Well, I got done voting a little while ago. Everything went just fine. Be sure to check out my quick video recap at the bottom of the post.

On my way to the polls

My Ride

Me on my way in

Electioneering signs outside the polling place

Vote Here

Entrance

The Line

My Ballot

Voting Machine

Voting Booths

Mission Accomplished

A few days ago I mentioned that NCC was doing a sermon on politics this past weekend. I wanted to post the video for those of you who didn’t get a chance to see it. Pastor Mark handled the topic very well, and while I may have different opinions on a few issues, it was an excellent message and one that is obviously timely.

The sermon is also available as streaming audio, downloadable video, and downloadable audio, and in case this sermon piqued your interest, you can check out some others at http://theaterchurch.com/media or subscribe to the podcast.

Since we’re on the subject, I should make the disclaimer that the political views I express here in my blog are not in any way the political views of National Community Church, which doesn’t have any political views. Also, I don’t believe that my political views are normative for followers of Jesus. As the Sojourners have said, “God is not a Republican. Or a Democrat.” In other words, my politics are my politics, not the Church’s politics, not NCC’s politics, not Christian politics, just mine. My faith may inform my politics (although it’s more complicated than that), but other followers of Jesus would say the same thing and come to radically different conclusions (more on that another day).

Date: 11/03/2008 – Disclaimer

I figured it’s safer to share this via video because you can’t stone me.

I want to make highly charged statements that will cause divisions and ultimately split our church. Okay, that’s exactly what I don’t want to do.

One of the things that struck me early on is that a lot of the churches in DC want to tell their members how to vote and what to think on matters of domestic and foreign policy. I have opinions, but I don’t think that is our job as a church. All of this stuff is important, but I think that our job as a church is to make disciples. We certainly want to teach things that affect all aspects of our lives, including politics. We need to think critically, biblically and tactically about every issue. I think we need to have more Christians called to culture shaping positions like politics, but all to often our politics are obstacles that keep some people from getting to the cross. Jesus didn’t come to set up an earthly kingdom but a spiritual kingdom that would transcend every earthly kingdom. When people wanted to make Jesus an earthly king, he resisted them. Why? Because he was setting up a transcendent kingdom.

Here’s what I want to do this weekend. I want to share some biblical principles that should shape our politics. I know some of you are disappointed.

Point 1 – Blood is thicker than water.

Family comes first. Your friends will come and go, but family is forever.

Here’s the bottom line. Were an incredibly diverse congregation. We have people who have been inspired to work on the McCain campaign and the Obama campaign. So essentially, we cancel each other out (j/k).

Galatians 3:26-29 – …you are all one in Christ Jesus.

If Paul had been writing in the 21st century, he probably would have included Republican and Democrat.

Those divisions disappear in Christ Jesus, we’re all one in Christ. What Paul is saying is that our allegiance to Christ comes first, the family of God second, and politics or whatever else third.

The blood that runs through God’s family is thicker than water.

I remember that one NCCer who was looking for a job on the Hill years ago was in a small group that fasted and prayed for him to find a job, but the thing that was most impressive was that there were people in his small group from both sides of the aisle.

We’re to take our obligation to love each other more seriously than our allegiance to either political party

Point 2

Philippians 3:20-21 – We are citizens of Heaven.

Yes, we’re citizens of the U.S. And I’m proud to be an American.

I don’t think you can look at the history of our nation and not see that we’ve done some things wrong as well as some things right, and I believe that we are a blessed nation.

I know some of you are looking for clues as to who I’m voting for, and this might seem like a clue, but it might just be a jedi mind trick. Caring for the poor, homeless, sick, etc. is not a political agenda, it is a Godly platform. The government has gotten involved because the Church has dropped the ball. The church in too many instances has abdicated its responsibility.

Donald Miller’s church started something called the Advent Conspiracy. It’s an organization that promotes less materialism at Christmas and instead to help others with the money you would have spent on yourself.

BTW, Donald has publically endorsed Obama, and I didn’t know that when we met. When I say that, some of you like him more, and some of you like him less. We didn’t even talk about politics, but I got e-mails from people who were angry. There’s an issue on which I disagree with Donald. Some people would even call it a litmus issue. I may disagree with him, but I can’t disagree with the fact that he biked across the U.S. to raise $250k for (kids with cancer?).

We need to be the blessing. We need to be going into our schools and ask how we can be a blessing. We need to be volunteering our time and serving our communities.

Let me put a dream on the radar. We held an event called the “Convoy of Hope” a few weeks ago. It was amazing, we distributed groceries, had a job fair, etc. But we realized it was just a means to an end. I believe that in the next year we will have a ministry center where we can care for the physical and spiritual needs of the community. Call it a Dream Center.

I believe politics is a noble calling. We need people in culture-shaping position. I believe God places people in strategic places. Joseph in Egypt.

John 6:14-15 – After people saw the miraculous sign Jesus had done, the people wanted to make him King by force, so Jesus withdrew.

People wanted to elect Jesus, Jesus for president, but political policies are not ultimate solutions. The Lord’s Prayer, the will of God being done

Point 3 – Don’t pass judgment on disputable matters.

This is incredibly important when it comes to politics. Therea re issues in the Bible that are Black and white, and when you turn something that is black and white into grey, that is called relativeism, and that is wrong. I believe we need to stand our ground on political issues that are black and white, but when we take issues that are grey and make them black and white, that is called legalism. Both are incredibly destructive.

Romans 14:1 – Don’t pass judgment on disputable matters.

There are some doctrines that are fundamental.

But there are other issues, the rapture, eternal security, whether or not to sing the 3rd verse of a hymn that we have always debated.

Rupertus Meldenius – “In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity.”

I know there are one or two issues that some people are the only important issues, and there are one or two that I weigh more heavily than others.

Not everyone is going to be passionate about the same things that I am passionate about. Sometimes we think that if everyone doesn’t care about the things we care about then their lukewarm Christians. We need people who care deeply about health care, about life, about the environment.

We need our differences, and when it comes to disputable matters or matters of conscience, we need some latitude.

Point 4 – If you don’t vote, don’t complain.

The Israelites were always complaining and grumbling. I think we need to stop being part of the problem and start being part of the solution.

You know what, if you do vote and your person doesn’t get elected, then don’t spend the next four years complaining.

Here’s what’s going to happen this week. We’re going to go to the polls, and unless there are lots of hanging chads, we’ll know who wins. If your candidate wins do a little dance. If your candidate wins, maybe it’s time to enact Matthew 5:44 – But I tell you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Maybe if we started praying, it would change the political tone in our country.

You know what, when I’m gossiping about someone, I can’t look them in the eye, but when I’m praying for someone, I can.

Point 5 – Respect those in authority

Romans 13:1, 7

I know what some of you are saying, “Paul didn’t live in 21st century America.” No, he lived in Rome, which was worse.

It’s fine to joke, and I know some of us have trouble showing respect to certain candidates/officeholders, but we need to show some level of respect for their office.

I know it’s not always easy, but if you have the courage to follow the example Jesus set, I think you can make the same difference Jesus did.

Jim Collins, who wrote Good to Great, talks about Level 5 Leaders. He said what makes someone a Level 5 Leader is humility, which may be surprising. When we lead in a humble spirit, when we engage in a humble spirit, ultimately, it’s change we can believe in.

Alleviating suffering and caring for the poor is not a political agenda; it’s a God agenda. God is bigger than a good president or a bad president. The church ought to be an example of unity for Capitol Hill. Proverbs (?): true wisdom has two sides.

Final thought:
When the election is over, it will be 4 years until the next one. How about the church helps solve problems in the interim.

Shane Claiborne: What’s more important than how we vote on Nov. 4 is how we live on Nov 3 & 5.

I’d appreciate your responses (be they simple yes or no answers or lengthy explanations) in the comments. Let me be clear. I am not asking if these organizations should take positions on issues. I am not asking if they should engage in healthy debate or try to advance a viewpoint they believe is Biblical. What I am asking is if these organizations should go so far as to actually say, “You should vote for Senator Bill Smith for President.”

My reason for asking is that I wonder if it doesn’t somehow muddy the Gospel when a Christ-centered organization supports a particular candidate or party. Does it imply that the organization believes Jesus supports that candidate/party. It’s one thing for a group that happens to be comprised of Christ-followers to endorse a candidate; it’s another for a group whose mission is explicitly centered around Jesus or the Gospel to endorse someone.

Like I said, I’m not talking about taking a position or having a debate about issues, although I would consider an “issue ad” that said “John McCain doesn’t care about the poor” or “Barack Obama kills babies” to be an endorsement and not honest debate.

And just so someone doesn’t pull the Hitler card, let me state for the record that in the case of someone like Hitler, yes, I do believe that the Church should speak out against that person. With this question, I’m more concerned about typical American elections than extreme scenarios.

Update: To clarify, I’m not talking about a legality issue. I’m not asking if these organizations should or should not be legally allowed to endorse a candidate. I’m questioning whether or not, as followers of Jesus running a Christ-centered organzation, the people who operate the organization should have the organization endorse a candidate (what they do individually is a different matter).

Update 2: Grammar/Style issues addressed.

Watch This:

Now Read This: Sen. Stevens Indicted On 7 Corruption Counts

Apparently, she’s not proud of the endorsement.

Hat tip: TPM Election Central

[Update] The official announcement is here: http://polfeeds.com/item/Message-from-Barack-The-Next-Vice-President

News has recently leaked that Barack Obama has selected Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) as his Vice Presidential running mate. I find this to be an incredibly interesting choice.

At age 29, Senator Biden was the youngest person ever elected to the U.S. Senate. He turned 30 (the Constitutionally mandated minimum age for a U.S. Senator) between his election and his swearing in. His birthday being on November 20th, it would be very difficult for anyone younger to ever be elected to the Senate.

He has run for the Democratic Presidential nomination on a few occasions (most recently during this cycle) and is known to be quite verbose, having occasionally gotten himself into trouble as a result. However, as of late he has shown more restraint when speaking, famously answering simply “Yes” when asked if he would be able to exercise said verbal restraint as President. On a related note, Biden got himself into hot water early last year when he made comments about Senator Obama that some believed to be racist. I’m not going to get too far into that, except to say that I believe the comments were mostly innocent but that they do belie an unfortunate stereotype of African-Americans. Senator Biden meant no ill-will, but nonetheless, he chose his words poorly and in doing so exposed some all too common assumptions about Black Americans. Of course, at least part of this can probably be chalked up to Biden’s natural tendency to misspeak.

Moving away from the trivia, Senator Biden brings a wealth of foreign policy experience to the ticket. He is widely recognized as a foreign policy expert, having been Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. While his selection may help allay some fears about Senator Obama’s perceived lack of experience, he brings no state/regional electoral advantage, and his long tenure in the Senate may undermine Senator Obama’s message of change. That said, I think it more likely that the powerful message and presence that Obama brings will make up for this.

As for my opinion, well, I like Senator Biden. He’s smart, and he knows the issues. He’s not perfect, and I’m not sure he’s the greatest choice politically. However, he is more than qualified for the job. While I’m sure political considerations came into account when selecting a running mate and I may be underestimating his political value, this is very possibly one time when a candidate’s quality and qualification trumped political consideration. Kudos to Senator Obama for choosing someone who can fill his shoes should the unfortunate need ever arise.

With 78% of precincts reporting, Barack Obama leads Hillary Clinton 59-40. I think it’s safe to say that Barack Obama has won the Wyoming caucuses.

Or at least those willing do some research. Brian Stelter of the New York Times is something of a phenom when it comes to news about the TV industry, having started the influential blog tvnewser.com and subsequently being hired by the New York Times straight out of college, but his article on the “It’s 3 AM and I’m ready to be President” campaign ads of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama (embedded below – hat tip to TechPresident) shows that being an expert on one medium doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re qualified to discuss other types of media.

Mr. Stelter states that “Three days after it made its television debut, the Clinton commercial had registered more than 600,000 views on YouTube, and Mr. Obama’s recorded over 200,000, making the dueling advertisements the first breakout hits of the YouTube campaign. (Some campaign videos are lucky to receive 10,000 views.)”

While it may be true that some campaign videos don’t hit 10,000 views, I’m not sure what metric that Mr. Stelter is using to determine what makes a YouTube video a “breakout hit.” By far, the biggest video of the campaign season is “Yes We Can” by will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas, having received over 12 million views spread across the numerous copies posted to YouTube, but we can look back much farther for breakout hits. Perhaps the first big hit of the 2008 Presidential election was 1984/Vote Different by Phil de Vellis with over 5 million views (again over multiple uploads), and who could forget Obama Girl. None of these are candidate produced videos, but we need only go to Obama’s response to the State of the Union (1.3 million), Obama’s victory speech in Iowa (1 million), and many others to find videos that have been viewed many more times than either of these. In fact, Obama’s SOTU response has been watched more times than both of those ads put together.

I’ll admit that I may be overly defensive of new forms of media, be it blogs, online video, or social networks, but it irks me when someone in the mainstream press makes a blatantly untrue statement that trivializes the revolution that is taking place in the field of communications.

Since this is my blog, I’m also going to take the opportunity to editorialize on the videos just a bit and note that YouTube users have rated Clinton’s “3 AM” video with one star out of a possible five (Obama’s version has four) and that tens of thousands of her views have come from an extremely heavily trafficked DailyKos post slamming the ad.

Hillary’s 3 AM Ad

Obama’s 3 AM Ad

Yes We Can

1984

Obama’s SOTU Response

Obama’s Iowa Speech

Obama’s New Hampshire Speech (Just because I love it and because it’s been viewed more times than Hillary’s 3 AM ad.)

Okay, so “notworking” is far too strong of a term, but I couldn’t resist the catchy title. TechPresident recently did a brief review of Hillary Clinton’s new Facebook app, mentioning that it’s pretty good but that it came around a bit late. This got me thinking about Obama’s Facebook app and the my.barackobama.com social network. Obama’s new media staff has done an excellent job of leveraging the Internet (or the Interwebs as some of us prefer), making it one of the driving forces behind the Obama campaign. However, the excitement over this new type of campaigning aside, I have two critiques of areas that I think could be improved upon.

The Obama Facebook application is very robust… once you actually go to the application’s canvass page. However, I would bet that the most important part of most applications, this one included, is the profile box. It is what my friends see when they come to my profile, and this is the part of the application that I deal with most often. I’ve only visited the canvass page a handful of times. When I want to interact with Obama content, I go to the Obama website or to Digg. When I’m on Facebook, I go to my profile, my friends’ profiles, and my feed.

Unfortunately, the profile box for the application is very limited. Currently, all it has is a thumbnail from a video about Obama’s win in the Maine caucuses. That happened over two weeks ago (an eternity on the Interwebs), and four states plus DC have held primaries since then. This space might be better used by feeding it content from a variety of sources like the Obama Digg account (get me to vote for stuff), the campaign blog (keep me up to date with what’s going on), or YouTube (show me one of those amazing speeches). This could be done automatically through a simple RSS aggregator like SimplePie. Alternatively, it could show me the latest actions that my friends have taken in the Obama application, like which stories they’ve voted for or commented on.

My point is that even though I am an avid Facebooker, I rarely get beyond an app’s profile box, and I’m guessing the same is true for many others.

As for the my.barackobama.com social network, my only suggestion is that they make it easier to find friends. Right now you can search by zip code, common groups, and name, but these are only helpful for finding Obama supporters near me (want to guess how many there are in Washington DC) or if I take the time to enter each of my friend’s names (not going to happen, too many friends). Consequently, I only have one friend on my Obama account, even though I live and work in the most politically active city in the U.S. In short, they need to implement a friend finder that searches e-mail contacts, much like Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo, et cetera all have.

Again, these are relatively minor critiques, but I think they are important ones (especially the friend finder). On the whole, the Obama new media team has done an amazing job. I don’t think anyone predicted that online politics would be at this stage at this point in time.

Check out a great post by my friend Justin Hamilton, explaining why Hillary Clinton is pretty much done. I was thinking about writing something similar, but I figure there’s no need to re-invent the wheel. I differ on a couple of the specifics, but he’s pretty much got it. Obama’s lead is large enough that only a huge blowout in Texas or Ohio (and a win or very narrow loss in the other) could put her campaign back in the running.