Last week I got a “survey” from the RNC (Republican National Committee) that was titled 2009 OBAMA AGENDA SURVEY. It was formatted like a scan-tron type of test with complete instructions on checking the appropriate “box” (even though it is a circle), sign it and send it in with my contribution. They don’t ask for money, they assume I will give it naturally after filling out this survey.

They even say:

To ensure that this Registered Survey is properly accounted for, we ask that you sign and return this document regardless of whether or not you answer every question. Thank you.

There is also a warning “DO NOT DESTROY * DO NOT DESTROY * DO NOT DESTROY …” spanning the width of the page near the top of the “survey.”

The survey has 15 questions I am supposed to only answer as Yes, No or No Opinion. Here is a sampling:

#2 Do you believe the federal government has gone too far in bailing out the failing banks, insurance companies and the auto industry?
#3 Do you support amnesty for illegal immigrants?
#5 Are you in favor of granting retroactive Social Security eligibility to illegal immigrants who gain US citizenship through an amnesty program?
#9 Do you support the creation of a national health insurance plan that would be administered by bureaucrats in Washington D.C.?
#12 Are you in favor of creating a government-funded “Citizen Volunteer Corps” that would pay young people to do work now done by churches and charities, earning Corps Members the same pay and benefits given to military veterans?
#13 Are you in favor of re-instituting the military draft, as Democrats in Congress have proposed?
#15 Do you support Democrats’ drive to eliminate workers right to a private ballot when considering unionization of their place of employment.

Let me not answer these obvious rhetorical questions (read: statements hiding behind question marks) with a few of my own. And RNC, check the “box” with the appropriate answer after each question.

#1 RNC, do you really not know what your member’s would say to each one of your “survey’s” questions? O YES — O NO — O No Opinion
#2 Do you think it would be better to make your case instead of asking obvious questions born from very old talking points on a fake survey? O YES — O NO — O No Opinion
#3 Are Registered Republicans actually going to think this survey is anything other than a fundraising tool? O YES — O NO — O No Opinion
#4 Do you think it would be enlightening to ask your members, “Do you think the RNC is, in practice, any different than the DNC?” O YES — O NO — O No Opinion
#5 On the rough draft, did this question make the list, ‘Do you think the RNC has significantly contributed to the current crisis we are in?” O YES — O NO — O No Opinion

My survey is a lot shorter and doesn’t ask for money. I don’t think the RNC will like my survey.

I am all for a good zinger of a rhetorical question used to make people think. But rhetorical questions posing as main argument points or “real” questions just irritate me … greatly.

Dear RNC, I might still be registered with you (while looking out on the horizon for a new alternative) but your “survey” (numbered N09PK343Y) has unfortunately been destroyed.

Again, I believe both parties are going to be in for a shock in ‘10 and ‘12.

Last night I was listening to one of my favorite songs over the years. It’s called “No Letting Go” by Wayne Wonder.  I liked it before I met my last girlfriend but it took on a new dimension while I was dating her.

As the song played, my heart began to sink before my mind remembered that it had been one of “our” songs.  It clicked in my head that over the past couple of years I hadn’t really allowed myself to listen to it all the way through when it would pop up randomly on my iPhone. It has a distinctive beginning so normally, without hesitation, I would click the >>| button to get to the next song as soon as possible.  This has been my defensive reaction to what might appear to be a small reminder of her that for whatever reason wasn’t as small as I wanted it to be.

Until last night, when it didn’t even cross my mind to not listen to it all the way through.  My heart remembered, that’s why it began to sink, even though my mind had temporarily forgotten our relationship.

Bittersweet moment of recognition. I have moved on.

It’s been two years.  My mentor says that I feel things very deeply and powerfully. I think I wept for her every day for the first six months after it was finally “over over.” And I thought of her every day for quite a while after that.

I missed her smile but am happy she has found a new life.

I missed her laughter but am glad she has a new community that brings her joy.

I missed the playful joking around, dancing and sweet private conversations … but I pray she is fulfilled, flourishing and content with her life.

I missed the feeling of looking into her eyes and seeing love. I know now that is a foreshadowing of a Greater Love. Maybe today she is looking at another man with those same eyes …

… and he’d better treat her right or I’ll kill ‘em.

When we first started seriously dating I said to her that regardless of the outcome of our relationship I wanted to be able to honestly say that we honored God, that we would love and respect each other no matter what happened and that we can say we are better people as a result of our relationship.  I can honestly say all of that is true for me today.

I know God more intimately, I loved her one way and now a different way, I respect her and I am a different man (for the better) because of her.

And, today, she is gone … and I have moved on as well.

And even as beautiful as I once thought that relationship was, and it was beautiful in many ways, if I marry here in this life, even this past relationship won’t hold a candle to the beauty and intimacy I know will be present with my wife.

And even then, it will all point to the time when the Lord’s Bride (His Church) comes Home to Him, looks into His eyes, knows Him as She is known by Him … and rest.

Can I tell you how happy I am to have a reason to create a sports category … SO very happy.

You know that whole story about the Bionic Woman from yesterday?  Well, there was a whole sub-plot that happened simultaneously on the  cram-packed shuttle bus.

The Bionic Woman was wearing purple but I don’t think she was a part of the whole other scene happening on the bus.  EVERYONE was wearing either purple or orange.  Except for me. I was wearing a black sweatshirt.

That’s how I roll  … comfort-wear.

Before I got all into it with Bionic woman, I said to the man next to me, “at the risk of sounding stupid…what’s going on here?” Pointing to the mass of purple and orange.

He said, “It’s Utah vs. TCU!” And several approving heads of the almost all male crammed packed shuttle bus nodded in knowing agreement.

I said, “So what do the Mormons have against the Texas Croquet Union?”

Just kidding… I didn’t ask that.  I really really wanted to.

Then, all the fella’s just started jawing like a bunch of women at a beauty parlor.  Sorry if that sounds sexist but … have you ever heard a bunch of women at a beauty parlor? They talk almost as much as men gossiping about football.  These fellas were talking, names, stats, defensive line positions, records, the new Nike uniforms being revealed at the game … and on and on.

Then it hit me. My inner dialog said, “This is exactly how I felt in Mexico most of the time.”  When I went to Mexicali I spent most of the five days there just smiling, nodding like I had some sort of notion of what my new Spanish speaking friends were saying.  When they laughed, I laughed.  When they all stopped and lowered their heads in prayer, I would too.  When some mischievousness was going on, cause you can always tell when mischievousness is going on, I’d raise my eyebrows with a fun-play-along “Hold up there smarty-pants” look. When they would start clapping their hands in worship, I was the last person to catch on and the one person who did the very last “clap” when everyone else knew to stop.  I was responding to their body language and tone and had no clue what they were saying.  Frank said I had some sort of permanent “awkward smile” thing happening.

I hate eavesdropping and not understanding the conversation I am actually eavesdropping in on.  And yet, I totally did it.

The same is true for this crowd of football fans.  I had NO clue what the heck they were talking about. But when they’d grunt and say, “Boy howdy that kid’s got an arm!” I’d awkwardly smile and say, “You ain’t kiddin’!!!!  like a rocket that arm is! But, football schmootball… While y’all are watching rocket boy I am going to a banquet celebrating 20 years of freedom from homosexuality!!! Isn’t that AWESOME!”

Just kidding … I didn’t say that either. But I really really wanted to.

I just smiled awkwardly instead and prayed for Tiger Woods to have a great time playing goalie.

After landing in Dallas, I gathered up my luggage because for whatever reason, lately, I’m overpacking on every trip.  Why I had enough to fill up my medium suitcase for a 48 hour excursion … I don’t know … at least I had options. So I waited for my bright blue bag listening to two CUTE kids squealing and running as Grandma came through the revolving door toward baggage claim.

Now, my luggage is bright blue because I thought it would be easier to spot on the baggage claim belt.

Wrong.

It seems bright blue is the new black.  Everyone either has a black or bright blue suitcase nowadays.  I refuse to put curly ribbons on my luggage so I will have to figure something else out the next time I decide to overpack.

Luggage finally in hand, I got on the shuttle to the DFW “combined” rental car center. And when I say I “got on” that means that I stood at the curb, threw my bag in and before all the screaming stopped I hurtled my body through the doors and grabbed on to anything that wasn’t screaming.

We were packed in there like sardines. It was amazing.

I told the pretty lady in the green track suit she didn’t have to apologize for bumping against me every time the bus turned a corner or hit a bump in the road because, “it’s ok, we are all in this together.”

Then a voice came to me from three feet away and two feet down.  It arose from a petit older woman with a smoker’s voice, smelled like smoke, grey roots with blond dyed hair and a seriously purple short sleeved blouse.

She said:

We are all in this together but why does it have to be so painful?  I have bionics in my arms.

I said

Bionics?

She said

Yep.

I then asked her if she could lift cars.  No, she assured me that it wasn’t quite like that.  Then I asked if she was ever taken over by slow motion and hear that metallic “nahnahnahnah” sound that the first Bionic Woman had to put up with?  She said, “uh … no.”  Green track suit lady was smiling.

Earlier when I said that I threw myself and the luggage into the bus, I was being hyperbolic.  However, I really did ask this lady those questions about the bionics.  She said they were computer chips that helped her with her pain … and she had a remote control for them.  This remote control hung from a purple case that matched her blouse so well I didn’t even see it until she went for the remote.  She took it out, pointed it at her rear-end and said, “that’s how I adjust the bionics.”

I was like, “ok… I hope they are helpful.”  She said that they were.  Then she wouldn’t stop talking.  God bless her but I think she had a bionic mouth too.  And the shuttle ride was so long I thought they were driving us to Oklahoma City to pick up the cars.  About halfway through, with all the stress of traveling halfway across the country, being packed in a shuttle with a bunch of football fans (Utah vs TCU was that weekend) and driving halfway across the state with said football fans, a pretty track suit lady who didn’t feel the need to hold on to the hand rail to steady herself and the aging bionic woman… I almost asked her if she had a spare cigarette.

When the doors finally opened and we all just kind of fell out with our bright blue and black luggage.  I wished her well as she bionically jumped ahead of us all. I then realized that she had turned toward the same car rental counter I was headed toward.  I ended up in line, oh about … 20 deep (not kidding on this one either) right behind her.

As I looked down into her grey roots and smelled that “oh she is very much a smoker” smell … compassion rose up in me.  Here is a lady God knows intimately.  A lady who feels it necessary to tell strangers that she has remote controlled bionics in her arms.  I lady who smoked so much it had changed her voice. A voice the Lord wants to hear call out to Him.  My earlier, “please be quiet” attitude disappeared.  I tapped her on the shoulder and with an honest smile said, “Hello again …”

We talked the entire time we waited in line.

The testimonies were awesome, Ricky’s vision is amazing.  He did a fantastic job.

Above is a slideshow of all the pictures I took (not that many actually) but it was fun.

Light blogging the past couple of days because of my trip to Dallas.  I am here right now and going to be busy this afternoon and evening.

BUT, I have some great blog posts coming.  I love these people in my former home city.  They are so … fascinating.

Until then, feel free to follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

I’ve noticed a growing trend that some Christians are adopting a worldly snarkiness and belittling toward other Christians.  And it isn’t just the young being rebellious or the old being cantankerous.  It’s all across the board.  It’s as if some of us are reveling in the idea that we can join with the world in just bashing old school, institutionalized, quirky, far right, far left or not “relevant” Christians. Then, when those who are judged to have the wrong modern approach defend themselves, they are then criticized for being defensive and even more judgmental.

Old ways of imposing judgment based legalism are being supplanted by a new “more relevant” more “inclusive” way of imposing judgment based legalism. Both of which alienate, pigeonhole and promote ones own brand of living out the gospel as the only right way of living out the gospel.  Legalism used to be imposed with stern looks, harsh rules and stoic heartlessness.  Now it’s being delivered in heartless and flippant humor, personal attacks and shockingly permissive disrespect.

Notice that heartless is the only constant theme I have for the spread of legalism through modern times.  I am sure it is a theme of legalism throughout church history.

Internet Monk wrote about humor, over two years ago, and expounds a little on CS Lewis’ descriptions of various forms of humor and joy.

Lewis’s fourth kind of humor is flippancy, which he defines as sheer derision for the sake of mockery, with no actual humor at work. This is the incessant humor of our age that laughs at nothing, laughs at everything, has not a hint of the true intelligence, compassion or truthfulness of good humor, but simply stands over a subject with a leer, insisting on the recognition of its own superiority. Bob’s description of men looking at naked women and laughing seems flippant to me, not funny. The song “I’m Gonna Miss Her” seems like a good humorous shot at the absurdity of our values in America.

Sadly, this kind of scoffing is common among those Christians who incessantly and cruelly deride others with no good will or actual humor, but with the club of their own superiority and the applause of the in-group.

And, I must confess, I am really good at being a Smart-Aleck. So while I am personally feeling the need to be wary of my own propensity toward rude flippancy, it seems this demeaning behavior is only increasing all around us.  There are high rewards of attention and celebrity to those (including Christians) who can do flippancy at others expense really well.  In fact that is the sole reason why some ministries, projects and quite a few blogs even exist.

I agree with Lewis and Internet Monk, flippancy is based in a judgment of one’s own superiority over the object of ridicule and the development/maintaining of an “in” crowd. Today, this flippancy or being clever and rude seems to be the most common delivery mechanism of seeking to impose a new form of age 0ld legalism.

Here’s to praying for the eventual triumph of Grace.

Thank you Veterans! We love you!

Hat Tip: Robert Bluey

A friend dared me to title this post “But I DON’T WANNA Bigger Tiara when I get to heaven!”  I was very tempted but … it wasn’t really an accurate description of what follows.

Let’s talk about Carrie Prejean.

She’s charismatic. She knows what she believes and says so.  She was put on the spot and while she fumbled a bit, she said it like she sees it.  She isn’t intimidated by the Media Hit machine. She is gorgeous and intelligent …  I like her.

What I don’t understand are Christians equating what she did as some sort of “stand for God.”  If I hear that she is a “modern day Esther” one more time I might resort to drumming my fingers on my desk so as not to say something stupid.  I also have read quite a few comments about how because the “reward” she lost (the Miss USA crown) as a result of sticking to her guns on marriage will lead to a “larger reward” in heaven.

Really?  God is going to give her a larger reward because she stood up to Perez Hilton (video)?  With all due respect to Carrie, she is being persecuted because of her stand on marriage … not for preaching Christ crucified.

It’s not the same thing.

When I think of Christians getting a “larger reward” in Heaven, I think of the martyr Stephen, the martyred apostles, disciples and saints through the years. I think of the murdered Christians of Darfur, the Indian Christians being killed right now, the Chinese Christians being run underground and imprisoned.  I think of Mother Theresa and other amazing Christian leaders throughout history that helped millions, helped abolish slavery, helped the underground railroad or to help German Jews in WWII … among a MYRIAD of phenomenal testimonies.  Again, not a criticism of Carrie but the truth is she is selling a book, doing national speaking gigs and gaining fame and notoriety … not taking a vow of poverty or smuggling Bibles into Iran.

I am not God so … who gets what reward isn’t up to me but when I think of a “larger reward” the above paragraph is the kind of sacrifice and acts of bravery that come to mind.  He might very well bless her for the pain and pressure she has faced and the private worship/communion she has had with Him during this time. I would love that for her. The point I am trying to make is that what she did, while incredible, has been exalted and idealized unfairly.  That can be as much and sometimes more damaging than the negative persecution coming her way.

Carrie is not a modern day Esther and she shouldn’t be held to that kind of standard or pressure by well meaning Christians.

Then, Ms. Prejean was found to have sent a video of herself having solo sex (aka. masturbation … why are people afraid to say that? … and yes, girls do that too) to a now opportunistic ex-boyfriend when she was a teenager.

She is only 22 and she was technically a teenager 3 years ago.  She is young, done some stupid things and was making a career off of her beauty.  She is so typically young and human.  When I was 22, 19 years ago ::: ugh :::,  the video cameras were the size of a small foreign car and cost as much as a small foreign car.  And no real public access to the infant Internet at that time.

Thank God … literally.

But even in this situation, she owned it and said that it was the “biggest mistake” of her life (video of her interview with Hannity about this at the end of the post.)

Which leads me to my final thought … American Christians are all to willing to raise up Christian Superstars *way* to quickly.  Mix that with the idolization of celebrity and you have the potential for tremendous hurt.  Instead of idealizing her because of her beauty, and the culture war infotainment battle she was forced into, take a good look at a young woman who needs older women to come alongside her, love her, mentor her, teach her and protect her.  She needs Christian brothers to respect her, honor her and defend her for the truth of who she really is and not the political, religious or sexual *object*  that some are trying to reduce her into being.

I respect Carrie for saying what she means and standing up for herself.  The tidal wave of hatred flung at her is astounding. I am glad she has a book.  I do think she is a natural born leader but she has quite a ways to go to meet her full potential.  My fear is that the idealized expectations and meteoric rise into the limelight will short circuit the training and life experience she will need to go forward in wisdom that the national stage requires.  The other very good traits she seems to have is humility and a teachable spirit.  That plus her genuine faith in Christ will keep her directed in the way she should go.

We don’t need to bash or idealize her. I look forward to seeing the young woman of God that she is become all of who she is created to be in Christ.  The Miss USA tiara is a flashy trinket compared to the crown of life. I want to see her flourish as she continues to find and take her place in the Body of Christ.

MORE:

I’m a Folasade fan. Video after jump