I've been really busy.  I started a new blog for a local cable channel, and I've been working to keep that fresh.  You may check it out here.  It's different from my other writing in that I avoid analysis and extended opinion and try to stay spiritually upbeat.

I haven't been to excited about the election, mostly just bored with it.  I did write about change, last week, and today about the First Amendment.  Anyone with any sense knows that unspecified change or change just to change is stupid.  A good many people actually find change rather threatening; humans generally like stability and familiarity.  Change, in this case, is really just a code word for "get rid of Bush!"  That change will happen in a few months, regardless, and John McCain is clearly not George Bush, not matter how the Democrats or the Obama campaign try to make it so.

My point is that change is already happening, and many of the changes are not good.  Even those with good intentions often lead to unintended consequences.  The bigger and more powerful the government the greater the chance for good intentions to cause negative results.  We don't need any more of that!

I doubt I have anything really new to say about the First Amendment.  Perhaps a few people will read and understand, for the first time, just how important these freedoms are.  I heard someone remarking, just the other day, that places like France and Great Britain already have less free speech, less free media, and less freedom in general than we do here.  Government tends to want to prevent criticism; big government, and ours has become immense, despises critics.  If we don't rise up as a nation of citizen activists and demand they stop messing with our freedoms, we simply won't have them.

Why are these matters important?  For me, one very important reason is my desire to influence my community and world with the love of Jesus Christ.  The culture wars, the war on terror, and conservative political activism have led to the charge that Christians want a theocracy.  I doubt that very much, except in the rarest cases.  The Bible is so clear.  The power of our faith is in love, love like what Paul describes in I Corinthians 13.  Commands like the greatest one--love God with all your being and love our neighbor as yourself--directly counter any sort of Christian oppression or domination; a person who attempted to amass earthly power would be ignoring Zechariah 4:6, which says we aren't to operate by power but by God's spirit.

What I sought to do in my Love Challenge was to amplify Paul's words to give them a fresh sense, especially for those who have heard this passage for many years.  Someone I knew, read this piece when I wrote it, a good many years ago and contacted me to say that it spoke about a love that was totally unfamiliar.  This person asked for help to understand and come to love, like this.  It's isn't easy.  As I edited it, I was convicted by my own words.  People who love like this will never be a threat to anyone else's freedom, even if their choices are self-destructive.