Judicial Nominees and Rebecca St. James

"Ed Rock" wrote:
And I can't apologize for expressing my views. I consider it a moral
duty. I just challenge people who claim they vote conservative because of
their Christian beliefs to read the book in which the evolution of their
faith is recorded rather than taking the words of George W. Bush, Pat
Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Ralph Reed, and their minions as the Gospel.

I so much wish I had more time for this, but I guess I did express my
overall point so I can leave it with that and a summary. All that you've
written about your views of the Bush administration, about what you consider
lies and grave policy errors, about how your theological views don't match
those of a great deal of evangelical christians, etc, etc, can be debated.
We could all debate until the cattle on our Father's thousand hills come
home. You think you're right, they thingk they're right. However... the
point I'm making here is not to debate your views verses mine, or the left
verses the right, or certain christian beliefs verses other christian
beliefs. What I'm saying is that *while two sides very obviously completely
disagree,* we are still brothers and sisters in Christ. We are one body,
and one purpose of the individual members of the body of Christ is to build
each other up. I don't see much of that from *either* side when it comes to
"reaching across the aisle." BTW, that phrase was a reference to what John
Kerry said in his concession speech.

Indeed you can't apologize for expressing your views, and don't need to.
That is what makes this country so very great. You can speak up. You can
vote. You can campaign. You can take part in the process. Etc. But
*despite* who is in office, you have more freedom in Christ than you will
ever have in this world. The problem I have with what I've seen you write,
I guess, is that you come across as very self-righteous about your views.
You are right, and the fundamental right-wing Christians are wrong. They
are liars, hypocrites, greedy, immoral, bigoted, etc, etc, etc. *You* have
the goods on the right gospel message. They are wrong, wrong, wrong, and
since you study the Bible you are right, right, right. In that sense, I see
you coming across as no better than, oh, say, someone else in this newsgroup
who thinks he's right about everything. My point here isn't to put you
down for your beliefs, but to say that we as Christians can and do disagree
on many issues, but there are better ways to get our ideas out that to put
each other down. I'm passionate about this, as I used to be in-your-face
with my views and everyone else was wrong. But now I listen to where other
people are coming from. I put myself in their shoes. I can understand
where they're coming from, even if I don't agree with them and think they're
totally whacked out. I meet them where they're at, and I understand that
*I* see dimly as through a glass just as much as I think they do. One day I
think we will *all* be surprised at how wrong we were about some things and
about how right others were about some things. The best antidote to that in
this current life is to put love above all our disagreements. I'm not
saying to not voice our disagreements, but to do it in love.

Paul went through hell for speaking up for Christ. He was beaten, he took
the 39 lashes several times, he ended his life in house arrest... but he
considered himself free, and he praised and gave glory to God through all
circumstances. No matter who is in office, Bush or Kerry, democrats or
republicans, conservatives or liberals, we should all, as one body, lift up
the name of Jesus and be as one. It starts with those who know to do that.
My purpose here, I guess, is to throw that up in the air and see if anyone
is willing to catch it.

-Breeze