Post-Election Reconcilliation In Action with a Side Order of Christianity

Other than reading about Elizabeth Edwards being diagnosed with cancer, we made a fairly conscious effort to not listen to any of the news shows while we were out of town. Burnout from the election, anger and disappointment over a too-quickly made concession and "voter irregularities" (see below) had just done us in for a while.

On Sunday morning we watched C-SPAN while we were packing. They were doing a call-in show asking people what they thought about the elections, intersperced with interview questions for their guests. The Republican guest's overall attitude seemed to be that the Repubicans had won and that future reconcilliation needed to be made by the Democrats adopting a more Republican outlook on things.

This sat about as well with us as the fact that our Kerry/Edwards bumper stickers were torn off of our car over the weekend while we were gone. I saw it as a post-election reaching out to the other side version of "Think Globally, Act Locally."

One woman called in from an economically depressed town about an hour or so north from where we live in NC. Her comments started out well enough but ended up being like a Sunday church service, praising and thanking God that she lives in a Red State.

I'm a Christian, but I'm also one that believes that God loves us all, favors no one religion over another, and that Christ's enduring message was to take the complexities of the Ten Commandments and distill them down to their essence:

"'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, `Love your neighbor as yourself.' " Luke 10:27

While these may sound like simple ideas, they're really more difficult to live than they seem. For me, they call us to not only be less egotistical and more open and giving, but, recognizing the egotism in all of us, to treat others as we want to be treated.

Sadly, IMHO, there are far too many people who profess to be Christians who forget this basic core concept behind Christianity.

Case in point:

In today's "The Morning Call", a Philly-area paper online there's a letter to the editor that

"I hope the election of George W. Bush is seen as a wake-up call to all the liberal Democrats who oppose God's will.

It is His doing that George W. Bush is still our president. Millions of born-again Christians helped win this election through our prayers and votes. Jesus speaks through the Republicans.

The Democrats will not be able to win elections until they renounce their sinful ways and stop encouraging abortions, gayness, and trying to take away our guns."

When I was a kid the church we went to had regular folk masses. One of the songs we used to sing had the chorus:

And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love
Yes they'll know we are Christians by our love.

It's something that's stuck with me throughout the years. The simple "instructions" of the Bible are to Love God and Love Each Other and we're supposed to live and act like it.

And I am continually confused and disappointed by people who call themselves Christians in one breath and yet espouse hate, in any form, in the next.

I'll be including the author this letter and those like him in my prayers. I hope he will appreciate the prayers for compassion.

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