Let's just chalk that one up to "a learning moment"...

Yesterday's blog post was a first for me.
It was the first time I received more email responses about the blog than comments on the blog. Thanks to everyone who emailed. Some great responses. Some really funny responses. And all very thoughtful responses. You all challenged my thought processes and expanded my perspective.

Some of those emails helped me realize that I may have said some things in a way that really clouded the points I was trying to make. If yesterday's post sounded like a partisan shot, please forgive me. That was not my intent at all.

Allow me to try again...

A common sentiment I heard in response to my post was that we’re just better off separating faith and politics altogether. Maybe I’m just young and naïve, but I want to believe that that isn’t true. I want to believe that we are capable of having loving, thoughtful, respectful, and humble conversation about political issues. I want to believe that we can have those conversations among ourselves, and that we can engage our neighbors in conversation as well. And that we can do it in a way that demonstrates the love and compassion of Jesus.

What you all helped me realize is that words on a computer screen on an anonymous blog is really a poor place to initiate those kinds of conversations. Like I said…a learning moment. Sorry about that.

I also want to be sure and say that I don’t believe either political party does a very good job of representing the values that I hold as a follower of Christ. To be a Christian does not mean being a (insert favorite party here).

I did not write yesterday as a Democrat. I'm not one. I don't agree with a number of the stances our president-elect holds. I don't think that the Democratic party embodies the values I hold any better than the republican party does. I did not mean to imply that a vote in either direction was somehow more faithful to God than a vote in any other direction. My feelings about the election have nothing whatsoever to do with party affiliation.

It would have been quite fair of me to point out that just as some Christians have jumped to some unfair and really unloving conclusions and opinions of President-elect Obama, so too have many done to our current President Bush. Both reactions are worthy of critique. It is entirely appropriate for us as followers of Christ to spur one another on to a higher standard of love and respect than what is too often accepted in the political sphere. And neither party is above reproach in that regard.

Yesterday I said I was excited and I am. I hope I managed to communicate that, for me, that has more to do with my kids than anything else. I don’t think I can explain that adequately in this space. Maybe this isn’t the right place. Or perhaps another day.

Well, I hope you all (I like to pretend I have lots of blog readers) will forgive some of my idiosyncrasies, such as typing faster than my brain can actually think.

Thanks again for your great emails. You taught me. Feel free to stick comments like that right here on the blog. That’s what it’s here for.
Humbly growing.