The Story of Charles and Andy Stanley (Re-posted)

I enjoyed this article. It referenced one of my favorite books, "Tale of Three Kings" by Gene Edwards.

The Story of Charles and Andy Stanley

What do you think?

chris

My final reflection on the election (Hooray!)

*Yesterday’s post cost me some cyber-friends, but I am not deterred from spewing my self-absorbed drivel throughout the interweb! (I still like the people who cyber-shunned me.)

My final reflection on the election (Hooray!)

Being FOR something or someone

is more powerful

than being AGAINST something or someone.

When it came right down to it…a majority of the voters were for President Obama. Despite all the numbers you could throw out there and the implications of those numbers (for example: higher taxes for 2012 at a rate of $1300-$6000 per household), people were for him. Conversely, voters were not for Romney.  He was a candidate by default, (much like McGovern who I supported or Dukakis, or Dole, or Kerry, or McCain.) In that situation you are doomed to failure.

When Jimmy Carter (who I supported although I couldn’t vote because I was 17) ran in 1980, people were fed-up with the Iranian situation (GO SEE ARGO.) But there was a candidate who showed actual leadership like we hadn’t seen since Kennedy. That was Ronald Reagan.  People were for him. When GHW Bush ran in 88, people were still really for Reagan, but in 1992 people figured out they really weren’t for Bush. They got behind the media darling, Bill Clinton.

I was never really for Romney, the man. He has been kind of a blank to me.  This idea of voting against a candidate or issue by voting for another candidate just doesn’t have legs with the masses.  It may have a local or regional affect, but spread to 100,000,000 voters, it doesn’t hold up.

People couldn’t be against Claire McCaskill by being for Todd Akin.

People couldn’t be against President Obama by being for Mitt Romney.

Hopefully they’ll be someone to be for in both parties in 4 years.

chris

My Personal Report: REMEMBER, THIS BLOG IS MY SELFISH-SELF ABSORBED-SELF-EXPRESSION OUTLET!

By the numbers:

As of today:

• 54 days until January 1^st, 2013 (the beginning of my 50^th year)
• 181 days until my 50^th Birthday
• 12 pounds I’ve lost since January 1 (boo)
• 0, number of physicals I’ve had
• 17,891 views of 500to50

My body (however) is pressing the issue of going to the Dr. because my left leg and hip are in such agony I am having a difficult time with my mobility.  I went to the Chiropractor multiple times a week from November of last year through May of this year without the lasting relief I was hoping for.

Dang,

The Single-Issue Voter: Abortion

500to50 is BACK!

Forgive me father, it has been 32 days since my last confession…or blog entry.

Election day!

I’m glad this part of the process is over. However, I have a feeling by the end of the night we will not have a clear winner (it is noon as I type this on my lunch-hour.)

Many of my friends are single-issue voters, that is, there is one position or issue that trumps all other issues or qualifications of a candidate that will cause them to either vote, or not-vote for a candidate. As a matter of fact, the candidate is irrelevant, only the issue.

Here are (in my circle of friends) the top two single-issue deal breakers being punted around on Facebook statuses:

1.)    Abortion

2.)    Same-Sex Marriage

Today I’m going to write about Abortion. Tomorrow I’ll write about Same-Sex Marriage.

Abortion (under the auspices of “Reproductive Rights”) has been the single-issue decider since Roe-V-Wade.  All a candidate has to do is state they are either “Pro-Life” or “Pro-Choice” and instantly a group is lined-up behind them and another group is lined-up against them.  I would hazard to say that many in both groups never even check on the rest of the candidates’ positions on anything else. “Why,” you ask? There is no reason to check any other position. The matter has been settled on the single-issue.

The “Pro-Choice” issue has bled into other issues as well, such as the requirements of health insurances, government agencies, even private hospitals and healthcare providers to provide contraceptives and abortions, often free of charge because it has been framed as a “right” by the proponents.

Sooooo…..Now not only does a candidate have to espouse a women’s right to choose an abortion (through all nine months of pregnancy and beyond), they have to also work towards free contraceptives and abortion services at every hospital, even faith-based or catholic hospitals to be “Pro Choice.”

It also strongly affects the “Pro-Life” voter as well and can cause some awkward moral predicaments.

Case in point: Todd Akin

Mr. Akins has made a series of telling statements about rape and women in general that wave some really-big red flags that he (at best) is highly insensitive to women and violence against women or (at worst) is an old-school chauvinist.

Yet he is staunchly “Pro-Life.”  He is more “Pro-Life” than most “Pro-Lifers.” That fact alone will force the single-issue voter to affirm and support him, and conversely, oppose the much maligned; Claire McCaskill.  It is a pickle.

It also strongly and awkwardly affects the “Pro-Choice” voter.

Everyone on the planet is against babies having the base of their skulls pried-open (without anesthetic) and their brains sucked out through a small tube until they are dead.  Everyone in the entire world is against that, yet, to be truly and fully “Pro-Choice” you must support abortion through nine months of pregnancy including “partial-birth” abortion.  The “Pro-Choice” voter must support those who support that act, including our current president.

So, what am I saying?  Our choice is between a man who believes some rape victims just “got what they deserved” and a woman who wants babies’ brains sucked out? …I am kind of saying that, yes.

I am like everyone else in the world…I don’t want either of those things or either of those people, yet I don’t have another practical choice. Sure, I could pick the libertarian candidate, write someone in, or abstain, but what would that do?

It is this kind of dilemma that causes my heart to cry, “Lord! Come quickly!”

Chris

(and “no” I’m not telling you if I voted for Todd Akin or Claire McCaskill)