SPQR

Don't go vote

Poll tax 2004

View image

Sarah's new bicycle

In a break from the heavy political stuff we've been discussing lately, Sarah-Ginny is excited about her new bicycle and wants to show it off.

Already begun cloning soldiers?

Check out this image from a Bush-Cheney 04 TV ad of a crowd listening to the president.

More Christian thoughts on politics

In my attempts to follow Dr. Marvin Olasky’s (whom I still regard quite highly) call to be a “compassionate conservative” I have found that in order to act compassionately, it involves at least some rejection of conservatism. Unrestrained market forces have always resulted in too many private companies taking advantage of too many people.

There needs to be some sort of balance.

I have also been trying to reconcile my support for the concept of capital punishment with the knowledge that innocent people have certainly been executed in America.

I realize that all human institutions are fallen, but even if only one innocent man is killed, don’t we all have have his blood on our hands? Do we not continue to support the system that killed him? This is made all the more shameful when one realizes that the poor are frequently afforded few of the legal protections of the wealthy.

Is this enough to do away with capital punishment? Why is it that America is among the last industialized nations to maintain this penalty?

A Christian reflects on the presidential campaign

I can’t decide for whom to vote.

I suppose that I could best be described as fiscally liberalish and socially conservative.

Perhaps that makes me a moderate.

But this categorization is complicated by the fact that I am also a Christian.

Nearly every Christian that I come into contact with on any sort of regular basis has expressed their satisfaction with all things Bush.

I can’t in clear conscience vote for either Mr. Bush or Mr. Kerry.

My voter registration card identifies my as having “no party affiliation”.

As a Christian, I could never endorse the President’s environmental policies. The dual nature of man as being simultaneously earthly and made imago dei means that we are created in common with bugs, plants, and nearly everything else you see. This relationship entails very real responsibilities of protection.

I oppose the practice of abortion as a matter of principle. I feel that this position is a modern manifestation of the early church’s opposition to infanticide.

I support socialized healthcare and think that Mr. Kerry’s plan is a step in the right direction. The Church should look after the disadvantaged but often doesn’t. The current situation is unethical and immoral.

I believe that capital punishment is a legitimate expression of the power of the state, as the authority of civil rulers comes ultimately from God. But I am uncomfortable with its execution in the United States, as it is frequently punishment for those without capital.

I have come to the conclusion that the invasion of Iraq was unjustified. In 2003 I believed the President when he told us things on television. This is no longer true.

I can’t cast my ballot for either candidate without serious reservations. I don’t like the fact that my decision will most likely come down to determining which candidate is the least untruthful.

I have yet to fully sort out my own thoughts regarding how Christians are to engage politics and culture.

I have been told that Bush has a credible profession of faith, and that we should support him because he is a Christian. Where is the virtue in administration officials condoning atrocities committed at the explicit command of American corporations? The deplorable record of Condoleezza Rice’s Chevron in Nigeria comes to mind.

We should vote for the candidate that will be the best leader. Whether his wise choices are the result of a Christian’s special grace or an unbeliever’s common grace is perhaps inconsequential.

What is the virtuous course of action? Certainly an unquestioning vote for an erroneous Christian is not the same thing as “acting Christianly”.

Is it?

Christian nod goes to both candidates

I grabbed this link from the World Magazine Blog. It's a story about two prof's at a Lutheran college debating the election, one voting for Bush, the other Kerry.

Wow, three posts in one day. I think that's a record for me.

Gravitas shmavitas

Other than reading dusty old books about republican Rome in college, I had never come across the word gravitas.

Then, starting in the 2000 election, everyone started using it all day long whenever Cheney's name was mentioned. It's as if some oped piece mentioned it, and then nearly everyone else started repeating this profundity because they couldn't come up with an original description of the VP's personality.

I just searched gravitas on the NewYorkTimes.com archives and perhaps two-thirds of the stories are on Cheney.

This is totally unrelated, but I just noticed that most of the books in the library of the small Christian school in which I teach have a small sticker inside the cover that reads:

The fact that this book, or any other book is included in the ----- School library does not necessarily indicate that ---- School endorses its contents.

It is understood that to meet certain academic standards and to provide books of various fields of research and contents, ---- School must of necessity have many books of different types...

Am I to assume that they have had, or are worried about receiving complaints from parents because they have certain books in the library?
Who would assume that a library would endorse the views espoused in each book on its shelves?
Why should one feel it necessary to include a disclaimer defending to availablity of a variety of viwepoints?

Why not?

I'll admit it, I didn't actually think Damon would do it.

There are too many boring names anyway.

Alicia Crumley is in the hospital and will have her baby soon

We just got a phone call that my sister-in-law Alicia Crumley, oldest sister of Sarah-Ginny, has just gone into labor.

I'm sure that eventually there will be more on her blog.
We'll be driving up to visit this first of it's generation baby sometime soon.

John Edwards Rally

At 10:00 AM Wednesday, the morning after the debate, John Edwards is speaking at a rally down the road in West Palm Beach.

I was hoping to arrange a field trip with a few students, but the administrator said that we've lost so much time from the hurricanes that it isn't a good time. Bummer.

Worth a chuckle or two

Is God shaking up Florida to prevent another election like 2000? Of course not.

But this map is pretty funny non the less. See the Republican county into which Frances (and Jeanne- not shown) entered? That is Martin County, where I live. I've been told that republicans outnumber democrats here 9 to 1.

This image is from getreligion.org, the blog of one of Sarah's professors at PBAU.