Free isn't Free

All this talk about Socialism lately has me spinning.  I can't understand why people support it.  It can't work.  Not when humans are involved.  You can't just have everything for free. 

When I learned about communism in school, back before the Cold War ended, I remember thinking that some of what they were teaching me sounded like the early New Testament church. 

And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them. Acts 4:32

But even as a kid, I had the smarts to consider that with a normal assortment of humans, this wouldn't work out well.  People are selfish.  I know I am.  The idea of everyone having what they need is great, and in small circles I think it could work, at least for awhile.  But people can't be forced to be good and generous.  There will always be someone who gets greedy, or someone who doesn't want to contribute.  I don't think that is a light bulb revelation.  Look around you.  

The news these days is full of stories of politicians or protesters demanding free stuff.  Healthcare should be free!  College should be free!  Housing should be free!  I should get paid more!  Everyone should get an income from the government!  --- But I don't see any of them acknowledging who should pay for it.  

The fact of the matter is, all those things they want for free require someone else to provide a service for them.  Should doctors work for free?  Should teachers teach for free?  Someone has to pay them to do the work you want to receive for free.  The protest is so lopsided.  "I deserve" drowns out "you deserve"  They want the government to pay?  Well, where does the government get its money?  Taxes from people who work for their money.  So bottom line is that these people want other people to do the work so they can get free stuff.  Not cool.  

I was watching The Orville last season, a Star Trek like show, and they visited a planet that resembled our current Earth.  They encountered the exchange of money and were a bit confused by it.  I never really thought about it before, but the Trek world seems to operate outside a monetary system.  Aboard the Starship, everyone has what they need, but everyone also works.  I question how plausible that scenario is.  How many of us would still go to our jobs if money was no longer needed?  If you were given everything you needed with no strings, wouldn't you rather hang out at home or with friends?  How could we maintain a livable society if people didn't have to work to earn things?  

There's a reason plumbers get paid a lot.  You have to up the reward to get someone to work with poop all day.  Basic logic.  The harder jobs are less desirable.  Incentive must be increased in order to fill many necessary jobs.  If we give everything for free, would anyone actually do these types of jobs or would garbage pile up in the streets and toilets overflow?  

I do realize there are people who need help, but I also recognize the value of earning your way.  I did get my college for free, but I also think I didn't value it.  We all know how many kids go off to college on someone else's dime and waste their time partying and don't value what they are being given.  "College is a fountain of knowledge and the students are there to drink." (I don't know who said this, I just heard it somewhere years ago) The students who pay their own way, or older adults who come back to school late in life tend to take it more seriously and actually get something out of it.  

Instead of just demanding that everything be free, I wish we could address why the cost is so high in the first place.  I just haven't seen anyone looking at that side of things.  Hospital stays are astronomically high.  We've all seen bills like this posted to social media.  I don't know how long this stay was for, but $72000 is beyond ridiculous for "room & board"!  I realize hospitals require a lot of money just to operate, so that is factored in, but I have trouble believing these kinds of totals are necessary.  Some say they bills are high because of malpractice insurance.  OK, could be, but can we deal with that?  Can we make better standards for what people can sue for?  I mean, there are known risks for any surgery right?  So to me that means you go into it knowing it could go badly and you agree to that risk.  You shouldn't be able to sue when a known risk that you were informed about happens.  If our judicial system could curb the ability of people to sue, maybe then the prices could come down.  Doctors get good salaries, and they should.  There is equipment to buy and janitors to pay, so I can understand the daily rate will be higher than a hotel, but I think we can all see that it's gone way beyond what is right.

Big Pharma is another one.  Why do they get to charge so much?  Seems like a mugging.  Your money or your life!  They tell people they need to take these expensive pills or they'll die / get worse/ live in pain etc.  They think it's ok to charge sky high rates because people will pay anything to stay alive? That's a problem. That is greed.  But Big Pharma gets away with anything because they have so much profit that they are lining the pockets of the politicians so they can continue on their merry way.  How can we stop that?  It's so wrong that these politicians are elected to jobs with a 6 figure salary, yet they still manage to make millions.  Pretty sketchy.  Being paid by anyone to influence the job they swore to do is evil.  I wish I knew how to stop political donations like that.  It's hard to expect the lawmakers to make laws against themselves getting more money.  

I struggle to find answers that work in my own mind.  I hate the idea of people dyeing or suffering because they can't afford care.  That is so wrong to me, but I don't know what to do about it.  I don't like the idea of forcing society to fork over more and more money to help others.  Now hear me, I'm not saying we shouldn't help the less fortunate, I'm saying we shouldn't force it. It seems we are being taxed more and more to pay for an ever expanding social welfare system.  

Many of us live paycheck to paycheck, unable to get ahead because of all the taxes coming out.  I understand the resentment of people who work so hard to barely survive as they look at those who don't work getting free stuff.  The system is broken.  Why should I work for my money and not be able to afford a smart phone and drive down the street to see those on government assistance getting them for free?  A smart phone is NOT a necessity! I lived with a flip phone until 2 years ago when my job required me to upgrade.  

This kind of thing is deepening the divisions in our nation.  Creating resentment and anger at the unfairness of people who get free stuff that isn't really free.  Someone else is paying for it.  I will admit I have pondered the idea of dropping out of work, shirking all responsibility and living off the system.  My conscience won't let me, but I do see the appeal.  Without an internal sense of right and wrong and fairness, why should people contribute to society if they can get their needs met for free?

That is where I see socialism going.  We've seen it throughout history, and still today.  There will always be greedy and selfish people who want to take what they want regardless of the cost to others.  We can't create a system that relies on the goodness of people.  Most people are good, but the few who aren't will ruin the whole deal.  We have to consider what is fair, and that is to make sure people are contributing in order to earn their way.  

If you're so concerned about the poor, what are you doing about it personally?  I know plenty of people are charitable.  If we had more in our paychecks because of less taxes, would we privately take care of all the issues we are currently asking our government to deal with?  I hope so, but it's hard to say.  

Taking God at His Word

I felt like I wanted to write out my thoughts on the kind of faith God has been challenging me to walk in.  It's been a journey that started 5 years ago.  God asked me to trust Him to provide for a basic need in my life.  I felt the challenge was to sit still and let Him do it, not run around trying to do it all myself.  That is not easy!  Let me tell you the story. 

I was living in Redding, CA.  I had moved there the year before and now was out of a home because I needed to bring my cats down to live with me now.  Some friends let me stay at their house for a few weeks and then I got an offer for a temporary place, just until the new batch of BSSM students showed up.  I was frantically searching all the ads for housing for months.  I think I actually started in January, knowing I would be needing a place soon.  I'm guessing I was in the temp home in June.  End of July, still no place to live and my deadline to be out is August 15.  Suddenly I felt like God was telling me to just stop.  Stop looking.  Stop answering ads.  Just stop.  Wait. Trust. 

My stress level went through the roof!!  Say what???  How can I find a place to live if I don't look and contact people?  But I was sure it was God, so I stopped.  It was not an easy season at all! 

But God showed up!  The deadline came.  I had all my stuff packed up and I was just sitting there waiting.  My homegroup friends were coming at 4:00 to get me, to take me back to their place if needed. Around 10:00 I got an email from someone I didn't know, asking if I needed a place to live.  Apparently she was someone I'd contacted a few months before.  I ran over to meet her roommates at noon and it was perfect!!  I didn't have to pay a pet deposit or anything!  So when my friends came to get me, I had a home to move to.  Yay God!!  It was a wonderful home for the next couple years of my time in Redding.  :)

This concept was on my heart.  After another trip to Uganda, I felt I was being challenged about my "rich man" status as an American.  We have so much here. We have so many options, so many back-up plans.  Lose your job?  Here's unemployment money.  Can't afford that new toy?  Here's a credit card.  Don't make enough money?  Here's subsidized housing...  You get where I'm going?  What if we didn't have all those safety nets?  The Ugandans don't.  I believe God was challenging me to get rid of the safety nets in my life. 

Money?  God says He is our Provider, so I stopped using my credit cards.  Working part time at Target is not a high income job.  But I decided to trust that He would make sure I had enough.  When my car broke down, the temptation came to use the credit card.  But when I settled in my mind to stick to what God had asked of me, the bill came back within my price range, or sometimes even free!  I always had enough. 

What about doctors?  God says He's our Healer, so what if I rely on Him alone?  Shortly after I moved to Redding I noticed a painful bump on my gum above my front tooth.  I went to a dentist (before this trust God process started) and was told I needed a root canal, but also a bridge replacement since the affected tooth was holding up one side of my fake tooth.  I said no.  I decided to believe God for healing.  I went in to the Healing Rooms at Bethel every week and got prayed for.  Did it get healed?  Well, it's still there, but 6 years has passed now.  The fake tooth fell out a few months ago, but I feel fine.  I haven't been to a dentist or doctor in years! 

The time came when I decided to move to a new city.  My best friend grew up there so she was trying to help me find a place.  She got me a home for about 3 weeks, then I had to be out because their son was coming home for Thanksgiving.  I believed God was leading me there, so I moved with only a short term home.  The time came, no permanent home, but another family in the church offered me a place temporarily.  After a week, I was able to go back to the first home.  Then shortly I was offered the home I'm in now.  Trusting God to provide was easier this time.

The more times I choose to trust, the more of His amazing Love and care I get to experience.  This verse above is the key.  This is His promise to His kids.  According to HIS riches, He will supply all our needs.

I actually believe that as long as we are stressing and striving to meet our own needs, He lets us.  I think that is why for some, it doesn't work out.  :(  That's just my opinion, but I don't really want to test that theory since the other way has been working out for me.  ;) So here's some more stories that might be called miraculous. 

When I returned from my 4th Uganda visit, I had been unemployed for about 9 months.  I was broke.  But again, I heard God say "wait."  Don't go looking for a job.  Here we go again!  Within a couple days of setting my heart to wait on Him, a friend from Redding contacted me, telling me that his boss was looking for a driver in my area.  I met the boss and was hired immediately.  The job paid more than I've ever made before, and was not very many hours of work.  Yay!  I suddenly had more than I needed financially and I loved the job!  This job gave me the ability to send a lot more to my Ugandan family than ever before, plus many other needs as I ran across them. 

When tax season rolled around, my "self-employed" status had not been fully explained to me, so I owed about $1000 more than I had anticipated.  With one month til tax day, I was not sure what to do.  I had started driving for Lyft and Uber, so I hit that hard, trying to make up the difference.  I had to pay my tax guy, so I started to reach for the credit card... But then I remembered.  In a step of faith, I paid the tax guy with a check instead.  By the time tax day came, I had paid my taxes, and also bought new tires at about $400!  I looked back and my driving had only earned me about $600 and that's before taking out all the gas money it cost me to do it.  So with less than $500 extra income, I still paid out $1600 above what I had thought I had!  I call that a math miracle!

That brings me to today.  My current situation is messy.  My employer has gotten about 2 months behind in paying me.  He bounced another paycheck and took over a month to return that money to me.  The bounce caused me to be unable to pay my quarterly taxes and with only one paycheck received since the bounce, I'm pretty broke.  People around me are telling me to quit, report him, sue him....  But I believe God is telling me to wait and trust.  So I keep working.  Then last week my car quit working.  My car is my job. I am a delivery driver.  So no income, no car.  Yes, I've been stressed out.  Yes, this is hard.  But I still believe. 

The bounced check happened on June 6, I received one check on June 18 and I got the check replacement cashed on July 20. (I'm supposed to get 2 paychecks/mo)  No bill has gone unpaid!  I've always had enough when the due date came.  I have food, I have gas in my car.  People started handing me money.  To date I have been given $600!!  I am blown away by God's people and their generosity toward me in my time of need!  The car repairs came to $610.  So, with my lack of income, barely able to pay my bills, God took care of this extra expense that hit me.  Wow! 

I had 2 different cars I was able to borrow while my car was out of commission.  Friends showed up to help me out every time I broke down!  I was blessed by the generosity of both time and money of my friends and family.  God supplies for our needs through His people some of the time, and through math miracles at others.  But the bottom line is.... He does supply all our needs.  I'm still in the midst of this struggle, but I have complete confidence in my God that He will take care of me!!

This last one is something He led me to via seeing 14:14 on the clock often.  This is one of my favorite promises. This is what I remind myself of every time the stress comes around. 

Be still.  

Rest in Him.  

Trust Him.  

He's got this!     

I Believe in Freedom

I believe in Freedom.  I believe that our Founding Fathers wrote up a brilliant framework upon which our nation would become great.  I believe they had freedom in mind as they did so.  As we approach the anniversary of our Declaration of Independence, I find myself thinking about that freedom they dreamed of. 

We have a lot of laws these days.  A lot.  Do any of us know them all?  I wonder how many we break on a daily basis.  Some people look at laws as shackles, but I believe laws are meant to provide safety and freedom.  At least, that was their initial purpose.  I think we've left that path in some ways and begun to make laws to force people to do things against their own free will.  That is getting sticky. 

When I was in High School, I took a class that sent me back to my old elementary school to be an aide to a teacher.  The class was meant for those who were thinking of pursuing teaching as a career.  The schools had recently developed a new system and I found it to be a good way to do things.  They had thrown out all the old rules and instead had just one rule that would essentially cover all the old rules.  "No one has the right to interfere with the learning or safety of others."  I like it!  I have often considered this rule as I moved through life.  I think about it while I'm driving.  (Obviously we're not so worried about interfering with learning, but that word can be adjusted to fit the situation.)  Maybe in general we can just substitute the word FREEDOM.  Don't get in the way of someone else's freedom or safety. 

Freedom has to go both ways.  If I want freedom, I have to also extend freedom.  Too much of what happens in today's legal chaos is attempting to squelch the freedom of one group in favor of that of another.  It just can't happen that way, and that's where things get dicey.  Our "hot button" topics are usually ones where people have a different view of morality.  One person wants to make laws against behavior that others don't see as wrong.  It gets messy really fast. 

I think the most obvious issue is homosexuality.  I am Christian, so my Bible says it's a sin.  That isn't my opinion, it's what the book says.  (Whether the book is Divinely inspired or not or correctly translated is a separate issue.)  But as I believe it is, and I believe God is good, I hold the belief that when He calls something sin, we should avoid that behavior because it is harmful to us. 

So where does freedom come in?  If I stick to my belief that I have to extend freedom, then I come to the place where I have to say that if someone chooses that path, they are free to do so.  I'm not out trying to make laws to stop people from participating in homosexual relationships.  Yes, I know that some Christians are out there doing that, but I am not.  This is where intellectual consistency has to come into play. 

I believe God gave us freedom to choose.  Our choices have natural consequences, so we should try to choose wisely.  Contrary to popular belief, God is not sitting up in Heaven waiting to chuck lightning bolts at anyone who commits a sin.  That's just silly.  He gives us free will, and our choices decide how our lives play out.  So if God does that, shouldn't I do it too? 

It gets more difficult when some people decide to try to force their way on someone else.  It is tempting to fight back and try to hurt them or make laws to control them.  Just as they don't want us telling them how to live, we don't want them forcing us to do something that feels like participation in something we believe to be wrong.  We see it happening.  It isn't right.  Put the shoe on the other foot.  When these cake baking stories started hitting the news, I saw an interview with a lesbian couple who owned a t-shirt shop.  They spoke up in defense of the Christian cake bakers.  They saw the dilemma behind the decision.  They put up another example to show why they believed in the Christian baker's freedom to decline.  What if the Westboro Baptist "church" came in and wanted this lesbian couple to make shirts for one of their hateful anti-gay protests?  We must have the freedom to not participate in behavior we think is wrong. It is anti freedom to use the government to force someone to participate in something that goes against their conscience.  If their opinion is wrong, let the free market decide that.

In California currently there is a bill working thru the system that is wanting to make it illegal to sell resources with the intent of changing someone's sexual orientation from gay to straight.  They want to call it "consumer fraud," indicating that it isn't possible.  30 people spoke to the legislature who were formerly gay.  Considering what a super minority there must be of such a demographic, that seems like a pretty good number representing a particular idea.  Even faced with this kind of proof, the representatives are still voting for the bill.  I consider this a huge anti freedom move by the California legislature.  Freedom says that if someone wishes to change an aspect of their life to fit their personal moral code, they have the right to do so.  Whether the government believes that change is possible, or even necessary, should not even be considered.  We as individuals should be able to choose our own path, as long as we are not interfering with the freedom and safety of others.  Whether a person chooses to live as a gay or a straight should not be governed by human laws.   

I'm not perfect.  But I like to sit and ponder situations.  I like movies that present ethical dilemmas.  What would I do if. ...?  I think it is important to think about freedom and how we can better facilitate the freedom of others.  When I feel an injustice against me or someone like me, how can I maintain freedom for all while seeking justice?  I think these are important things to consider as we participate in this race we call human.   

Poverty

My job is to deliver prescriptions to people in a very poor community.  I see the down and out, the sick, the hurting.  I've also spent a total of 20 weeks in villages in Uganda.  A totally different kind of poverty.  This is an issue that touches my heart and I long for answers to solve this problem.  Some people have been born into the poverty and never found a way to climb out.  Some made bad choices and dug themselves into a deep hole, while others had tragic circumstances throw them off the cliff.  So many reasons, so many difficult situations.   

The other day as I was driving I began to dream.  What if I had billions of dollars?  I had this idea to go knock on doors of some of the worst houses I could find in my delivery area.  To pretend I was doing a study on poverty for a college project or something.  Talk to people.  Hear their stories.  Find the people who really want to change their stars.  Then ask them what would change their situation.  Since in my dream I'm a billionaire, I thought it would be so cool to then offer them specific help.  Not free money, but actual help that would change their situation.  Do they need a car and new clothes to go to a job?  Do they need an education?  Do they need basic budgeting skills?  Do they need help to get off of drugs? Do they need better medical care?  Do they need an investor to help them start a business they have dreamed about?  So many thoughts of what might help people.

Then I thought about what is happening currently.  I've been listening to Candace Owens and she says the welfare system is designed to keep people on it.  I don't know how true that is, but it seems plausible.  I hear about people all the time that are truly in need of some assistance and are told they make too much money.  I tried to apply for food stamps once myself and was denied.  I was only working 12 hrs/ week at that point!  That is less than $500/mo take home pay!  I have no idea how that is too much!  No way I could even afford rent on that type of income, let alone food and all the other things necessary for life. From knowing that, I guess if people are on welfare, it makes it hard to get a job because they may lose the assistance and be bringing in even less money.  If you have kids to feed, I get why you wouldn't want to take that risk.  To me that says our system is severely broken.  How can people ever start being productive and taking care of themselves if when they start to, the ladder is pulled out from under them?  Financial assistance is often necessary to become self sufficient.       

I totally get that people need a helping hand sometimes.  I want to see that help actually help.  I want to see a welfare system that is focused on helping people make it on their own.  My idea of doing it on a personal level would be great, but I also know that the cost to have our government agencies do it on that level would be high.  That would take a lot of workers to go in, get personal, and really assess the true needs and solve them.  At least at first.  I would think that after a few years the workload would die down as more and more people get out of the bottom of the hole. 

I also like the idea of work for welfare that has been implemented in a few places.  Those who are able bodied should have to do some work or be enrolled in training for a job in order to get their government assistance.  It gives people a sense of accomplishment and self-worth to earn a living.  Free handouts with no requirements can often create lazy and entitled people that don't benefit society, they only leech.  The hard part is deciding who is able and who is truly not.  Welfare seems depressing and hopeless to me. Some of my clients express that hopelessness every time I talk to them.  Some are sick and unable to work and it's hard for them. Being able to work and earn a living gives people hope. 

I believe that my idea would end up costing less in the long run.  Invest in people short term so they become productive and self-sufficient, or support them their whole lives as they barely have a life to speak of. 

Playing the Game

Have you ever tried to go to the Government website and read the bills they are voting on?  They're pretty much unreadable to the random citizen.  So much legal talk and ridiculous loop-de-loops.  How are we ever to know what in the world the laws are? 

One thing I have heard mentioned that I want to look at briefly is the idea of having multiple topics in each bill.  I think it becomes a big messy part of the political "us vs them" debacle.  Let me try to present a scenario to simplify what I think is happening.  I'm going to call the political parties simply A and B, and make up a ridiculous bill. 

'A' proposes a new bill to better fund firefighters by adding a 25 cent tax to every block of cheese sold.  Also in this bill is a provision for putting a clown on every street corner in NYC, and it will be paid for by a $1/day tax added to all citizens living in California.  'B' is in favor of the firefighter portion of the bill, but thinks the clown half is stupid and they can't in good conscience vote for it.  B has more voters, so the bill is not passed, then A takes to the media and claims that B wants your house to burn down. 

Have you seen this happen?  It is a big part of the spreading of misinformation.  I've even seen one party write up a bill and one or two members of that party say they won't vote for the bill because of just one or two points included in it.  I just don't understand why they mix in so many unrelated things.  Why can't we just have one bill about the firefighters, and a separate bill about the clowns?  Then A and B could agree on passing the firefighter bill, and the clown one is less likely to pass.

I realize that bills are not this simple, any topic is going to include a lot of complicated details, but I don't understand when unrelated things show up.  It becomes a game.  We'll give you this point if you'll give us that one.  Trading votes.  Not ok. Can we make them stop?  Can we make them limit each bill to one topic?  How can we ensure they are voting in the best interest of the people instead of their party lines, or donor pressure? 

Similarly, the topics of term limits, or pay raises, or donor money, how do we the people get the lawmakers to pass these changes that theoretically would 'hurt' them?  I feel helpless to change the system that I have no faith in.  States just keep electing the same people every time, nothing changes.  They get better and better at playing the game and lining their own pockets.     

Manipulated Morality

Before delving into political topics, I want to explore the idea of morality.  Our personal moral code will determine most of our political stances.  What determines right and wrong?  Why do people change what they believe to be right and wrong?

As I've said, I grew up in church, so I was raised with a Christian view of morals.  Over the years I've seen others who claim the same code suddenly shifting on certain topics.  They switch sides so to speak.  Did the Bible they believe in change?  Is the Bible wrong?  This has disturbed me, but I have begun to understand how it is happening.

A few years ago a friend asked me to watch a "documentary" called The Bible Told Me So.  It was a series of stories about people who had come out as 'gay' and were then badly mistreated by their church or other Christians in their lives.  They were truly awful, heartbreaking stories.  Story after story pulling on the heartstrings of the viewer.  At the conclusion, the film made the case for homosexuality being acceptable because these people were mistreated by the church.  I found that to be faulty logic.  It's like saying that if someone is abused by the police after being caught committing a crime, he's no longer guilty of the crime.  That is an incorrect assessment.  The crime is still a crime.  (No, I'm not saying homosexuality is a crime.)  They are two separate issues of wrongdoing.

I've watched as church after church publicly turn away from what the Bible says in order to be 'compassionate' or up to date with what the secular world is believing currently.  I've seen stories of people leaving their church after a family member says they are gay.  I get it.  I wrote another blog a few years ago that looked at the idea of sin and how we seem to perceive it vs how the Bible talks about it. Click here to read  I think this plays into this scenario.  People often equate 'sinner' with 'bad person.'  When someone you know and love says they are gay, and you know them to be a good person, it doesn't add up.  The evidence is not convincing.  You don't want to believe this person is now a bad person.  That is all faulty reasoning. In this other blog I note that sin is often presented as an outside entity, an enemy of humanity.  So what if we believed that?

Our emotions can be used to deceive us, to pull us away from our previously held moral code.  Having a loved one become involved in a sin, something we believe to be wrong, can cause us to question what we think.  That was the whole point of the documentary I watched.  "Look at how hard life has been for these people.  How can you tell them they're bad people? "  The Bible talks about us being "slaves to sin."  Would you call a slave a bad person?  No, you wouldn't.  So why do we let the devil convince us that sinners are bad people?  They are not bad, they are being attacked and destroyed.  That is the picture I get from the Bible.  Sin destroys us and those around us.  The enemy of our souls has been deceiving us into accepting slavery and celebrating it.  I say no more!  Sin is not our friend!  Sin must be called sin, truth must reign over emotion.  If we believe the Bible is the Word of God, we have to choose to believe it over our ever shifting emotions and experiences.  Maybe our Creator knows best how we are to function.  He wrote the owner's manual.

How about other areas of life.  It is still generally accepted that you shouldn't cheat on your spouse.  But it happens all the time.  Attraction steps in and offers up a temptation.  Society has been shifting away from solid morality and toward emotional leading.  Therefore, if I'm attracted to someone, I should be totally fine to go after them, even if I'm already married.  I'm pretty sure that most people are not going to be ok with that.  Your spouse is going to be hurt.  Some people are attracted to children apparently, yet we expect them to control that attraction or go to jail.  Sin is sin because it hurts people.  When you let emotion override morality, people get hurt.

Sometimes our kids can push us to the limit.  Sometimes we want to strangle them.  Sometimes a relentlessly crying baby makes us want to shake them and scream at them to stop!  Those are emotions that are very real, but hopefully we have a moral foundation that stops us from hurting our child. Some people cross that line.  Some people feel even justified that they abuse their kids or spouse. On the crime tv shows I watch, often the murderer gives a reason for killing the person that in their mind is completely ok.  This is a dangerous road to walk.  When emotions lead, we get into trouble and someone gets hurt. 

The particular sins that an individual is tempted with seem to come with a lot of evidence and convincing arguments (lies) to get a person to step into the jail cell.  Hey girl, you dress like a boy, you like sports, you've never had a boyfriend, maybe you're a lesbian.... I heard that one in high school.  There was more to it than that, but the "evidence" I was being presented with seemed true.  But... I knew what the Bible said.  I knew this "evidence" couldn't be true.  At the time I didn't have much understanding of the tactics of the devil, so this war for truth raged on for many years. It was almost 15 years later when I finally gained the tools to understand and fight this lie off.  I needed to hear what God thought, I needed to be given another explanation for what I was seeing and feeling.  I did finally get that freedom!  Jesus has shown me truth that negated all the "evidence" that Satan had been throwing at me to keep me in prison.  His illusion of truth crumbled in the face of real Truth. 

I've seen it over and over in my life.  Emotions, attractions, temptations...  they all seem right and correct and truthful at first, but when I choose to remember what the Bible says about those topics, I have to look for another explanation.  I have to choose what God says over what my emotions are saying.  The enemy of our souls is prowling around looking for someone to devour.  He is a liar.  He has been growing his deception skills for a very long time, so it isn't surprising that his lies are convincing.  This is why it is so important to know the Word of God.  He created us, He loves us, and He laid out a way to live that will cause no harm to us or to others.  Will we believe Him?  Or will we believe our ever shifting emotions?  The devil is a manipulator, but if we choose to stand on God's Word, believing He is right in spite of our current emotions and the pile of evidence, we will be set free.  The Truth will set you free! I know this, because I have experienced it.  The mountain of evidence melted in the light of The Truth of Jesus Christ. 

"I freed a thousand slaves.  I could've freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves."
-- attributed to Harriet Tubman, but evidence is lacking

Regardless of its authenticity, I believe this quote rings true.  The deceiver has enslaved people without them even realizing they are slaves.  When we choose to believe emotion or anything else over the Word of God, our morals begin to slip.  Political circles use emotion driven narratives to convince us of their point of view.  I was listening to Ben Shapiro recently as he discussed how television has been used for years to manipulate how we think.  They have constantly pushed the moral boundaries, slowly boiling us into complacency.  The way he put it, they give us characters that we like more than our own families, then they have them act in ways we wouldn't approve of, but since we like that character, we start to shift what we approve of.  That is exactly my point.  When we love someone, we don't want to label them as bad.  I would like to point out that we all have both good and bad in us.

Ben Shapiro video - the long explanation

Doing one bad thing does not make us a bad person. But if we shift our view to see that sin is slavery or a prison, when we see someone we love acting in a way that we deem to be wrong, we can compassionately do our best to help them see what they're doing is hurting them or us.  That's what Love does.  We're being told that love accepts everyone for who they are and everything they do right now, but in reality, Love guides us to become the best version of ourselves.  Yes, He loves us as we are, but He also loves us too much to leave us as we are.

So looping this all back around to my upcoming focus on politics, I've been thinking about how the culture shapers use emotion to shift how we think.  I think it is important to be aware of this manipulation.  We must know what our personal moral codes are and practice standing firm in the face of emotional manipulation.  We need to base our beliefs on fact, not emotion.  I like to think about things before I'm in the situation where I'll need to respond.  Like they told us in youth group... decide how far you will go on a date before you are in the back seat making out.  Once those emotions get stirred up, it's too late to decide what you believe in.

Intro

I've mostly tried to avoid politics, but recently I've started paying a little more attention.  I can't do too much because it usually makes me angry.  Too much fighting, not enough listening.  Two sides with dramatically different worldviews, so no obvious way of coming together and agreeing on anything, so they just fight and it is ugly and getting us nowhere.  I've been thinking recently about just sitting down and writing as I explore this ugly world of politics.  Maybe no one will read it, maybe it's just a way for me to sort out my thoughts, who knows?  I want to lay out my personal thoughts, and I would love for others to share theirs, as long as it is respectful.  Civil dialogue is the only way we are going to see change. 

I believe that we each form our beliefs based on our own experiences.  What we are taught as children is of course very big in the beginning, but as we grow and experience more variety of experience in life, our thoughts can change.  How often do we really stop and think about our beliefs?  I like to talk to people who challenge me to think about what I really believe is true. 

I come from a Christian worldview.  It's not just a random set of unproven beliefs, it is an experience based knowledge of the goodness of God.  My relationship with Jesus most definitely affects how I believe life should be lived.  As a kid, I watched other people do the things I was taught were wrong, and I saw them live through the consequences of those actions.  For me, this validated the Bible's set of rules.  They made sense.  God is a good Father, and He's trying to show us how to avoid getting hurt.  As I got older, those beliefs grew even stronger.  I began to see His hand in my life, bringing me blessings and answering my prayers, and how following Him led me into better and better places.  Bad things do still happen, but I can almost always trace them to someone somewhere making a choice to go a different way than God's way. 

I enjoy watching movies that offer up an ethical conundrum.  When it doesn't seem like there is a good choice, what do you do?  The most clear example is the gladiators of ancient Rome.  Kill or be killed?  That's a pretty horrific choice.  Jesus said to turn the other cheek, so will I lay down my sword?  I don't know.  I don't think any of can really know what we'd do in such a crazy situation unless it happens, but I enjoy thinking about what would be the right thing to do in God's eyes.  That thought process colors all of my political choices. 

I have a few ideas on what way to go with this.  I could tackle current topics as the arise, or I also thought about going to the official Republican and Democrat webpages and reading through their basic platform and working though the issues they stand on.  I could also just randomly pick out big hot button issues to explore.  Or a mix of these ideas....