wiberforce took his stand.  There has been much said about the religious right and its single issue focus on abortion and abolishing Roe v. Wade.  I encourage those of us who know that life is a sacred gift not to be terminated for reasons of convenience to fight first with prayer and then with scientific knowledge.  But let us not vilify Obama and others who aren’t yet convinced.  God isn’t finished with me yet, and He sure isn’t finished with us as a country.  He can sway hearts and minds much better than we can.

Are cells dividing?   Is growth occurring?  Are cells specializing?

Then yes, this 20 week old group of multiplying cells is most definitely alive.

Of Messes and Mercy

After seeing this mess in my bathroom, I felt a good dose of wrath building up inside me at my dog. This disaster was made by the same dog who was sick last week. He is still recovering from his illness but obviously felt well enough to tear into his bed in the middle of the night! It makes me suspicious that the “suspicious spot” in his stomach might have been a piece of memory foam…I love this goofy dog, but honestly! I have cleaned up his vomit and diarrhea and washed blankets and bleached the floor and petted him and fed him special food and spent way too much money on xrays and medication at the vet….and this is the thanks I get?

Who me? The look on his face is priceless. See the way he’s looking at me out of the corner of his eye? He knows exactly what he did…

I am grateful that this spirited dog who rivals Marley in bad-boy behavior hasn’t lost his spunk and seems to have pulled through this episode. We’ll never know what he ate this time that made him so sick.

The wrath I felt this morning when I saw his big mess dissipated when I felt his sloppy doggy kisses on my hand. Shiner’s devotion to me is complete. As I write this blog, he is sleeping on the floor. His body is two inches away from the wheels of my chair. When I get up to work on the laundry, he’ll drag his sore bones up off the floor and follow me.

As I reflected on wrath and mercy between master and dog today, suddenly God reminded me of His wrath at our messes and His ultimate mercy. Take a look at Psalm 78. The writer has just recounted how the Israelites had been saved from the Egyptians and how the Lord was leading them through the desert…how He provided them water and manna and meat, yet they were still ungrateful:

Yet he was merciful;
he forgave their iniquities
and did not destroy them.
Time after time he restrained his anger
and did not stir up his full wrath.

He remembered that they were but flesh,
a passing breeze that does not return.

How often they rebelled against him in the desert
and grieved him in the wasteland!

Again and again they put God to the test;
they vexed the Holy One of Israel.

They did not remember his power—
the day he redeemed them from the oppressor
Psalm 78: 39-42

Again and again my goofy dog vexes me, more so even than my own daughter! (Don’t you just love the word ‘vexes?’ It sounds exactly the way we feel when we are vexed!) Like the Israelites, Shiner does not seem to remember who it is who butters his bread, so to speak. But l love him so much that like God, I do not “stir up my full wrath.” I remember that he is a dog — a “passing breeze that does not return.” In return I get something that God longs for me to have for Him…complete and utter devotion.

Time and time again I mess up. God looks upon my house and the state of my heart and sees all kinds of disasters much worse than anything Shiner can deviously create. Yet he remembers I am flesh and bone, not God. He remembers I am a passing breeze and therefore he restrains his anger. He is merciful.

And I am thankful. Oh how freeing it is to know that I am redeemed from the oppresser! I can picture myself sitting at the Lord’s feet just as Shiner is sitting at mine right now. (by the way, my other doggy friend, Lacee, is curled up UNDER the legs of the rolling chair. Talk about trust!) Is there any way I can sit at the Lord’s feet today, though? Can I bask in His presence this moment? What joy it will be to one day feel a gentle pat on my head and hear the words,

Well done, good and faithful servant!”

I can if I keep my eyes on Him, if I spend my quiet time with him and talk to him in my heart as I go throughout my day. And this little blogging exercise is showing me that the next time I am confronted with a huge mess, whether created by a doggy or a child or (tee-hee) a husband…I can stop and reflect on the countless numbers of messes I create that my Father in heaven cleans up.

Whereas I am human and I do remember these canine exploits, God cleans up my exploits and then removes them. He takes them away.

For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;

as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
Psalm 103:11-12

And for that, I am thankful! I will put myself in my dog’s shoes…er, paws…today. I will sit at the feet of Jesus, content just to be in the same room with Him.

In a surprising way, something good did come out of this latest doggy exploit. Mercy. It’s always a good thing.

A Girl’s Best Friend

Today I had to leave our beloved twelve year old Dalmatian at the vet. He’s been ill the past three days; he can’t hold down any food. Twelve is a long life for a breed of dog whose average life span is about eight years old. Despite being so sick, this dog of mine is as happy as he can be. His tail thumps and he still wants to follow me everywhere I go — this even though his hips are so arthritic he can no longer climb up on the couch easily or jump on the bed or even get up into the car for the trip to the vet.  I picked this picture because it is so typical of his alpha-dog personality.  Rather than sleep on his bed that actually fits him, he curled up in his 10 pound “sister”’s dog bed.  Looks comfortable, huh?

Sometimes when I’m being “dogged” (I’m on the couch and both dogs are clamoring for space in my lap) I sit and wonder what it must have been like for Adam back when God created the animals:

Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field.

This blog is for the best doggie friend I’ve ever had the pleasure of naming: Shiner, Earl of Tetbury. Actually, the name was my husband’s idea. Someone had just given him a case of Shinerbock, and our new puppy had black spots over his eyes.

Shiner got himself into some hilarious scrapes…like the time he developed a liking to the taste of the wood on the outside of our house. Yes, our dog ate the siding. Talk about getting your fiber! Or the time he consumed an entire leather belt that was longer than he was! I was very glad he stopped short at the belt buckle; that wouldn’t have tasted very good or gone down very well, I’m sure. He used to do incredible gymnastics moves in the air as he chased after water coming out of the hose, and he will play ball with anything round that can be retrieved…even peaches, apples, and rolled up socks.

And the food. Oh my goodness, can’t forget the food! Shiner hasn’t met a food he doesn’t like…except maybe for lettuce. Tomatoes he’ll eat right off the tomato plant, so we have to put a fence around the garden! This sneaky guy has taken advantage of the babysitter and, when her back was turned, jumped up on the stove and devoured an entire large pepperoni pizza, by himself. (burp)

Not to mention the non-food items he has an affinity for, such as kleenex (he once ate almost an entire box of them before I caught him), the aforementioned siding on the house, and particularly dollar bills. The higher the denomination, the more irresistible he finds them.

Speaking of dollar bills, he is essentially our million dollar dog. Well, maybe not a million, but at least our ten thousand dollar dog. The day after we got him we had to take him to the ER because he had parvo. Two weeks and $2000 later, we got to bring him home! Then when he was four he had trouble with his bladder and had to have surgery and go on prescription (read: pricey!) dog food. At age seven he tore his crutiate ligament and had the TPLO surgery. At age nine he tore the ligament in the other knee, so he had another surgery. Plus he had hemangiosarcoma, a deadly cancer, removed from his skin.

Talk about spunk! His spirit just won’t quit.

Now we’ve learned there is a suspicious spot in his stomach. Could be something he ate that is obstructing his food….could be a tumor…could be nothing. I feel so blessed to have this crazy dog in my life, showing me what it means to have true love and devotion for another. No matter what, that tail thumps. My heart squeezes every time I see him drag his crippled hips up onto the couch so he can lay down and snuggle with me, laying his sweet head over my leg. He sighs in content and sleeps a precious doggy sleep, chasing rabbits, no doubt.

And although I know that death is a part of life, I am not ready to say goodbye just yet. I hope he fights through this illness…I hope this isn’t the beginning of a downhill slide for him. As long as he’s happy, wanting to eat, able to walk and able to climb up in my lap, then I know it’s not time for him to go. Until that day comes I will treasure each moment, as I do with my family. Even though he’s “just a dog…,” he’s my family, too.

Are we sleeping?

Yesterday a reader of my blog left a comment that made me realize I have been sleeping, especially as regards my eagerness to accept everything said during the Saddleback forum as truth.  Even though I appreciated Senator McCain’s apparent integrity, that has now come into question at least with one of his comments.  Remember the statement he made about Congress’ wasteful spending and how it spent $3 million of our taxdollars to study bear DNA?  He forgot to tell us that he did, in fact, vote for it!

Just goes to show that the “trust…but verify” axiom applies not just to our allies but to our own countrymen.

It will be interesting to see whether or not McCain gets slammed in the media for this.  It wouldn’t have been so bad if he had elaborated…perhaps he voted for it on the overall merits of the bill but could have used this as an example of why earmarks are so out of control.

And that begs another question.  Why would America want to elect a Senator from either party to run the country?  They haven’t done a very good job minding the economy.

Sigh.  Maybe as a country we are reaping what we’ve sown?  We took the Lord out of schools, out of public buildings, out of “politically correct” speech.  We live in a world where “evengelical” somehow has a nasty, “intolerant” connotation and where people, as Casting Crowns sing in While You Were Sleeping, save the trees and kill the children:

United States of America
Looks like another silent night
As we’re sung to sleep by philosophies
That save the trees and kill the children
And while we’re lying in the dark
There’s a shout heard ‘cross the eastern sky
For the Bridegroom has returned
And has carried His bride away in the night

America, what will we miss while we are sleeping
Will Jesus come again
And leave us slumbering where we lay
America, will we go down in history
As a nation with no room for its King
Will we be sleeping
Will we be sleeping

United States of America
Looks like another silent night

But a picture and music is worth more than words, so I was so glad to find this video someone made on YouTube:

I pray for our country, for a great awakening to sweep those of us who follow Jesus so that we will stand firmly and unashamed for our beliefs, lest we should one day lose the right to voice them.

God’s Glory

On a rare rain-soaked August afternoon in North Texas, I revel in temperatures below eighty degrees and the sweet smell of rain soaking into the hot, dusty ground….

and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.

The LORD will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.
Isaiah 58:10-12

For as the soil makes the sprout come up
and a garden causes seeds to grow,
so the Sovereign LORD will make righteousness and praise
spring up before all nations.
Isaiah 61:11

Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.
Genesis 1:29

Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power
and the glory and the majesty and the splendor,
for everything in heaven and earth is yours.
Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom;
you are exalted as head over all.
1 Chronicles 29:11

Here’s a clip from one of my favorite songs ever, by Third Day.  Lord, thank you for showing me a bit of your glory today in the rain, in the flowers, in the peace you provide, in the quiet assurance of your presence always at my side.

Civil Rights of Faith-Based Organizations

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
-First Amendment to the United States Constitution

The blogger at Who’s Wrong Today disagreed with my earlier blog that asserted that faith-based organizations have the right to hire who they want.  This blogger writes:

Do we really want to promote as a societal ideal that employers can hire whoever they want, for whatever reason they choose? As with all employers, candidates for a position should be evaluated on their ability to do the job.

Um…yes.  I do want to promote the ideal that is already in place that employers can hire whoever they want, for whatever reason they choose.  This is America, where we are guaranteed the free exercise of religion and speech.  We are fortunate to live in a country where Bibles are not confiscated at the airport and where businesses are not forced to hire people whose philosophies or beliefs run counter to their stated purposes, even if those businesses receive federal funding.  If a job applicant’s beliefs run counter to those of the company, then it can be argued that that applicant would not be able to do his job.

Imagine the outcry from Planned Parenthood if Congress enacted a law requiring all clinics to staff a pro-life counseling advocate.  Or if Congress required that the World Wildlife Fund hire employees that do not share their basic views about conservation of nature.  Why should religious organizations be exempted from the civil rights granted to organizations such as Planned Parenthood and the World Wildlife Fund?  Is a belief about faith somehow inferior to a belief about a woman’s right to choose?

It is my contention that any organization, faith-based or otherwise, that reaches out to help the poor and receives taxpayer funds to do so should be allowed to hire its employees at its own discretion so that it does not compromise its stated mission.

As a taxpayer and a Christ-follower, I would much rather my tax dollars go towards programs that work — even if they are to a faith-based initiative that runs counter to my own faith, rather than towards cumbersome government-run groups filled with corruption at worst and inefficiency at best.  I am interested in results.

A Conservative’s Reaction to the Values Forum

For the first time in any election in my lifetime, I feel as if I have been given a glimpse into the two remaining candidates not as the media paints them, but as they are. Last night I watched the Saddleback Church’s forum and came away from the experience having a much better insight into the people behind the political personas.

Of course, I’m sure both their answers were part-spin, part-truth. But because both candidates were given the same questions, we can truly compare apples to apples. And compare I did. I even took notes because I wanted to make sure I knew what each man said and not rely on TV pundits to spit it back to me, out of context.

A search of my past posts on politics will show that I am an avid Huckabee supporter. I was disappointed that he did not win the Republican nomination, but I am very encouraged because several of the issues he stood for, such as achieving energy independence within ten years, have now been picked up by both McCain and Obama. I was not happy about McCain frankly because of his betrayal of his first wife. I was not happy about Obama because of his extreme leanings to the left. Recognizing that no one who has walked this earth except Jesus is perfect, I watched the forum with an open mind.

I’ll begin by saying what many reporters and pundits noticed. While Obama’s answers seemed professorial and philosophical, McCain’s were decisive and pragmatic. I got the sense that in a crisis, Obama would convene a group of advisers and would bring in more advisers and would take as much time as he needed to in order to make what was, in his mind, the right decision. McCain’s demeanor was polar opposite to Obama’s. He answered the questions first and then backed his answers up with short stories which gave me a greater insight into his thinking process. Yes, he’d take advice, but he would ultimately make the decisions himself in as efficient a manner as possible. He would do the right thing even if it meant breaking away from the party lines. Obama, on the other hand, would be a much more cautious leader. I got the sense that he would prefer to do nothing than to make a decision that would later be termed a mistake. McCain doesn’t seem to care what others think about him.

Right off the bat we could see the difference in the two men when they listed their top three “wise” advisers. Obama chose his wife, his grandmother, and then listed a bunch of Democratic politicians like Sam Nunn and Ted Kennedy. McCain’s wisest advisers would be General Petraeus, John Lewis (a civil rights citizen who suffered a skull fracture and can, as McCain said, “teach us a lot about courage,”), and Meg Witman, CEO of eBay.

On the issue of moral failures both individually and as a nation, Obama and McCain also differed. McCain’s greatest failure was his failed first marriage. He said our greatest failure as a nation is that we have not, as a nation, devoted ourselves to the causes of others beyond our own self interests. Interestingly, McCain’s words for our nation’s worst moral failure echoed what Obama shared about himself, about his selfishness and how he couldn’t focus on others and ended up abusing drugs and alcohol. It was here that Obama said something that I completely agree with — gasp! He said that as a nation we don’t abide by the words of Jesus in Matthew that whatever you do for the least of my brothers you do for me. I have been looking for ways to “act out” my faith. But then Obama said that verse applies to how we as a nation view poverty, racism, and sexism. Poverty? Yes, I agree with that. Racism? It depends on what you’re talking about. If you are talking about a pastor who rails against people of a different color or a scholarship committee that selects someone of a different color, then yes, I agree with that. I’ve always maintained that employment and scholarship applications should be color blind. And if the names of students or potential employees are somehow tip-offs to their race, then we should give all applicants a number sort of like the numbers you get when you stand in line at the deli counter in the grocery store.  That way, hiring decisions or scholarship decisions are made solely on the basis of merit.

Obama said that welfare reform is something that he disagreed with back in the Clinton years but that he has since seen that it works. He says he now believes it is essential to tie work as a centerpiece of social assistance. McCain’s position that has changed? He was quick to say his position has changed on off shore drilling. He said (as Huckabee pointed out earlier this year) our country sends 700 Billion dollars to countries that don’t really like us that much, and some of that money probably ends up in the hands of terrorists who mean to do us harm. He now sees energy independence as a matter of national security.

As for the most gut-wrenching decision he’s ever had to make, for Obama, it was his decision to vote against going into Iraq. Despite pressure from those around him, he was and still is firmly convinced we didn’t have enough strong evidence of weapons of mass destruction, and we didn’t know how the factions would get along, and we hadn’t finished what we started in Afghanistan. Obama might have been on to something here. Bush relied too much on others to make his decisions for him. But gut wrenching? His lone vote against the war made him an object of ridicule politically. But McCain’s most gut-wrenching decision was quite literally GUT wrenching and led to some horrific torture…the decision to stay behind instead of having an early release from the POW camp in Vietnam. He said there was a military code of ethics that said that prisoners are released in the order in which they became captives. He made that decision knowing that it would make it harder for him and on him, despite being in bad physical shape. He said he is still happy he made that decision. So am I. That decision to not accept special treatment is a clear picture of the kind of man McCain is. He puts others before himself.

Forty million abortions have been performed since Roe v. Wade. Obama is pro-choice but maintains he is not pro-abortion. He skirted the issue of when a baby is entitled to human rights, saying that making that kind of theological or scientific decision was “above my pay grade.” Earlier in the interview Obama said he was a Christian and that for him, this means that Jesus died for his sins. He said this gives him a sense of obligation for deeds and not just words…acting justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly. Notice a disconnect there? How can a person logically be pro-choice and still follow Jesus? Is allowing the dismemberment of a fetus acting justly? Is it merciful to the fetus or to the mother?

John McCain, on the other hand, believes that life begins at conception. Period. He stated he has a twenty five year history of pro-life decisions. He and his wife adopted a baby. On the question of being a Christian, he recounted a story from his days in the POW camp. There was a guard who sometimes loosened the ropes typing McCain’s hands up over his head in a crippling position. On Christmas Day, when he was let out of his cell for a few minutes, the guard stood with him and carefully drew a cross in the sand. The two men, jailer and prisoner, stood together and worshiped Christ despite being on opposite sides of a war. Perhaps facing extreme torture shaped his views on conception, but I get the sense that after what he’s been through, McCain values all human life.

Another question that highlights their differences was the question about faith-based community service organizations. A Civil Rights Act dictated that faith-based organizations may choose to hire only those who follow their same belief systems. Although Obama didn’t say that he would rescind that, he did say he favors an “all hands on deck” approach and that agencies receiving federal funds — even faith-based ones– should not be allowed to “discriminate” in their hiring practices. Let’s say a church is looking to hire a youth minister to run an outreach for inner city youth. They receive two resumes…one of those applying is openly gay, and the other is married and straight. Obama’s words seem to mean that the church would not be allowed to use the applicant’s sexual orientation as a basis for not hiring him. I say Obama’s head isn’t very clear on this because a church wouldn’t knowingly hire a child molester or someone who was actively cheating on his wife or someone who openly used cocaine. In God’s eyes, sin is sin, and homosexual activity is sin according to God, just as adultery and stealing are sins.

John McCain, on the other hand, said that faith-based community service organizations should not have to give up their right to hire who they want.

On taxes and the economy, Rick Warren asked the candidates to define…RICH. Obama said if you make $150,000 or less you are middle class or poor. And if you make $250,000 or more you are “doing well” and should have a moderate tax increase. Moderate? Define moderate. It makes a lot of sense to penalize people for making more money, doesn’t it? McCain’s answer….$5 million (he was joking). He said our government debt is so out of hand not because we aren’t being taxed enough, but because we have out of control spending. He let us know that last year we spent $3 million dollars to study bear DNA in Montana. That’s the kind of thing McCain would slash out and would insist that the government become smaller, not larger. He said the worst thing to do in tough economic times is to raise taxes. I agree. I think we need a completely new system. He listened to Huckabee about getting rid of our dependence on foreign oil; maybe he’ll take a page from him and listen to him about the FairTax or a flat tax or some other alternative that stops penalizing people for being successful! Yes, as Obama mentioned, in tough times we have to make sacrifices. But he’s not calling on everyone to make sacrifices….just those who make over $250,000 a year.

Perhaps the most telling are their responses to a question asking them why they want to be President of America.

Obama wants to be president because he believes everybody has a shot at success (even him). He wants the disenfranchised to know that we care for them, too. He said that the American Dream is slipping away because we can’t seem to bring people together.

McCain wants to be president because he wants to inspire the next generation to serve a cause greater than their own self interests. He said that we face great domestic and international challenges and that he has a record of crossing the political aisle to get whatever needs to be done, done. He said,

I’ll be the President of every American, and I’ll put my country first.

Enough said.

Framed!

Here’s a little humor for your weekend. Yesterday was our dog Lacee’s third birthday. My daughter wrapped a box in birthday paper and hid peanut butter coated treats inside the box. What you see next is both dogs’ attempts to get at the treats….but they don’t stop at the treats!

Enjoy!