Bits, pieces, chunks and slabs

I am a Christian and I am, without reservation, voting for Hillary Clinton for president. My spiritual views drive my political views – not vice versa. Clinton’s faith, and the values she espouses, derive from her life-long Methodism: service to others, uplifting the downtrodden. She has worked to better the lives of women, children and the poor – all of us – things that, I believe, via scripture and study, is what Christ would have us do. It is my belief that she is the most genuine and authentic Christian currently running for the presidency. Is Secretary Clinton completely altruistic? No, but then, nobody is. Is she a flawed human being? Yes, we all are, and this is where my support for Clinton as president strengthens. Clinton’s Christian views on being a flawed person in need of grace contrast sharply with the lack of humility displayed by Donald Trump, a man who has publically proclaimed he has never asked God for forgiveness. I personally cannot, in good conscience, vote for someone who, while professing their Christianity, essentially shrugs his shoulders at one of the primary tenets (seeking forgiveness) of our supposed shared faith. For most of my adult life, I have attended Methodist churches, and I believe in my understanding of Wesleyan principles, beginning with “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you ever can” and I believe Clinton’s foundational basis of those principles in her public and private life. I also admire Hillary Clinton for the way she embodies another one of Christ’s central teachings; to turn the other cheek. With all of the insults, attacks, and indignities she has publically endured for the past three decades of public life, she has done an exemplary job of moving forward, in direct contrast to her primary opponent, Mr. Trump, who has unabashedly and vociferously attacked anyone who has spoken out against him. Clinton has, by her public words and actions, shown love to her enemies, not hatred. Has she been able to accomplish this completely, in all situations? Certainly not. Again, as she understands, we all fall short. If a potential leader I am going to be voting for is going to state that they are a Christian, I expect them to adhere to behavior – words and actions – that reflect our shared faith. On most counts, in my estimation, Hilary Clinton tries her best to do just that on a daily basis. She favors forgiveness over vindictiveness She works to make life better for the least of us. Her faith is played out not in public pronouncements, but in ongoing, daily works. There is a strong social justice tradition in the Methodist church, and I believe that Hillary. Clinton’s foundational beliefs of equality for all and care for those less fortunate are indeed Christ like, and serve her well in her role as a public servant. I appreciate that she prays regularly, with a trusted group of pastors and lay people. Her personal, more private approach to faith differs sharply with many of the more vocal members of the Christian community, but I see Clinton’s approach as much more biblical – straight out of Matthew 6: 5-6 5’And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.’ This approach to Christian faith by those in the public eye is important to me; if you are going to espouse the views and claim the faith, you should practice it. Your vocal, angry pontificating and vilifying (especially of other Christians) is not at al helpful, and certainly, in my opinion, not Christ-like - in great contrast to what others of the faith might have you believe. I know a lot of Methodists: not one of them has implored me to vote for Clinton with the admonition that my soul is at stake should I not vote for her. Some will say that a candidate’s support of a certain issue is enough for them to vote against that person, but I cannot, in good conscience, agree with that approach: our nation is too diverse, our society and issues too complex, for me to base my support of a presidential candidate on a solitary issue. To those who say that her support of a woman’s right to choose is wrong, I can only say that, as Christians, our approach to issues of morality are rarely accomplished through legislative means. To those who say that her approach to immigration reform is wrong, I see nothing Christ-like in mass deportations and tearing apart families. To those who which to single out those of other faiths, I think first of the book of Exodus, and G-d’s words on ‘strangers in a strange land’. To those who say her support of Gay rights is wrong, I can only say, G-d created all of us – in his image. Is it at all Christian to devote so much time and energy to railing against the small percentage of the population that has abortions while ignoring the millions of Americans who live in poverty, the millions of children who are homeless, and hungry? I believe that Hilary Clinton’s faith-based approach to governance that is far more ‘we and us’ than ‘they and them’ is indeed the path we, as a nation and as people of faith, should be following. There are those Christians who will be angry with me and my support of a candidate they deem, for whatever reasons, to be very un-Christian. This will be my opportunity to practice turning the other cheek. “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.” Prayerfully yours, Mark Lucker 11/05/16

I admire Colin Kaepernick. If you are waiting for a ‘but’ to be affixed to this statement, you might want to move on, because there is no ‘but’ here. I admire the man for a lot of reasons – mostly because of the way he has handled being a person of faith in the public eye, but also because when he became engulfed in controversy he didn’t do what a lot of people in similar situations do: give a half-hearted, insincere apology OR simply backtrack on his beliefs. He has also refused to lash out at people attacking him, which I believe stems in part from his Christian faith. To me, turning the other cheek is admirable. If you think I am totally off-base with the paragraph above, please continue reading with an open mind and heart. A few years back, when Kaepernick was a second year player who led his team to the Super Bowl, he got a lot of media attention because of his openness about his Christian faith – both vocally, and physically, in regards to his tattoos. This is from a 'Christianity Today' article from 2013: "So, when he chose to tattoo his upper body, he chose Bible verses. According to Sports Illustrated, the psalms tattooed on Kaepernick's arms are all about his competitive instinct. The verses include Psalm 27:3,which says, "Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then I will be confident." On the other arm is Psalm 18:39, which reads, "You armed me with strength for battle;you humbled my adversaries before me." Kaepernick also explained his tattoos to sports reporter and former NFL quarterback Kurt Warner: "My first tattoo was a scroll on my right arm, Psalm 18:39...It's just my way of showing everybody that this is what I believe in." There are plenty of other examples of Kaepernick publically putting his faith out there, easily found via Google. But then this season he began protesting the treatment of people of color by kneeling during the national anthem before his team’s games, and people had a lot to say about the man, his patriotism, his faith, his family…and yet he has stayed above all of that, and has not wavered (near as I can tell) from his obviously strongly held beliefs. To me, as a Christian and as a man, this holding-firm should be celebrated. Unfortunately, a lot of Christians don’t see it the same way, and have made Kaepernick the object of all sorts of scorn and ridicule. How do I know this? All I needed to do was click on my Facebook feed every morning. It was quite obvious that I have a lot of friends who were not happy with Kaepernick’s choice of protest. Fair enough, as one of our greatest freedoms as American’s is the right to dissent. Most disturbing to me, tough, were the Christians I know who took this issue and made it a deeply personal, and at time profane, attack on a man who did something they didn’t agree with. A person who shared their faith. I knew a lot of the nastiness I was seeing directed at Kaepernick was coming from people who, often in a post right before or after a tersely-worded, anti-Kaepernick meme of some sort, had some Biblical quote or meme quoting a religious figure, or preaching tolerance. Most of these people I know well enough to have a pretty solid view of their faith, based on both public and personal, private interactions. People's professed beliefs and their actions weren’t matching up well for me. As an English teacher, I appreciate irony. As a Christian, I question how you can hold a man up as a strong, Christian role model… …until he espouses a political viewpoint you disagree with? I have all sorts of problems with this concept, as a Christian and as an American. From a practical standpoint, I was always taught (at home and in school) the adage or ideas attributed to Voltaire: ‘‘I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. As Americans, we pay lip-service to that idea, and when we do abide by it, it is usually with an added dose of disapproval, anger or snarkiness. Welcome to the Internet age. As Christians, though, how can we justify this sort of thing? My initial views on the Kaepernick issue haven’t rely changed, as I knew his backstory of his faith, and how he approaches it. But the more I see the blowback from Christians, bashing other Christians, I began to admire the man even more. Along with stuff coming from people I know to be public Christians because of my personal relationship to them, I had the uneasy feeling that most of the nastier memes on the Kaepernick issue I was seeing came from, or were tied to, some sort of stated ‘Christian’ viewpoint. Most of them had an easily tracible backstory of their own, and sadly, it didn’t take very long to prove my theory, and lead me down the rabbit hole of intermixed faith and politics. Yuck. Another irony? I am guessing that most of the people upset with Mr. Kaepernick for his stand have an immigrant background of some sort. It is worth noting that, in all likelihood, at least some of their immigrant ancestors came here precisely because they were not allowed the right of dissent in their land of origin. Or, they were persecuted in some way because of their religious beliefs. Or some combination of the two. To those (Christian) people who express their displeasure of a fellow (Christian) man I ask: does your faith drive your political beliefs, or do your political beliefs drive your faith? There is a difference. One of the biggest I can imagine.

I stopped counting the number of people on Facebook asking over the past few days where 'respect for the American flag' has gone. I think I can explain. We have learned to treat the flag just like any other corporate logo floating around out there. You may think I am being flippant, but I am not. Take a look at the pictures below. Respect the flag? You want to talk about respect, dignity, and honor for a symbol of our country, fine. But...I need something in return. Stop slapping it across your ass, your cleavage, significant other, partner, your children, yourself... ...just like any other corporate logo for any other old product. If you want to wear the flag like anything pictured below, I do NOT have a problem with that choice. But, if you wear, or support wearing, such clothing, you have absolutely NO credibility with me to talk about 'respecting' the American flag. None. Nada. Zilch. Don't even. Where has the respect gone? It's probably stashed in a closet or dresser drawer somewhere. - Mark L. Lucker

Here is how this ‘I-feel-safer-the-more-people-have-guns’ situation works for me: I am walking through Target, and some guy has an AK-47 strapped to his back. I do not know if he is friend-or-foe, and I sure as hell am not going to ask. Another guy sees the AK-47 guy, also doesn’t know if the guy is friend or foe, takes out his Glock and shoots the Ak-47 guy. Now I feel safer. Except…. I don’t know if the guy with the Glock is friend-or-foe, but should I assume friend, since he took care of the guy with the AK I definitely didn’t trust? Then another guy, a little older, who has seen this all go down, steps out from aisle 12, housewares, and pulls out an old Smith & Wesson snub-nosed .38 and puts down the guy with the Glock who took out the AK guy, and now I feel safer. Because he is a good guy. He carried a good, old fashioned piece of American weaponry. Just like Sam Spade used to do. I trust his judgement, and now I feel safe, because that was a real American in action! That IS how this whole ‘I-feel-safer-the-more-people-have-guns’ situation works, right?

Another mass shooting, another round of politicians on both sides accusing the other of making it a ‘political’ issue. Of course this is political issue. Our citizens keeping getting slaughtered, communities traumatized and yet we do nothing to change the situation, to fix the myriad problems that combine to create mass-murder scenarios in America. But damn, we can all talk a good game about the ‘rights’ of gun owners and mentally ill people, paying little attention to the rights of victims and other innocents. But the most galling thing to me as a Christian is, when people want to tie up all their rhetoric about gun rights, gun laws and freedom with G-d, at least implying some sort of godly, moral imperative to having weapons floating around just because…why? If we truly are a nation of Judeo-Christian values (as most of the Pharisees running for president and other elective offices, top-to-bottom keep trying to remind us) than I would think we would, as a culture and a people, spend a lot less time preaching the second amendment, and far more time heeding the second commandment: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me"