[Oe List ...] Additional Election Concerns

[frank bremner]

Hang tight, Margaret.  When Kevin Rudd (Kevin07, or KRudd to some critics) was running for PM last year, there were some similar concerns about the sky falling in over Australia.  But the people decided otherwise, even defeating PM John Howard in his own seat.  Mind you, the type of Liberal party supporter who thinks they have a Divine Right to rule is still in a state of shock, and has trouble coming to terms with the fact that we had an election.
 
Back in 1975/1976 I remember a conservative evangelical school counsellor telling me that if Labor got back in to government (the Liberal/Country Coalition came in in 1975) they'd ban Christians from teaching in schools etc.  Which did not happen.  The closest thing was that if you mentioned "values" or "morality" (as in: a group's set of values) you might get slammed for talking about "religion".  And "we're a state system that doesn't brainwash anyone into a set of beliefs" - "ha!" - but that's another story.  
 
Along the way "Religious instruction" (denominational sessions for 1 hr/week) was replaced by "religious education" (education about religion), which was later absorbed into "society and the environment".  Conservative Catholics and Protestants were concerned that the G-O-D word, and others, weren't mentioned in every second sentence.  "Secular humanists" (for want of a better phrase) couldn't see anything transparently.
 
Cheers
 
Frank Bremner



From: aiseayew at netins.netTo: oe at wedgeblade.netDate: Tue, 23 Sep 2008 16:56:28 -0500Subject: [Oe List ...] Additional Election Concerns







Thanks Pat and Marsha for coming to Iowa.  I have had an Obama sign (I used to have two) in my yard (on Highway 175) since before the primaries.  What a pain, slip sliding over the ice to get out and shovel around it all winter and now mowing around it all summer.
 
Last week another pastor was passing through Story City and wanted to meet with me at the McDonalds on the interstate corner.  Even though it is an establishment I do not frequent,  I agreed and we had just sat at the table and a woman I know only as the secretary in an office in town came up to attack me.  How could I as a minister and claiming to be a Christian (I don't really think I have ever done that.  It is an assumption people make because I pastor a Methodist Church.) have an Obama sign in my yard.  It is even worse that I have eight in my picture window which is likely to get broken one of these days.  It is irresponsible for me to be supporting a BLACK Muslim that intends to destroy the country.  etc.
 
I was so shocked I backed away and the minister friend with whom I was meeting took her on a bit.  She walked away from our table and sat down with two other people shouting her outrage and the name of my church and how awful a person I must really be.
 
It was the first time that I have contemplated the possibility (in spite of the whiteness of the Republican convention) that we may still be too prejudice, too racist, too parochial to actually elect Obama.  I know I am warped (and I think it is mostly good) by my experience, but the primary battle here in Iowa was so energizing and electrifying, so full of juice, that anything seemed possible.  Now we are considered a swing state.  I had been uner the illusion that all the people we had registered for the primary and all those we had gotten to cross over had already swung us into a new reality.
 
If there is no other way for you to participate, I am asking you to pray.  Some may think that is a lesser form of participation, but from where I stand, no matter where you live, we need all the help we can get.  Even if it is hoping that some of those with the most bluster are so confident of their position that they don't bother to get out and vote.
 
Loving the Old Testament named candidate,
Margaret
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