When I started blogging, nearly 3 years ago, I wanted to change things by influencing the way people think.  I spent nearly15 years in radio and longer in personal peacemaking, and my desire isn't to express my own anger, stir things up, or join a mob of unhappy dissidents.  I am as persuaded today as then that we need a better way to work things out than most of the methods we use.  Our American culture has become hostile and oppositional in the extreme; even our elections "go negative" despite promises to the contrary.  Some would say this is because negativity works; certainly the media have learned that it sells.  Still I believe that many would prefer a more constructive, thoughtful approach.

Unfortunately, many of us no longer know how to be "thoughtful."  Rational thinking and analysis are largely neglected skills; people have learned to live in the moment, encouraged toward immediate gratification by many powerful voices in our lives, none more significant than commercial advertising that says, "You need this now!"  Merchants promote impulse buying, news fosters the idea that we need moment by moment news coverage, and Hollywood and Nashville entertain us with the message, "Do what you feel; never deny your feelings."  If only schools still provided a truly "liberal education" as described by Thomas Huxley:  "That man, I think, has had a liberal education who has been so trained in youth that his body is the ready servant of his will, and does with ease and pleasure all the work that, as a mechanism, it is capable of; whose intellect is a clear, cold, logic engine, with all its parts of equal strength, and in smooth working order; ready, like a steam engine, to be turned to any kind of work, and spin the gossamers as well as forge the anchors of the mind; whose mind is stored with a knowledge of the great and fundamental truths of Nature and of the laws of her operations; one who, no stunted ascetic, is full of life and fire, but whose passions are trained to come to heel by a vigorous will, the servant of a tender conscience; who has learned to love all beauty, whether of Nature or of art, to hate all vileness, and to respect others as himself."

Knowing that God created Man in his own image, making him a rational creature, giving him a purpose, and filling him with a need to be goal-oriented, much of the dissatisfaction and malaise that people feel arises from a failure to express and utilize this aspect of his nature. Men and women strive to be happy and fail as a result.  They use "sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll" to numb this sense that something is missing.  I believe we have the opportunity to help them discover a better way to live if we can learn to reach them where they live.

This sense allows me to be optimistic about the future.  It helps knowing that this is a God-given task, the work of evangelism, and one he promises to bless.  I am encouraged because times of suffering and loss prepare people to consider a different source of well-being than their immediate disappointing circumstances.  Right now, many who opposed Barack Obama are disappointed, worried, and even afraid.  In the not too distant future, many of those who supported him will be disappointed and disillusioned; other will hope against hope.  The reality is that no one could live up to the hype of that campaign, but it will be interesting to see if he even tries.

As I think over what I have been writing, recently, I see several themes.  I decided to use my newest blog for a local Christian cable channel to focus on "good news,"exploring the broad message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  It has proven an interesting challenge to find a positive, hopeful focus and post something fresh and thoughtful at a minimum of several times each week.  Recently, I have discussed the one sure way to have a hopeful outlook, how to encourage rather than discourage people, and the certainly that nothing will extinguish the light of Jesus Christ.  My favorite, I think, was Don't Fear Freedom, in which I touch on a pivotal truth for both the church and the country.  I believer the best humanity has to offer will arise out of the creativity of people unfettered either by their own fears or by the conforming demands of oppressive leadership.  Sadly, I think both the Church and the United States having been moving in the wrong direction.

As my heading indicates, I try to be civil, simple, and solid.  Posts on my Table Talk blog arise from my commitment to Biblical peacemaking and Christian discipleship, so they are all about "civility."  We need to learn and promote civil discourse, constructive engagement, and not argumentative contention.  We authentic Christians also need to demonstrate that we only want the freedom to celebrate and share our faith and live our traditionally Biblical lifestyles without government interference, to counter the fear that we really see a theocracy.  Hopefully, this emphasis come through in my Somewhat Random Thoughts and 10 More Random Thoughts, related to the election and the future.  I don't think God leaves us here, just to mark time, nor merely to created a secure earthly future.  A friend challenged the idea that a certain view of the future encourages Christians not to engage in building God's Kingdom, and it led me to ponder the question, "Why Are We Here?"  Finally, the last of my recent postings is expansion of the Love Chapter. in which I suggest the things not to do if we are serious about learning to love.  This is to be the manner of God's people, a practice that renders our efforts worthwhile but the absence of which renders them useless!  Table Talk was my first blog, and I have been posting there for nearly 3 years; please feel free to skim through it to see what I have been writing.

All of my blogs are about truth, but my Bedrock blog focuses primarily on the foundational truths that made this country a place of freedom and faith.  It is clearer than ever to me that our friends and neighbors, even and perhaps especially our children, need to learn these historic truths about the United States.  Not only do the public schools fail to teach them, but they and the colleges and universities aggressively promote secular, progressive, socialist ideas.  The communist-leaning counter-cultural flower children of the 60's and 70's, who learned at the feet of an earlier generation of anti-American professors, have largely taken over education, media, and a good deal of the political establishment.  Far too many in the Church share the same ideology, while others imagine we dare entrust the work of God to the secular powers--federal government or the United Nations.

Our current President took us in the wrong direction domestically, while he was doing some of the right things in dealing with terrorism. Our next President seems set to move in mostly wrong directions across the board although I pray I am mistaken.  I try to remember that even an American President, elected by the people, still serves under the providential authority of God.  That often puzzles us when we consider a Hitler, a Castro, or a Kim Jong-il, as we wonder why he allowed their evil to endure for any time at all.  Then we recall Pharaoh, whom God removed despite ample warning.  The Old Testament recounts several occasions where God permitted nations to conquer and oppress to discipline his children, and that may be in store for us here.  What is important is to be and do what God's people should, and we will see him meet our needs in all necessary ways.