politics

The Political Chaplain

/ scblair / 1 Comment

An image from the Arbor Day foundation: “A rotten inner core … can cause a split trunk. The wounds are too large to ever mend.”

I have a game at home called “We Didn’t Playtest This At All”. It’s a really fun game (to some at least) based on unique cards that people play during the game that change the rules of the game as it’s played. For example, one card simply says “You Win” and when you play that card, you win (but only if you’re a girl in one case). Unless someone has the card that allows them to make someone lose whenever that person just won (but they also lose). My favorite card though is called “Politics”. When you play that card you are told to say “everything is ruined!”, then all players turn in all their cards and pick new ones. Because, as we know, politics ruins everything. Continue reading →

The Centre Cannot Hold: The Blurry Future of American Evangelicalism

/ scblair / 3 Comments

“And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?” W.B. Yeats, The Second Coming

***update 9/29/16: The New York Times recently published a very good article that explores this topic more in depth and personally, and I highly recommend reading it (link in the text). I still beat it by a few days though!***

This election year has been a tumultuous one for too many reasons to mention. It has definitely been the most polarizing  of any in recent memory. It’s impact will be felt long past the tenure of whichever candidate wins in November in our country as a whole, but specifically among those who call themselves Evangelical Christians.

Previously, at least in conservative Evangelical circles, the choice for president was fairly clear and rote: you could only vote Republican. The Democratic party was basically equated with everything that Evangelicalism was not. It was pro-choice, supported by the ACLU, sought to keep the bible, prayer and creationism out of our schools, pushed agendas such as gay rights and “big government”, and was generally seen as the party of left-leaning atheists, elites, and mainline pseudo-Christians. Republicans were the voice of “real” Christians at the political level. It valued proper moral and ethical behavior grounded by Judeo-Christian fundamentals not only in our country but in its leadership.

2016 is changing all that. Drastically. Continue reading →