A Pastor's Thoughts

I don’t weigh in on politics too much because I don’t want this to be a politic blog.  We’ll know in about six weeks what Americans think about the direction of our country in whether they bring back the same bozos they’ve been complaining about for so long.  But when things in politics defy common sense I feel the need to point out the absurdity of it.

The latest is a report that Congress won’t vote on whether to extend the Bush tax cuts until after the election.  The democrats are pretending as if there isn’t enough time.  Not enough time to do what, show up and vote on the issue?  This – to the best of my knowledge – is not a complicated bill which needs to be written.  Either keep the current tax codes in place or don’t.  Or keep them in place for a certain group of people, namely those making less than $250,000.  The stalling on this vote is pure politics because no democrat wants to go into an election having been accused of raising taxes on anyone even if in truth they simply allowed previous cuts to expire.  This amounts to an increase in the minds of everyone being taxed because those in power had the ability to stop it but didn’t.

The tax cuts aren’t really my problem however.  I really couldn’t care less.  I don’t make enough money that it would affect me directly either way.  A majority of economists say that the best way to keep the economy going is to extend the cuts for everyone.  If that’s what the experts’ opinion is, then I’m fine with listening to the experts.  Again, it doesn’t matter much to me either way it goes.

What is driving me nuts is the game that democrats are playing with this issue and every other issue that they haven’t been able to get their way with.  They are blaming republicans for obstructing the vote.  Any time a bill doesn’t look likely to pass, the democrats have whined that the republicans won’t play nice and therefore they aren’t even going to try to bring the bill to a vote. 

First of all, is the American public so dense that we can’t do math?  Democrats have majorities in both houses of Congress and we have a democratic president.  This means that any bill with democratic support should be passed.  If it fails it is because not even all democrats support it.  In the Senate there is the threat of a republican filibuster because there are not 60 democrats to break it.  But most of these issues that are being complained about do not even have the threat of being filibustered.  All the democrats have to do is bring the issue to a vote and they win.

At the least, the democrats could bring the issue to a vote and allow our representatives to say yes or no.  If the republicans stand together and manage to actually block passage on something, then the democrats would have the right to complain about blocking progress.  But instead they are complaining before a single vote has been cast.

The game that the democrats are playing is to get the best out of both worlds.  If they take a vote on a bill and it loses, they have the stigma of being unable to pass the bill.  Yes they can blame the republicans for blocking it but they are still the ones who were unable to deliver when push came to shove.  But if they sit on the bill they can blame republicans for blocking it while not having the stigma of losing the vote.  Later if they get the bill passed, they can claim how they overcame all of the republican opposition to the issue.  (And pay close attention to the vote.  It will be something like 59-41 or 58-42.  The exact same result as would have occurred before because no republican still voted for it.)

I think this game is insulting to the American people.  Fortunately the only people who are likely going to get riled up about the republicans “blocking” issues will be people likely to vote democrat anyway.  I hope in November that we have massive turnover in DC because it is clear that what we have is not working.  President Obama campaigned on a platform of change.  Yes, he’s had a lot to deal with but so has every president.  I’m not seeing the change I expected and I don’t believe that too many others are either.  If we want change, it will have to start with the American public demanding it.

After a couple of months off during a tumultuous summer I am back to doing web projects.  While I fear that I am never going to complete all of my projects I keep coming up with new ideas.  Fortunately I have a lot better follow through with my Christian related sites and ideas than I do with any other projects.

My newest project is up and running already.  Fortunately it is designed to be quickly expandable and relies on the questions of other Christians.  Bible Questions and Answers is designed to answer the questions of Christians about what it means to be a Christian, issues of theology, questions about passages in the Bible, and just about anything else that people come up with.

I got this idea from another pastor who did a sermon series based on questions from people in the church.  I’m doing the same thing in October at my church and I’m using the questions submitted as a starter for the site.  I figure if people from my church are asking these question, lots of of Christians must be asking the same questions.  So a new site was born.

I’m also working on another site which I hope to have up in a relatively short amount of time.  I could have things up this week if I have a good week or I might get distracted.  I have everything I need, I just need to do some time intensive work of copying from notes to the site.  After that it will be very low maintenance which is something I really like for websites.

Labor Day marks the unofficial end of summer and I must say that this summer can’t be over soon enough now.  What began as a summer full of excitement quickly turned to frustration and despair.  Beginning around the 4th of July weekend my wife starting getting sick with her pregnancy.  As basically every woman in my church tried to reassure me, every woman goes through varying degrees of morning sickness.  Unfortunately I’ve also discovered that this is practically a competition among women to say who had the worst morning sickness.

While morning sickness was definitely a factor this was not my wife’s only problem and for the entire month I couldn’t leave her alone.  Despite the fact that I work from my home office, this caused some people to accuse me of not doing my full job.  I will always maintain that as much as I love the church, my wife comes first.  In fact if I can’t take care of my family, I’m not much of a pastor because the church structure (at least ideally) is based on the family model.  While other people take days off to tend to sick children, spouses, or parents, unless I take an entire week off, my workload doesn’t decrease.  No one accepts the excuse of “that was my day off” for not being visited in the hospital or being tended to for whatever their problem is.

July ended with my wife having a miscarriage.  We were assured by the doctors that it had nothing to do with my wife being sick and nothing that either of us did, these things just happen and unfortunately quite often.  Nevertheless, this does little to dull the pain.  Three other pastors failed in offering any words of comfort during this time – one actually made me feel worse after the fact.  The truth is that there are no true words of comfort to offer in such a time.  Others who have gone through the experience can sympathize a bit more but still I believe that each experience is very personal.

One thing that I can offer to anyone trying to console someone else going through the pain of miscarriage is to never pretend like the child is replaceable and the woman will be pregant again in no time.  While we had no trouble getting pregnant I’ve seen that many who have had heartbreaking miscarriages also had trouble getting pregnant in the first place, sometimes taking years.  Beyond that a child is not replaceable.  It does not matter if the parents never got to know their child, from the moment they found out they were pregnant they had hopes and dreams for the child and all of those dreams died with that child.  Telling a grieving parent that they will be pregnant again soon is like telling a grieving spouse that they will find someone else and get remarried soon.  There is no replacement.  Even though people mean well in saying it, they really aren’t words of comfort.

After two months – one month of tending to my wife and another of picking up the pieces – life is starting to return to normal a bit.  My wife and I are strong and with God’s help we will make it through this.  The week after the miscarriage I was able to stand in front of my church and say that despite all that had happened, God is still good and He’s still with us.  I know that I’m the exception but I have never questioned why God allowed this to happen or became angry or complained that it was unfair.  I have repeatedly told people that God did not abandon them in times or trial nor fail them when their prayers weren’t answered the way they hoped.  I not only have to believe this as well, I truly do believe it.

And so life goes on.  I don’t know precisely what life holds in store for us right now.  I certainly don’t know precisely why this happened, only that my wife and I are going to be stronger from the experience.  Right now I’m using the changing of the seasons to put a symbolic close to a very difficult and painful season of my life.  And I know that a month from now and a year from now I will still be able to say as I do today that God is still good despite all that has taken place.