So we've got all this hub-bub going on tonight/tomorrow(/forever) in the U.S. about who will be the "leader" of the country for the next four years. Over the last few years it's gotten increasingly frustrating for me to look at my facebook feed because all I see is people bicker and argue over who should lead who (if you didn't get that reference you're missing out on life). Especially this year, it's come to a head where I got an email from my mom where she shared a post that basically said it was my "Christian duty" to vote. I can't say I'm surprised I got this email, but it just hit me in a different way than it has before when I opened the email and followed the link... like my mom has finally registered that I refuse to vote, yet she's sending me emails with articles explaining why I HAVE to. The worst part about it was that the only two things that are discussed as to why I need to vote is 1) "religious liberty" and 2) abortion. Now don't get me wrong, I'm all for religious liberty, I think all people should have the freedom to worship they way they desire. The problem is, most conservative Christian people that talk about their freedoms being trampled are often the same that complain about "another mosque" going up. How can you cry for the freedom to express your religion and turn around and deny others that same liberty, even if you only do it in thought and not with a government ordinance? Nor am I interested in seeing babies aborted, but if G-d gave people the choice to disobey Him how can I expect an entity I don't agree with to enforce a particular set of beliefs on people who may not agree? The whole thought-process of conservative minarchists baffles me to no end. I see people waving the Gadsden and declaring their support for a government entity that will outlaw abortions. So... you don't want the government to tread on you but you're more than willing to use the government to tread on someone else? How does this work? Do these people not see the discrepancy(hypocrisy) there?
My wife was even asked today by someone whether we actually believed we shouldn't have a president. I suggested my wife express the concept of the NAP (in not so many words) but it's so had to summarize the idea that coercing people who have a different opinion than yours is wrong in a facebook comment section. Thinking about how to help her respond to the question got my brain going nuts. I have this tendency to learn about a new idea and follow it as far down its rabbit hole as I can. When I started to dissent form my "conservative" Christian upbringing I drove myself to study more and more about what I now claimed to believe. I'm still trying to figure out all the minutiae of my own belief system, and some times it really drives me crazy. I sometimes worry if I will ever actually find a definitive structure for my beliefs or if I'll continue looking even though I've become stabilized. All of this studying and reading and researching has led me to a very open-minded almost completely un-Christian Christianity.
I'm sorry this is pretty random and probably a bit incoherent, but I'm sitting at home listening to a record, drinking my tea and getting frustrated about all the "get out and vote" crap splattered all over the youtube homepage. There's a part of me that's concerned about what's going to happen over the next few months. There's also a much bigger part of me that knows it won't matter. Whoever ends up president elect, they'll still only be a person. They'll have faults and failings and they'll still be a creation of G-d. My faith is not in any of the candidates or their policies or the system they represent. I just want to see people treat each other well and not wait for big brother to tell them how to do so.
Anyway, I figured I'd also share a wallpaper I made up a few years ago...
Also, if you're interested in rocking out to some awesome Christian Anarchist rock with me you can check out Showbread's "I'm Afraid That I am Me". It's from their album Cancer which was written as a whole rock opera about the concept of Christian Anarchy...
Lyrics:
The world is sick and all of us in it
So fight the cancer
Fight the cancer
Don't bow your head to it
The world is sick but it won't die from it
So fight the cancer
Fight the cancer
Don't bow your head to it
I'm afraid that I am me
And I had no say in this
I dare to be self-aware when ignorance is bliss
I never do the things i want
I do what i don't want to
I'm fortified for treachery and hopelessly untrue
Remember when we were all small?
With stained-glass windows stretched up the walls
We listened to words we could not understand
As they echoed through the church halls
They stacked us up conveniently
And fed us from their tables
They deduced what we should know
Because we weren't able
And as we grow we feel we know
The truth of where we've been
Satiated by their oaths
Dragged on the heels of holy men
Lately I have found frustration among the incongruence
A movement of peasants and pacifists drowning in patriotic affluence
I feel as though I should do something but I'm staggered by the ramifications
They've baptized the empire into the church and heralded its sanctification
Sometimes I feel as though I'm taking place outside of myself
But I'm afraid that I am me
I am me
I'm me
I'm me
"Blessed are the meek" succumbs to "might makes right"
"Turn the other cheek" succumbs to "pre-emptive strike"
"Love your enemies" is fossilized beneath the frozen tundra
And "blessed are the poor in spirit" is devoured by "god bless america"
You file the children into the classrooms, make them stand and say an oath
And when we ask "should I love G-d or my country?"
You smile and tell us "both."
We've hidden the god we claim we serve and driven him beneath the floorboards
But I can still hear this still, small voice
And I can't take it anymore
"Stop trusting other people to save you. Do not think too highly of them; they are only humans who have not stopped breathing yet." ~Isaiah 2:22
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You're not alone! I could say a lot, but simply, you're not alone is probably the best. Upvoted and followed. I understand the path that you are one.
Cool, thanks. I know I'm in good company with a lot of the Steemit community (that's a big part of why I made this post) but it's always nice to get individual words of encouragement. :-)