“Anita Dunn, President Obama’s Communications Director, in June (3 months ago) at commencement speech, said that one of her favorite political philosopher was Mao Tse Tung. The very same Communist – Mao Tse Tung – who is the worst mass murdering modern history. Moa had 70 million people murdered. She praises someone and accepted them as one of her two favorite philosophers – a person who killed more people than Hitler. And she is the communications director for the President, and has been a vocal voice in in attacking conservatives and even the Fox News Channel. Deception revealed!”

I think this women, who is an advisor to the President, is dangerous for nation. She celebrates the accomplishments of a man’s political thinking and tactics which resulted in the murder of 70+ million civilians. I will not only vote against such an administration, but I would be willing to speak out against them. However, my mission would be to put her celebration of evil in contrast to a celebration of Mercy through the Gospel of Christ. I believe that the ultimate and greatest “fix” for this kind of evil is the saving blood of Jesus Christ. Yes, in the short term, better people must be elected to office and that is why I am convicted that Christians have a duty to vote and try and protect people from such things. BUT, my long term solution is not politics, but a passionate exposition of the Gospel and modeling that Gospel in my life and actions.

I hope that helps clarify my thinking and even more I hope it is something we can agree upon.

If your whole point in your post is to say “God, the Gospel, The Kingdom, etc. should be the most important thing to a Christian” then I agree. Is that the point of your post?

If that’s the point of your post then this key sentence in your POST “We, as Christians, should be active in voting our faith, but politics should not be our passion.” should be changed to “We, as Christians, should be active in voting our faith, but politics should not be our MOST IMPORTANT passion.”

Grammar aside Cliff, I have used my comments to make it clear that good works, mercy, the Gospel, and spiritual battle must be the “highest priority” of the Christian. So now I hope you can move beyond your analysis of my sentence structure and into a deeper interaction with the post itself.

Cliff, You have yet to answer how you, a follower of Jesus, develop the priority of Spiritual passion in your family. Nor have you made it clear how it is a priority compared to your political passions. The answer to this is, for me at least, a far more interesting discussion. I hope you will take the time to elucidate on this point Cliff.

I’ve thought about this post you linked to. You’re conclusion on what the AFA is concerned with is completely wrong.

They were not talking about losing their (or your) INTERNAL spiritual freedom or their (or your) eternal salvation – which is what you in that post ARE talking about.

They are talking about losing the physical and political freedoms of speech and religion. The rights included in the American Bill of Rights.

Those political and physical freedoms may not be important to you and you may not really care if you have them or not – but they are important to many others.

Nowhere in your post did you use the phrase “highest priority” or a phrase meaning the same thing.

My understanding is as yours on politics, the Gospel must take first place.

Thanks for the post. It was a good & engaging read/exchange.

It looks like there were many assumptions made. I apologize. I only wanted to discuss the content of the blog post.

Hmmm. Well here are at least two options for what you could “hear” from my post…

A. Don, a complete stranger to me, is claiming to know my heart and is judging me personally for what I have written- even though he has expressly stated otherwise.

B. Don is offering non judgemental insights into his own life based on what he personally meant when he used similar language to mine in hopes that it might benefit other readers of Joe’s blogg.

You have chosen option A. Option B is actually correct.

David, your language reminded me of what I personally meant when I used similar language. As I said, it had nothing to do with you. You said yourself this is true a lot of the time. I’m not sure what the problem is then? My comments were not directed to you. My suggestion to you would be that if you believe Christians in general are doing something you take issue with, but you yourself are not doing this, that you use different language other than “we and “us”. “We” means “others AND ME.”

So when you say ” I have a terrible feeling we like New Testament rhetoric but not New Testament practice.” you are including yourself in that statement. I was giving you the benefit of the doubt because a lot of people use “we” to soften the statement so it does not seem too preachy. So I assumed you meant “Other Christians in general”. However, in my personal past, the greatest offender was not other Christians, but ME when I used such language.

I take Jesus’ words very literally and directly to get the plank out of my own eye before I point out specks in other people’s eyes. I have found in my own past, I failed to understand that the Bible teaches me not to judge at all but to GROW in grace. So if I am going to err, I will err on the side of grace and give people the benefit of the doubt.

David, the way your posts are worded gives the impression you are being very caustic and harsh. And they invite the same tone back to you. Were you intending to be inflamatory?

For Joe to state how he applies “render unto Caesar” to his personal life is valid. He isn’t saying you must agree with him.

So lighten up a little brother!

People use the word SHOULD when they think people SHOULD do something. Using your definition above your saying it’s a Christians OBLIGATION, a Christian’s DUTY – the CORRECT action for a Christian. There doesn’t seem to be anything optional about the word SHOULD in this context.

Can you tell me the difference?

I would also be interested to know how you answer the other 4 questions I asked about faith.

I hope that helps clarify it. Good challenge though. Thanks for asking.

And I don’t have a “passion for politics” I am “passionate about politics”. There’s a significant difference.