You don't have to read between the lines...

A few observations after this Tuesday's election results...

The Republican Party leadership now states that it has a mandate from the people to make big changes to government since they have now taken control of the House of Representatives. But when some Democrats made a similar claim in 2008, Republicans said that wasn't true - so how do you get it both ways? Especially considering the closeness of many of the races?

In 2008, young adults made up 18 percent of the voters, while in 2010, they were 10 percent. So are they telling us they can't be bothered to vote unless it's "exciting" or "cool" as when the first African-American had the chance to be president?

And in the same vein, the biggest groups influencing this year's election were white males and older adults. Considering the approach taken in the various contests where fear and anger were emphasized, I guess that white males and older adults are the most frightened by the current state of our country. As if I should be surprised by that...

And the number one issue that concerned voters in this election - the economy. Now the weird part about that is that a number of polls showed voters thinking that President Obama was doing the right things to improve the economy, but it just wasn't improving fast enough. Do we really have an electorate made up of over-grown children? I have to wonder when we expect situations that took a long time to develop to be fixed overnight. No one seemed to care when the economy was slowly going downhill under President Bush - oh, wait, that's right, we were more scared of terrorists then than we were of the economy. Until it tanked, that is.

And all of those people talking about "Obamacare"...it's funny, but I know quite a number of people who have benefited from changes in health care thanks to the reforms passed under the Obama administration. And the Congressional Budget Office still says that it will end up reducing health care costs. So tell me again how bad this is...

Whether people want to admit it or not, the ruling this year by the Supreme Court basically saying that "corporations" have the same rights as individuals influenced the election to a degree never seen before. HUGE amounts of money influenced many state elections. It must be the American way - if you can afford to buy it, it's OK. But we have allowed our government to be bought by the highest bidder.

Finally, for all of my fellow Christians who voted (or didn't vote) in this election...what are we thinking? The number one issued addressed by the teachings of Jesus in the Bible concerns money and especially inequity. I'm tired of hearing about how we're falling into a socialist trap. Our country has the biggest gap between rich and poor that it has ever seen and yet we keep hearing how the wealthy need tax relief so they can use their wealth to create jobs. How did that work the last time we tried that? Anyone remember the "trickle down" theory of economics promoted by President Reagan's man David Stockton? The "trickling down" wasn't exactly money...and as Christians who tell me how the Bible is the Word of God, without any mistakes or errors, then how do we ignore Paul's letter to the church in Corinth when he wrote,

"Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. ¹⁴ At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. The goal is equality, ¹⁵ as it is written: “The one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little.” (2 Cor. 8:13-15 -NIV)

I guess that part about taking up Jesus' cross and following him doesn't extend to helping those less fortunate unless it's relatively painless. I couldn't help but think of this when some of the people elected to office, when pressed on the issue of how they would cut back on government spending, finally admitted that they would target social programs. Good luck, America...

God of the Hillside

As pastors, my wife and I live in a church “manse,” a house owned by the church in which the pastor lives while serving that congregation. Ours is a beautiful old 3-story home, built in 1872. In between the church and the house is an equally historic cemetery. The well-groomed cemetery is separated from the house by a hillside that is covered with trees and brush and is home to a family of deer during the summer and foxes and squirrels and groundhogs the whole year long.

I’ve decided that if these woodland creatures have any concept of a higher power, it is

probably similar to that of many Christians. That holds especially true of the squirrels. Knowing that we have so many animals living right next to our house, we often toss bits of fruits or vegetables or breads up on the hillside, instead of throwing them away. When our Halloween pumpkins are done, we toss them on the hill; if grapes, apples or oranges start to spoil, they get tossed on the hill. Stale cookies or bread, up they go to the hill. And in a very short while, you’ll see the squirrels appear from everywhere, gathering food as quickly as it was tossed on the hillside.

There’s one other thing that ends up on the hillside – dog poop. We have two dogs, a Black Lab and a small dog of indeterminate breeding. They generate the usual amount of dog poop and, having grown up in farm country in the Midwest, I tend to just scoop it up out of the yard and toss it back into nature – right there on the hillside. So I imagine that the squirrels must think there is some deity out there, sometimes tossing gifts of fruit and vegetables and at other times, throwing some poop into their lives. Do they wonder what they’ve done to deserve either? Do the squirrels wonder what they’ve done wrong when the poop starts to fly? Do they reflect on what they could have done better so that the “God of the hillside” wouldn’t poop on them? When the fruit and vegetables come raining down, do they congratulate themselves, thinking they’ve finally lived the kind

of “squirrel life” they were supposed to?

Or maybe the squirrels say to themselves, “Well, I don’t know where this poop is coming from, but it must be part of God’s plan for us. The poop is being thrown at us to test us. God surely won’t give us more poop than we can handle.” Does any of this sound familiar? I’m really not making fun of people’s faith, but I do have to wonder what we base some of our beliefs on – maybe nothing more than some random instances of gifts and poop. After all, sometimes “poop” happens – all on its own, not God-sent.