I know few women bloggers who talk about politics AT ALL. Not even a mention of their favorite presidential candidate. I have to wonder: Is this subject taboo among homemakers? Government is one of the most powerful forces in our lives, and I don’t see my peer group showing interest.
Suddenly I have this vision of a mom sitting happily at her computer, steaming cup of coffee nearby. She is catching a few precious moments of quiet internet time before the kiddoes wake. Farrah's blog comes up, and she begins skimming the latest post. She leans forward as her eyes widen. Wait! What's that word?! It cannot be! But it is!!! POLITICS! Oh no! Horrified, she frantically clicks away, but it is too late. Her entire day has been spoiled.
My blog isn’t popular, but I know for a fact there are friends/family who read it without commenting. So there are more seeing my posts than meets the eye. Hopefully I haven’t lost half of them, yet. Before the rest run away screaming, please know that I am not planning to convert my blog into a political machine, nor have I gone mad. BWA HAHAHAHA! Well, not very mad, anyway. Political blogs are for people whose primary hobby is politics. That’s not me.
And yet . . . while voting season is upon us, I’d like to share a few thoughts.
I grew up in a conservative Christian home where the news was rarely discussed, because it revolves primarily around stories about sinful things being done by sinful people. Or at least that’s the general idea. And Christians are better off ignoring all that. While this description may not be far from the mark, I take issue with the “ignore” part.
After I married and we became established in our own home, I began reading the tiny local paper. Lo and behold! There was a whole world out there I knew nothing of! The owners were nice conservatives who wanted to make our city a better place. It felt as if my eyes were suddenly opened after having been blind all my life. Soon I was visiting CNN on the net and getting depressed.
Yep, I was getting depressed. I found out there is suffering on our planet. LOTS and LOTS of suffering. Way more than I could comprehend.
This realization was a good thing, though. You see, no one is going to do anything about suffering without awareness. Awareness brings motivation. Motivation brings activism. Activism brings relief to suffering.
Ever so slowly, I became interested in politics.
I realized that suffering can be reduced or increased to some degree by government. The government impacts all of us. If we want a better world for our children, or even a world as good as the one we were raised in, we need to be aware of what is going on and get involved. At the very least, we NEED to vote.
There are laws designed to stifle Christian rights. There are destructive laws. And there are really evil laws forced on us by evil people. Abortion, no-abstinence sex education, anti-homeschooling laws, no-fault divorce, higher taxes for married couples, gender neutral bathrooms, homosexual discrimination laws, pro-gambling laws, no prayer in public schools, and on and on and on. These are real issues currently in our nation.
We want and need Christians to run this country. Christians make good laws and get rid of bad ones. Christians uphold the traditional values we hold dear.
BUT…Christians will be elected by Christians. The more Christians that vote, the better.
Coming soon . . . My Current Voting Experience. How exciting!
And yet . . . while voting season is upon us, I’d like to share a few thoughts.
I grew up in a conservative Christian home where the news was rarely discussed, because it revolves primarily around stories about sinful things being done by sinful people. Or at least that’s the general idea. And Christians are better off ignoring all that. While this description may not be far from the mark, I take issue with the “ignore” part.
After I married and we became established in our own home, I began reading the tiny local paper. Lo and behold! There was a whole world out there I knew nothing of! The owners were nice conservatives who wanted to make our city a better place. It felt as if my eyes were suddenly opened after having been blind all my life. Soon I was visiting CNN on the net and getting depressed.
Yep, I was getting depressed. I found out there is suffering on our planet. LOTS and LOTS of suffering. Way more than I could comprehend.
This realization was a good thing, though. You see, no one is going to do anything about suffering without awareness. Awareness brings motivation. Motivation brings activism. Activism brings relief to suffering.
Ever so slowly, I became interested in politics.
I realized that suffering can be reduced or increased to some degree by government. The government impacts all of us. If we want a better world for our children, or even a world as good as the one we were raised in, we need to be aware of what is going on and get involved. At the very least, we NEED to vote.
There are laws designed to stifle Christian rights. There are destructive laws. And there are really evil laws forced on us by evil people. Abortion, no-abstinence sex education, anti-homeschooling laws, no-fault divorce, higher taxes for married couples, gender neutral bathrooms, homosexual discrimination laws, pro-gambling laws, no prayer in public schools, and on and on and on. These are real issues currently in our nation.
We want and need Christians to run this country. Christians make good laws and get rid of bad ones. Christians uphold the traditional values we hold dear.
BUT…Christians will be elected by Christians. The more Christians that vote, the better.
Coming soon . . . My Current Voting Experience. How exciting!
4 comments:
Hi Farrah. I felt moved to pray for you today. Are you well? Then I looked up your site to just say hallo. Reading your post here, I think you're quite right. I too know Christians who rather avoid politics, as part of being in the world but not of it. Yet as you say, there might be a need to speak out. In Australia, which is more multi-party, we have the Christian Democrats, who have a few representatives in the Senat of N.S.W. and an overtly Christian Senator in the Federal Senate, Steve Fielding whose party is called Family First. I think you're right. Christian beliefs need to be represented in government, and Christians need to say so. Blessings.
Thanks for visiting my blog. Good comment, Farrah! I hope others read it as well. Blessings.
GOOD advice. I agree, we can't be stickin our heads in the sand and then wonder why things are so messed up in this country. We must pray for our governing forces every day, and pray that God's will be done, and be sure and vote!
I agree with you about politics. We need to be aware, we need to vote and mostly we need to pray every day!
Blessings to you Farrah.
Naturally, when I saw the subject of your post, I tried to click away as fast as possible. (Lol)
I totally agree with you--as Christians it is our responsibility to teach our children the importance of being active in politics/voting and to be well informed on the issues and what the candidates represent.
Also, I dropped by to tell you that I am giving you an award, but it'll probably be tomorrow before I get the post finished at the rate I am going.
(Actually, I had to be absolutely sure I got your blog address correct too.)
Pam
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