Politics...ugh

I go through phases in my interest in politics. At some point, I am a political junkie: constantly checking news, radio, blogs for the latest political scoop. Other times I get so disgusted with the entire process I want to stay as far away from it as I can. Several things have recently pushed me back into the later phase.

Going to Memphis doing inner-city missions which kept me away from all political news was a big part. Once you get out of something it makes it more difficult to get back in. It also helps you to appreciate where the battle really lies. It's not in Washington. It's in Leahy's trailer park off Summer Avenue in Memphis. It's down the street at your neighbor's house. And it helps you to see who the real enemy is. It's not liberals or your nosy neighbor. We don't wage war against "flesh and blood."

It hasn't helped my political interests that I am so busy at home and work. There are two big projects with looming deadlines and several smaller projects that must be finished. At home, while raising our two sons and trying to make it work with just one paycheck while my wife changes jobs, we are constantly planning for the next church event. We went from the SBC national meeting to VBS (my wife is director) to the Memphis trip (we are the youth leaders) to our annual youth camp (we are the directors). There's not much time to think about what bill is going through the Senate right now.

Then there was seeing politics on display at the Southern Baptist Convention. That really disgusts me. I know that people argue that politics are a necessary evil. They make a good case, but I just don't want to be a part of it. I don't like thinking of the Bride of Christ as a political football. It tends to make me sick. I can be passionate about issues within the SBC, but I cannot be the one to wage a political battle within it.

The more things change the more they stay the same. I'm out of politics and it is immigration, scandals and war. I come back to see how things are going and surprisingly I find immigration, scandals and war. Right now, I'll happily stay in my unpolitical mood.