Shane Life

Religion in the United States has seemingly never been more polarizing. Christians have gotten a bad rap and in some ways it is deserved.

There are some big personalities speaking for Christians in America. Joel Osteen. Rick Warren. Pat Robertson. Glenn Beck? It’s just like different versions of the same voice.

There’s one voice that I wish was speaking a little louder.

Rob Bell.

From the Mars Hill site:

Rob Bell is the Founding Pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church. He graduated from Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois, and Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California.

He is the author of Velvet Elvis and Sex God, and is a coauthor of Jesus Wants to Save Christians. He is also featured in the first series of spiritual short films called NOOMA.

I was introduced to Rob Bell through his NOOMA videos and I’ve been listening to him since. Velvet Elvis is one of the best books on Christianity that I’ve read, not because it is cool, but because it is true.

He puts scripture into context (and man, is he ever versed in scripture), he uses wonderful analogies to make points and he challenges his audience to think critically about their faith. I like that.

This week, I listened to the audiobook Jesus Wants to Save Christians, the terrific book he wrote with his friend Don Golden. How can you go wrong with chapters named “Swollen Bellied Black Babies” and “There’s Blood on the Doorposts of the Universe”?

Bell is a voice of Christianity that is tolerant and aware, but also extremely well-versed. He uses scripture in a relevant way that puts it into the context of the age in which it was written to help us understand it and apply it today. Some of the voices I listed at the beginning of this post can be a bit extreme and some of the best intentions can get lost and they can drown out people like Rob, who really need to be heard.

This garbage about Barney, the Bush’s dog, biting the Reuters reporter is ALL OVER THE NEWS, even trumping stuff like, you know…THE STOCK MARKET DROPPING OVER 900 POINTS IN TWO DAYS.

Now that the presidential election is over, these “journalists” don’t have a clue what to talk about so they are covering this story about a DOG WHO BIT A GUY. You know…this sort of thing only happens 4.7 million times each year.

Hey, MSNBC, CNN, Fox News…I’ve got a story for you…the President’s cat is stuck in a tree.

GASP.

To those — to those who would tear the world down: We will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security: We support you. And to all those who have wondered if America’s beacon still burns as bright: Tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope.

- President-Elect Barack Obama

Even going into last night, I had concerns. Would the alleged “Bradley effect” rear its head? Were the pollsters completely wrong?

They were not.

I believe that Barack Obama has the potential to be one of the great presidents of American history. The way in which he has energized the nation with his message of hope is nothing short of amazing. On an historic night, he was gracious, inspiring and firm…giving a speech to 125,000+ onlookers in Grant Park in Chicago and showing that hope always trumps fear.

I watched that speech with tears in my eyes. This is something that people will remember for a very long time. We’ll tell future generations about watching this election and I feel blessed to be a part of it.

I am looking forward to the next few months as President-Elect Obama puts together his transition team – a team that he has stated will be bi-partisan and contain very few hold-overs (most believe that one of the only hold-overs will be Robert Gates as Secretary of Defense). Whomever he brings in, the administration has many challenges ahead, the first of which is carrying the energy and inspiration of the campaign into true action as well as reaching out to those who were strong McCain supporters.

Either way, it’s an exciting time.

Alli and I got up early this morning (and by early, I’m talking like pre-6:00 am) to walk down the street to our polling location and get in line to vote. As we walked back, Alli said, “Getting up early and walking to the polls made me feel like I was doing something important.” And she’s totally right.

It’s an important thing that we did at 6:15 this morning…to cast our votes in a general election. This is what makes democracy great…we have a say in who our leaders are. Sure, it’s anything but a perfect process. But there’s a process and it’s better than most.

Regardless of who you support (I support Barack Obama and you should too), it’s important for your voice to be heard, even if you live in a state like Kansas that has voted for a Republican for like…FOREVER.

Go vote.

The latest Gallup poll has Obama up 11 points over John McCain. Many pundits are saying that now that he’s broken the 50% mark, that it’s all but a done deal…our next president has been chosen. The trend of the line certainly can’t be encouraging to the Palin-McCain campaign, who has amped up their rhetoric in tying Barack Obama to 60′s era domestic terrorist William Ayers.

The interesting thing about this character-questioning approach is that it started before the debate on Tuesday (which was overwhelmingly called for Obama, despite being John McCain’s choice of venue), yet McCain didn’t mention it once in the Town Hall Meeting. This is surprising since it’s all we are hearing from the Palin-McCain stump.

Despite McCain’s claims that he would run a respectful, clean campaign, those around him felt a different approach would be more successful. The bottom line is that on issues, the Palin-McCain ticket is getting crushed. It may be somewhat unfair to attribute the financial meltdown to solely John McCain, but the Republican principles of deregulation have certainly contributed to the mess we are in. Now, you could certainly place blame on the other end of the spectrum, to Congressional Democrats who leaned on financial institutions to write riskier loans and mortgages so more people could afford houses. It’s nice in principle, but with the pop of the housing bubble, that turned out to be a pretty bad practice.

Ultimately, one major reason that I’m voting for Barack Obama is that now that both campaigns have “gone negative”, the stark difference is that while the Palin-McCain campaign relies on merely asking questions and lobbing accusations, Obama’s ads show the stark contrasts in policy, not merely relying on sunny music over the approval of message, but an actual political pitch.

The reason I am not certain this election is just over yet (although FiveThirtyEight.com has Obama winning almost 350 Electoral College votes), is that I’m not convinced we’ve seen the Palin-McCain campaign go nuclear. I’m not sure what that might involve, but I’m hoping it doesn’t happen – not because I’m convinced that it will work, but because I believe that John McCain is an honorable man and I’d like to see the country come together after this election, rather than being unbelievably divided. Only 25 days left.

We finally got tonight what we’ve been waiting for – the first presidential debate in a race that has been going on since 2006. It almost didn’t happen, but it did and it lived up to the hype.

Both Barack Obama and John McCain performed very well during the first debate, moderated by Jim Lehrer of PBS, although both of them fell short in a couple of areas.

Here are my thoughts:

• The following phrases should be banned from future debates: “my friends”, “Main Street vs. Wall Street”, “Henry Kissinger”, “change”, “maverick”, “reform”
• Obama agreed with McCain far too much.
• McCain can’t look Obama in the eye.
• Neither candidate knows enough about the bailout bill to speak with any authority on it.
• I don’t understand the CNN debate scorecards.
• There wasn’t a clear-cut winner, so the win goes to whomever you were supporting before the debate. You could make the argument that the tie goes to Obama because McCain’s advantage in this race has arguably been foreign policy.
• The Vice Presidential debate has the potential to be very ugly if Katie Couric’s interview of Palin is any indication of how she’ll answer questions.
• I wish that I got as many text messages discussing the debate as I do during crappy Chiefs games.

The true race for the White House is finally on. And just in case you were wondering, I am still planning on voting for Barack Obama.

This is perhaps the greatest thing you’ll see today. Hilarious.

Tomorrow night is the next of the cavalcade of Democratic debates that we’ve endured over the last several months, this time in Pennsylvania, which is this week’s “most important state!” to host a primary. Since the last primaries in Mississippi (which I had to look back to CNN’s political page for – BTW, Barack Obama TROUNCED Hillary Clinton in those 61% to 39%), a lot has happened in the campaigns. We’ve had major gaffes on both sides (“sniper fire” vs. “bitter”) and some serious questions about the people these candidates surround themselves with (Mark Penn vs. Jeremiah Wright).

Previous debates have been extremely short on fireworks as the Democrats have been cordial to each other’s faces, choosing to do their back biting at events and stump speeches.

KC Joke Blogster Tony Botello opined today on the Democratic race and it is an example of the truthiness that can come out of a blog that generally just tries to make people mad.

Both he and I agreed that the outright hypocrisy of Hillary on this issue was utterly mind boggling. A woman with $109 million expects to be taken seriously when she casts stones about elitism?

Hillary has truly pulled the wool over the eyes of her supporters. I can’t figure out how her “beer and shots and my daddy took me huntin’ by the lake” doesn’t get her called for BS every time. It’s fascinating, really, because I think it is THE CLINTONS who are elitist and they take advantage of the ignorance of those less fortunate with their “we’re just like you” schtick.

Barack Obama has his flaws. We all do. Some of his recent errors in judgment have kept this race alive longer than it should, but one thing I won’t call Obama is elitist. He knows that he’s been blessed in his life and he knows that his politics aren’t favorable to everyone. But he doesn’t change his stripes depending on where he is in the country, changing his story depending on his audience.

The people that continue to vote for Hillary Clinton are being duped. In a blog post on Anderson Cooper 360′s blog, Hillary Clinton biographer Carl Bernstein stated:

What will a Hillary Clinton presidency look like?

The answer by now seems obvious: It will look like her presidential campaign, which in turn looks increasingly like the first Clinton presidency.

Which is to say, high-minded ideals, lowered execution, half truths, outright lies (and imaginary flights), take-no prisoners politics, some very good policy ideas, a presidential spouse given to wallowing in anger and self-pity, and a succession of aides and surrogates pushed under the bus when things don’t go right. Which is to say, often.

This is what we would be in for if Hillary Clinton were to become the next president of the United States. Anyone who doesn’t make that same assessment hasn’t been watching the campaign closely enough. That’s why I’m going to continue to support Obama. The thought of another Clinton White House is too much for me to bear.

This could be a defining moment, not just of the Democratic primary or the 2008 national election, but in the history of our country. Rarely do politicians speak as frankly as Barack Obama did today. My hope is that his speech perhaps turned the tables in Pennsylvania and that he will defeat Billary there, thus ending the Democratic primary and allowing the race to move completely toward the general election.