Flipping the Script... Yes, Please...

As those of us who claim to believe and follow the Christianity that so many politicians tend to swing around like a "vote for me" sign weigh our choices, let's be sure not to forget the character we're supposed to aspire to. 

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23, NASB)

Sometimes I feel like we have these two backwards, and by "we" I mean those of us who claim to be "little Christs," particularly when we approach the public forum.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23)

The acts of the flesh are obvious: ...hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions... (Galatians 5:19-20)

Vonnegut on the Beatitudes

 

Yes, I've Been Asked This... Many Times

Okay, I tried to avoid getting political and keep things light here on my own page but have been attacked on another page because if I don't support Trump how can I dare call myself an American and say I love my country. 

Well... I'm glad you asked.

I love my country. Period. It's a blessing to live in a country with so many liberties even though we aren't where we need to be yet.

I love America enough to want to make it better, more welcoming, compassionate,  and provide equal possibilities for all people regardless or race, gender, religion or sexual leaning. 

I want to make the country I love a place where people all are considered innocent until proven guilty and not prejudged by the color of their skin or the neighborhood they live in or the God they choose to serve. 

I love my country enough to want all faiths or the lack of them on equal footing with no preferential treatment given to any one of them in terms of monuments, plaques, or school prayers. 

I love my country enough to want to change the improper perception that poor means lazy.

I love my country enough to believe that the wealthiest citizens should love it too enough to bear their responsibility to fund a still greater share of jobs and security to those who can't. Rather than that extra 100 million they could never spend.

I love my country warts and all and want to work with it to make an even more amazing place for all of us to live together. 

I love my country not just because I love the idea of the USA but because I love the people, all races, all religions, gay, straight, bi, trans, cis, etc., native born, immigrant, refugee, rich, poor, those needing help and those able to help,  of my country.

I love my country because of its people, not its history. I love my country in spite of its history, like I said, warts and all.

I love my country because it is the great melting pot experiment of blending ideals and people to embrace and define all of us.

I love my country not because of what it is, but because of what it's capable of being.

And I will always vote for the candidates I believe can best deliver that world, whether left, right, middle, Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Green, etc., whether DC insider or outsider.

Why? 

Beacuse I love the USA.

Looks like nephew Wormwood might have been listening after all... and moved to the "new world"...

"I had not forgotten my promise to consider whether we should make the patient an extreme patriot or an extreme pacifist. All extremes, except extreme devotion to the Enemy, are to be encouraged. Not always, of course, but at this period. Some ages are lukewarm and complacent, and then it is our business to soothe them yet faster asleep. Other ages, of which the present is one, are unbalanced and prone to faction, and it is our business to inflame them…

“Whichever he adopts, your main task will be the same. Let him begin by treating the Patriotism or the Pacifism as a part of his religion. Then let him, under the influence of partisan spirit, come to regard it as the most important part. Then quietly and gradually nurse him on to the stage at which the religion becomes merely part of the ‘Cause,’ in which Christianity is valued chiefly because of the excellent arguments it can produce in favour of the British war effort or of pacifism.”

-- Good Old Uncle Screwtape (by C. S. Lewis)