Every politician eventually gets stuck with a label from their opponents and supporters that is not always completely accurate. Often, it is best to let the politician’s record speak to whether or not they are, for example, Liberal or conservative and in this technological age, it is relatively simple to gather up-to-the-minute press releases and candidate statements to discern where a politician or candidate stands to attribute the appropriate label. It is problematic, though, for a political candidate to label themselves unless they have integrity to their cause and own a record that verifies their self-description perfectly. Rick Santorum describes himself as a compassionate conservative and although there is absolutely no doubt the man is a conservative of the first order, there is certainly nothing compassionate about him. … A more apropos label for Santorum is a hateful conservative that aligns him with the rest of the Republicans; except the former Pennsylvania senator says in public what other Republicans keep under their hats. …

Go read the whole piece: it’s a doozy, even if the author used inferred when the correct word is implied.  While I’m praying for Mr. Santorum’s immortal soul, I’ll pray for the author’s as well. 

Why yes, I am following Jesus!  Aren’t you?

How many homeless people come to your church on a Sunday?  You know, the ones Jesus told us to shelter and house.  How many poor people?  I don’t mean merely those of us who struggle to get from paycheck to paycheck; I mean poor.  Poor as in, “I have to buy medicine for the baby, so I won’t be able to eat for a week.”  Poor as in wearing clothes that are dirty and smelly, because there wasn’t enough left over for the laundromat this week.  How many people with brain disorders come to your church?  Those with autism and migraine, yes, but also those who hear voices or talk to themselves or act out inappropriately.

This blog post challenges us to be church better than we are, by allowing ourselves to be less than perfect.

Let me ask you, doesn’t it seem like Jesus’ followers–the ones who’ve seen His miracles and heard the words of life that flow from His mouth–would be the biggest proponents of bringing the lost, hurting, and broken before Him? That makes sense, right? But sadly, that’s not always what we see.

Take the story of Jesus healing the blind beggar in Luke 18, for instance. The other day, God brought my attention to a part of the story that usually gets very little attention: the crowd.

Most of us Christians are the crowd in the story he quotes.  We’re the ones who tell the blind man to shut up, because we can’t hear Jesus teaching us.  We are the priest and the rabbi who leave the dying man by the side of the road, so that it is a person from a marginalized and oppressed community who saves him. 

We are so fearful that we’ll lose what we think is ours that we avoid even seeing those who have less than we do.  I cling to the last $50 of my paycheck, when down the street is a man who didn’t get anything to eat yesterday.  And as I drive by in my car, I keep my head facing forward so I don’t have to see him and notice him.

May God have mercy on my soul… and on all of us.