Politics; religion; and small towns.

Well this being a small town, there are a few things here about which people have very strong opinions.  First and foremost is anything you are doing that seems weird to them.  Small town folks just want to understand, and part of understanding is watching their neighbors for any signs of weirdness.  Yes, we notice things like the wife who mows the lawn, the husband who cooks, or the stay at home mom who also happens to have a housekeeper AND a lawn service.  We can make an entire evening's conversation out of who threw out a perfectly good washing machine or which mom was acting insane at the local basketball game.  Speculating on the weirdness of people is probably the source of about 65% of any small town's collective conversations. 

And youth athletics - all manner of youth athletic programs are very important in our corner of the world.  Small towns make for great kids.  I know, I have met a lot of them in the last three years.  Great kids who learn all about life on the gridiron, ball diamond, hardcourt, or soccer pitch. As a town we love all of these kids, want them to be challenged, to have opportunities to work hard and succeed, to be treated fairly and to work with coaches who care.  And yes, we wanna win and we all have lots of opinions about how to go about getting there.  So sports are very important at all levels here.

And, pretty much like everywhere else, religion and politics are important here.  Nothing more important to people than to have their faith affirmed; either their faith in the almighty, or their faith in their political representatives.

Yesterday was the third annual "Pulpit Free Sunday" - an event created by some in the National religious community to provoke a lawsuit with the federal government so they can challenge the constitutionality of a 56 year old amendment to Federal tax law.  The amendment, promoted by LBJ when he was a senator from Texas, holds that pastors may not engage in political advocacy from the pulpit while at the same time enjoying their tax free exemption.

Like all, I have strong feelings about both politics and religion.  I also have strong feelings about the interplay of both and the high degree of mischief that may be engaged in if political leaders are allowed to manipulate churches; and church leaders are allowed to manipulate politics.

So, of the issue let me just say this - my wish for all of America, small and big town alike, is that for my church to get out of the government business, and my government to get out of the church business. But I don't see that happening any time soon.

Now, having gotten that out of the way, anyone want to ask me how our football team fared over the weekend? :-)

Thanks for stopping by my blog.  I hope, whatever your faith, you find it affirmed this week.

Dennis