The Story of a Baptist Pastor's Wife Who Voted for Obama

I was clicking through some blogs this morning and found this absolutely awesome post from a blogger in oklahoma. the blog address is: welcometomybrain.net

wednesday November 5, 2008

The story of a Baptist pastor's wife who voted for Obama

Once upon a time, there was a Baptist pastor's daughter. She didn't drink and she didn't chew and she didn't run with boys that do. She was a good Christian, which meant that she was a good Republican, and believed that God, himself, was the first red state. That's what her church implied. That's what local Christian radio implied. That's what the Baptist Standard implied. So, God must be a Republican.

She went to a small Baptist college, where she received a small Baptist scholarship. She took her first political science course, taught by one of the pillars of this institution ... and within the first week he proudly stated that he had always been, and would always be, a Democrat. The girl was looking around her, wondering why everyone else was not having a heart attack. I mean, he might as well have said he cross-dresses on the weekends. She kept wondering, "How is the university okay with this??" Because, Democrats did not follow Jesus ... right?

Our heroine married. She married a good Baptist minister, and they served in a quickly dwindling good Baptist white church in the middle of a Hispanic neighborhood. She worked for one of the most well-known fundamentalist Baptist pastor's in the nation.

And then everything changed.

She met people outside of her good Baptist circle that also loved Jesus. She thought that everything she ever needed to know, she had learned at the Southern Baptist Convention. But lo and behold, she had not been given the whole story. Her theory that no one had to live in poverty if they just worked hard and budgeted ... well, wait a minute ... that's not necessarily accurate? The Bible talks about the poor? Like the stuff that good Baptists should be doing for the poor?

Our girl fell more in love with Jesus every day. She soaked him up like a sponge. Yet, the more she did that, the more he challenged her to do more ... to learn more ... to understand more ... to love and serve more.

Her entire world view changed. Ironically, it finally included - the whole world! She realized how wealthy she was. She realized how selfish she was. She realized how wasteful she was. And God said, "Please change this," and she said, "Ah, crap."

She opened her heart. She opened her life. She started worshiping God by taking care of all he provides. She became a much better steward of things, and living with less so that her family could share more. She added children to her home whose history and heritage cannot even fathom the wealth of the US middle class. She read what God has to say about peace and love and mercy and grace, because this was new to her. She had spent most of her childhood talking about not having sex, and was too busy for all that other stuff.

Abortion once disgusted her, but now it made her cry. She studied it - really studied it. She found that the Republicans had a plan for stopping abortion, but in reality, it wouldn't work. In fact, it might only put a small dent in it. Yet, with more active social programs, fewer women have abortions. The mothers want to parent their babies, they just need a way. They need more options. And our girl realized that for every woman who selfishly takes advantage or is purposefully irresponsible, there are many more who raise their children into adulthood. Her typical straight ticket would do nothing for dieing babies and desperate mothers now - nothing.

"Ah, crap."

She was normal, in all of the normal ways. She liked money. Her husband liked money. Money buys things. Money is cool. Yet, the love of it is also the root of all evil. So, knowing that life will always cost more and more and more money, her family started to spend less. They planned for increases and did not live on all of their money ... and they could start to give more away. They had more than they needed, and they shared with those who did not. And it was good. And there were people in government that wanted to do more of the same types of programs (like public schools), to help more people be healthy and have a better chance at being sustainable. That is kind of world that our girl wanted. That is America to her.

The Republicans yelled in her ear, "The Democrats want all of your money!" So, what would they do with all that money? She studied it. She learned about it. She realized it would go to help all people. It would go to make our nation more sustainable, which would then free up more money to help more people all over the world. It would be a greater reflection of how her own home functions ... a way which reflects her Jesus. While God's church is supposed to be serving "the least of these," we also are some of the wealthiest people in the world, and our country could do more. Our country could glorify God. She liked that. Our girl liked that!

And so it was, in November 2008, our girl cast her vote for the very first African American president. She completed that arrow with her felt tip pen, knowing that this candidate, even though he believes in the same Jesus, did not reflect her in every opinion or approach. She helped to elect a man for a job, not a Savior for eternity. She exercised an amazing right, that many people around the world do not enjoy. She did so, knowing that there are many that feel she was sinful. She cried a bit, realizing that people assume her relationship with Christ is shallow or watered down (words that good Baptists use a lot to talk about those who try to make their faith fit their lifestyle). She found herself heartbroken by these thoughts, because she made her decision completely guided by her God and the book of his words that he has left for her. She knows that every single fault and slip of this president will mean a few "I told you so's."

In the Bible Belt, she took the road less traveled.

She voted for Obama.

The pastor's wife of the First Baptist Church in rural Oklahoma voted for Barack Obama.

And she now wonders if she would get fewer hateful comments and emails if she had just said she was a lesbian.

No Presidential Speech Here!

Heaven forbid that our children would be taught to respect the office of the President of the United States regardless of who currently holds the title. Apparently too many of the small minded, fear-mongering lovers in our county in TX contacted our school district (and several surrounding districts) in shock and horror that their children may be indoctrinated in socialism by a speech given by President Obama. It doesn't matter to them that the content of his speech is to be about the importance of staying in school and studying hard - no!!! Their little minds cannot get over the fact that we have a democratically elected African-American President with some liberal ideas. You know, all that "love thy neighbor" and "we are our brother's keeper" stuff they profess to follow every Sunday must just be a bunch of crock.

Natalie

TX

Time for a New Post

There are few things that I believe are basic human rights and should be guaranteed to all:

1. shelter

2. food

3. clothing

4. health care

Everyone should have these, guaranteed, no ifs, no ands, no buts. I'm not saying everyone should be living in identical apartments/homes, etc of the same size and quality, I'm just saying that there should be a basic level of shelter that everyone qualifies for, and if you want to and you have the money you can have a bigger/better house. Everyone should have enough food to eat and clothing to wear; and everyone should have universal health care coverage. No exclusions for pre-existing conditions, no denials of care or insurance because you're too sick to be cost effective for the insurance company; no denials of care just because you're not rich enough to pay for the health care you need.

Below is a copy of an email forwarded to me on one of the list serves I am on, I really enjoyed it:

This was a letter written by a great gal here in Central Oregon and published in one of our free weekly papers. Content below. I’ve also included a link to it as well.

http://www.tsweekly.com/news-a-opinion/the-mailbox/letter-of-the-week-stop-health-care-reform.html

STOP HEALTH CARE REFORM if you believe:

That it is ok that the USA ranks 44th in infant mortality, 50th in life expectancy.

That is it ok to spend $6,714 per person for health care while France, Sweden, Spain, Switzerland & Britain spend on average $3,500 per person and receive a higher standard of care.

That it is ok that in the last eight years, insurance premiums have risen 78% while wages rose 19%.

That it is ok for American Health Care to be based on reaction to illness, not prevention and early detection.

That it is ok for those 65 and older, veterans and members of Congress to have government health care coverage, but it is denied to all others.

That it is ok for you to have health coverage, but you would deny millions of Americans without access the right to have affordable coverage.

That it is ok that for-profit insurers can deny coverage to those with pre-existing conditions.

That it is ok 62% of all bankruptcies in 2007 were l inked to medical expenses.

That it is ok not to consider how our children and grandchildren will get care if we don’t act to reform health care now; AND

That our Congress is either too dumb, too influenced by lobby-dollars or too afraid of the right-wing fanatics to pass BIPARTISAN HEALTH CARE REFORM and it is ok that America remains the only industrial nation without coverage for all our citizens, then...

STOP HEALTH CARE REFORM NOW.

Written by Lolly Champion,
Bend, Oregon

Thanks,

Natalie

TX

Meaning of Lyevoiye (Левыйе)

I just thought I'd throw out the reasoning/meaning behind the web address of my blog.

In Russian it means Politically Left.  This does not mean I'm a socialist, I just lean to the left a lot.  I believe there are many things that the goverment can do better than anyone else.  For example,

Police

Fire

Ambulance

Judicial system

Schools, mostly

Libraries

Collect Taxes

Supervise building of roads, airports, etc.

and, of course, I'm biased:  Air Traffic Control is an inherently governmental function!!!

I don't want some private company controlling the airspace over our great nation.  That just seems too much of a security risk for anyone.

Done with my rant about what "socialist" things we already have in our nation, that most people use without even thinking about it; and they consider themselves good right wingers.

Natalie

TX

Finally another post!

Well, I just wanted to say that it's not that I don't have an opinion, it's just been very hard to find the time to post anything anymore; and when I do get around to it, it seems that anything I want to say isn't really relevant anymore, so why bother?

I've decided I'll just say it anyway, relevant or not.

First thing, Sarah - don't let the door hit your behind on the way out!  What was up with that resignation speech?  It seemed as incoherent as most of her speeches, so I guess I really shouldn't have expected more from her.  I'm sure she'll find a way to keep herself and her family in the spotlight.  That was always the biggest thing I didn't like about her - putting her family in the spotlight.  She should've just said, "Yes, my daughter is pregnant and unmarried.  This is a family matter and please leave my children alone."  And kept on saying it, every time the media asked her about her family.  Eventually they would've quit asking.  I really respected the Obamas for keeping their daughters mostly out of the spotlight.  Kids should be allowed to be kids.

I, for one, would've liked to have seen a qualified woman leading this country.  Hillary would've been excellent, except she had too much baggage with Bill hanging on there.  I think he did a great job of supporting her during the campaign, it's just that I think there would've been too many voters out there who would've voted against her because they didn't like things her husband did.  Throwing the baby out with the bath water kind of mentality.  I'm very excited that President Obama picked her to be the Secretary of State.  I also think Hillary would've made a good candidate for Supreme Court, but again, maybe too many senators would've killed that because she's a Clinton.

For the most part, I am satisfied with what the Obama administration has done so far.  I think they set a very ambitious agenda for themselves, and I think they are doing their best to get everything passed as quickly as possible.  I am a little curious why they decided to push the global warming/climate change stuff before health care, though.  Although I don't care to ruin our environment at all, I am sure many more people are concerned about their health care and that of their friends and family.  Case in point, I just came from the pharmacy paying about $360 for a month's supply of medicine for my diabetic husband and my son who has a knee injury.   I didn't even get any of my asthma medications, either.  The doctor was so nice as to give me samples when I told her I couldn't afford to pay for everything this week.  And I have good health insurance!  Seriously, I am a federal government employee!

And where is Bill O'Reilly?  Haven't heard much from him lately.  I don't watch his show, so maybe he is taking a vacation?  Haven't heard of him putting his foot in his mouth lately, as he so likes to do.  Even Rush seems to be piping down a little bit, or at least not providing a lot of fodder for MSNBC.  In case you can't tell, I really like watching Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow.  At work it seems all anyone watches is Fox News.  I try to stay out of the break room.  The only anchor on there I really like is Shepard Smith.  He at least seems to occasionally have an opinion that is not sanctioned by the religious right.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not against religion in any form, I just don't like those who act like theirs is the one and only true religion, and all others are false.  I really don't like those who try to impose their religion on others.  (I'm not talking about your children - please, teach them some sort of religion or spiritual way of living!)  I'm currently trying to teach my 14yr old Ukrainian son about spirituality and religion, but getting him up and out of the house on Sunday mornings is proving to be a real pain in the butt!  There are several teenagers at our small church (about 300 members), but many of them opt not to come over the summer break.  Hopefully they'll be back by late August when school starts again.  I'm sure Yarek would enjoy church more, if he could spend it with kids his own age.

I have a bumper sticker on my car that seems to puzzle many people around here.  Many of them get very angry after reading it.  It's not an anti-religion slogan at all, they just misinterpret it with their small minded thinking:

"Please keep your religion away from any law that may affect me."

What does this mean to me?  It means that I don't want anyone else telling me that I have to wear a burka (sp?) or not eat meat on Friday or that I need to wear certain undergarments, or never cut my hair and always wear skirts/dresses, etc.  What I mean is, I don't want any of that to be LAW.  I want to do those things because I believe in them, not because I am forced to do it by law. 

Don't kill, don't steal - good laws.  Good for everyone, no matter what your religion or lack thereof.  But worshipping idols, coveting another's goods and adultery should not be laws of the land.  Maybe bad choices, but not criminal.

I believe there are universal truths to all religions, and that is what I seek to learn.  Now, if I could just get my own butt out of bed on Sunday morning.  I haven't been to church in weeks.

Natalie

TX

First Post

I have been thinking for a while now that I would like to express my political opinions in a blog format. Using my other blog, adoptyaroslav, has been very therapeutic for adoption and family matters, I thought a political blog may do the same for my feelings of being in the minority (politically speaking) in Montgomery County, TX.

While I have no political views to share just right now, I'm sure I'll post soon enough about something. I will never claim to be politically correct or just plain old correct for that matter. Remember, these are just opinions, and as I said in a post on my adoption blog,

Opinions are like sphincters.

Natalie
TX