talmidim

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060808/ap_on_re_us/hiv_ads_pulled

 Who does this? Seriously. Who creates an ad with a black guy pictured in the cross-hairs of what viewers can only assume to be a gun?

So I used to post stuff on the blog myspace gives you but then i realized blogging on myspace is rather foolish because the only people who read are your friends or people who respond like this: "like, omg!!!! that was like, the best blog ever!!!!"

That said, I'm still happy with some of what was written, so here's one of those archived blogs:

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"A shame for justice"

That was the quote from a UN official on the death of Slobodon Milosovich. Or something along those lines. The idea was it was a travesty of justice that Milosovich died of a heart attack rather than being killed by lethal injection (or, to re-humanize the word, poisoned to death).

Sometimes I think that maybe Europe has it right, if we just remove God completely from politics maybe things will get better. After all, it's hard to deny that ever since the religious right became a strong voice in the USA, the reputation of Christians, and America, has nose-dived. Here we are, this supposedly Christian nation, and we're torturing prisoners in Gitmo and lying about everything from Iraq to Katrina. Meanwhile North Korea and Iran continue to work on their nuclear weapons programs. But what does the Republican controlled congress focus on? Flag burning and same-sex marriage. And that's the picture so many people get of Christians, power-hungry, agenda-driven people who don't care about anyone who doesn't agree with them on everything. 

But then I read quotes like the one above and I'm reminded of why Christianity is so essential.

It's not essential to give us a false sense of security that "our values" are being protected (has anyone ever asked themselves at what cost we are protecting our values?). But it is essential to give us something to live for. Christianity takes us to places mere human goodness never can.

When non-Christians pursue diversity, Christians must pursue unity.

When non-Christians pursue justice-by-death, Christians should pursue Grace.

When non-Christians pursue tolerance, Christians should pursue Love.

One of the most troubling issues in America today is this; the Right is pro-active for all the wrong things and the Left simply mocks the Right. We have one group affirming certain things, some of which aren't even worth taking the time to affirm (and others which aren't worth taking as much time to affirm). So what does the left do? Do they suggest viable alternatives to Guantanomo, or Abu Ghraib, or Iraq or how to define marriage? No. They mock and engage in hyperbole.

This is where Christians should step in. Here we should step forward, speaking up for the value of every human being, American, Iraqi, Palestinian, Israeli, all are valuable to God. We should be providing viable alternatives to the cruelty of Abu Ghraib and to the injustice at Guantanomo, but where are those voices? That's the problem, all the voices that should be speaking up for Christ are speaking up for conservatism.

Christians need to see that there is a third way, it is not found in cold conservatism or flippant leftism, rather it is found in love and grace. It's not found in saying that the premature death of a man- no matter how bad he was- is "a shame for justice." Milosovich's death wasn't a shame for justice, the hardness of that official's heart toward Milosovich is a shame for justice. And that is precisely the reason Christians must speak up. There is no one else who will speak up for Grace and unconditional love. Of all the world religious and ideas about life that exist, Christianity is the only one based on grace, if we don't speak up, no one will. So what do you choose? The cold-hearted conservatism of Bill O'Reilly and the religious right? The flippant leftism of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert? Or do you dare to dream that there just might be a third way?