Politics and Preaching, Gotta love it! or not?

There are a lot of people that like to say, "Don't you just hate politics?" My wife would be a good example of that. When we were getting serious in our relationship, she said she did not want to be married to a preacher or a politician. I took that to be in a formal sense, because I have known since high school that you have to preach to be heard and everything is political on some level (like it or not).

Preaching

I do like to share ideas ( the architect side and the writer side) but I don't want to be preachy. My rules on sharing ideas is simple: I share them. You can take them or leave them.

(The reason I am self employed is so that I can keep some ideas at play. When I teach a class, I am uncomfortable to be called a teacher. the spot I want to occupy is that of sharing ideas and challenging thought. What those in the "Class" get to of it is up to them. When I share ideas, it really does not hurt me if you don't like them. I may have to let someone's idea win out. I can live with that. Note: My MAJOR pet peeve is people who try to cram an idea down my throat and expect me to agree. THAT JUST DOES NOT WORK WITH ME. I can get very cranky and more than a little combative!

Politics

Politics is a competitive sport. For me to get a job as an architect, there's politics. Much Politics. I don't have OSU decals on my car. I would like to, but I have lost work because an OU fan Client thinks less of me. Politics. I interview for a church project. I will tell them that I am a Christian, but I do not say, "I'm Church of Christ." Why? Because that means something to the listener that gets in the way of being heard as an architect! Politics! They say, "Well you don't know anything about Choirs and Music do you?" Politics. I play it everyday.

I play it at church too. This is the part that I dislike but became good at it. The one place I should be safe, I am not. I know it and I deal with it. Jesus had to! Example: My name has been suggested to be an elder in our church something that I did for 8 years before taking a year off! We are in a period of the church deciding if I really should be. Yesterday, I got an email from a lady in our church that wanted me to answer ONE QUESTION. Mike, are you for or against abortion? She stated that she was a one issue person and bases her view of a person's character and morals on this one question. She said she would vote for me based on this question and seemed to say that she would want the church to know my response. At first I was surprised. When I was an elder about three years ago, she met with me and another elder to ask that same question! She seemed satisfied then, but that was then, this is politics. I honored her with the same answer as before and reminded her that she had asked me before.

She remembered, but so what. In my response I told her that it is a mistake to be a one issue person. My example was the person that murdered the abortionist in Kansas. He also is against abortion! Politics. I think I passed but she could have tripped me up if she had asked another question like, .......... I'm not saying.........Politics!

There is a side of me that really, really, would like to be at the State capitol mixing it up. To do that I would have had to keep a lot of things to myself over the years and not make waves and not make people mad and not say what I'm thinking. Too late for that!

Some great quotes about politics:

"Politics is a jungle---torn between doing the right thing and staying in office." JFK

"He knows nothing and thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career."

George Bernard Shaw

"Every time we have an election, we get in worse men and the country keeps right on going. Times have proven only one thing and that is you can't ruin this country even with politics."

Will Rogers