The Confused Ramblings of a Born Again Liberal!

I'm forty five years old and have spent many of those years in school. I have a passion for learning new things about different stuff. That's one of the reason Hubpages is such a find. I'm very new to blogs, and publishing written word on-line and consequently I'm having to look-up much of the casual jargon used by the more experienced and accomplished posters. On the other hand there is such a plethora of topics and experts to learn from. I've become addicted, again. In my world becoming addicted is routine with a continuous cycle of recovery. Of course some things are more alarming to family and loved ones than, say other more practical acquired addictions.

For most of my life, politics has been fun, something I enjoy reading about and discussing with friends. In the early days of my intellectual development when in my arrogance I considered myself an expert on the social dynamics and cultural relationships of the early eighties, I would write long, self absorbed essays detailing the political and humanitarian injustices rampant in American society. I was having a wonderful time as a twenty year-old junior at a prestigious southern liberal arts college. I was able to be a part of this esteem environment because I was a descent football and baseball player and much to my continued amazement they let me go to school for free. The proverbial, going from a big fish in a little pond, to a little fish in a big pond, quickly taught me the mediocre limits of my athletic powers. For four years I was terrified the powers that be were going to tap me on the shoulder; apologize for their obvious mistake and send me packing. To make up for my average athletic and intellectual abilities, I worked very hard. I became enamored with Sociology, history and political science. I fantasize myself the savior of the common man, a senator or better yet, the power behind a presidential candidate. Of course studying Sociology my first heroes were theorist such has August Comte, Emile Durkheim, and even Alfred Adler. Obviously I was, and considered myself a liberal, bound and determine to assist the working man. The college I attended was a wealthy and elite institution, as you can imagine we did not have a young democrat society. This school, at this time was staffed with the liberal educational elite but funded by and attended by conservative traditionalist, old money, the wealthy southern hierarchy from years gone by.

After college, I decided to teach while most of my friends went to work for fathers or uncles for lots of money and other perks such as travel and expense accounts. The first six months out of school, I spent my evenings grading papers and figuring a budget to survive. Teachers in the south in the mid eighties didn't make very much money. We held our heads high with egos intact and soothed each other with the mantra, "this is a higher calling, and we don't do this for the money". I believed it and lived it, until I visited a friend from college for the weekend at his home on an island off the coast of South Carolina. That weekend changed my early life. I was offered a job that weekend and fifteen days later I was in a training program in San Antonio Texas. I was making more money than anyone in my family had ever made. I lived in a first class hotel on the River Walk; I had an expense account and a company car. Man that was a great car. It turns out I was pretty good at what I was hired to do. The next five years flew by in a whirlwind of planes and hotels and meetings. The only time I thought about the "working man" was when I had to fire one, or had to stop the local Union from moving into the business.

Then I meet the girl, we lived together and talked about marriage. I meet my wife in a bar outside of Washington DC in a placed called Crystal City. I was having dinner with friends in a place owned by Joe Theisman, and she was having dinner with some guy. Long story short, I won and we have been together for twenty four years. I'm sure during my single years I vote in a national election. I have never, not voted, as I never really lost my enjoyment of politics, I just enjoy money, cars and expense accounts more. I am also very sure I voted democrat; I would not have done anything else at the time. At some point my wonderful wife and I decided we wanted a family and Washington DC was not a place to raise kids so back south we went.

It was years later, after I had become a father and been a husband for years that my political affiliations slowly began to change. It was during a very difficult time in my life and an even harder time for my family; recovering from addiction is always harder on the family, I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and savior. It didn't take very many hours of Bible study for me to decide that I could no longer be a liberal democrat. The problem was that I couldn't get past my fundamental belief in helping my fellow man. Those parts of our society that for whatever reason can't or even won't help themselves, Maybe it was because of my addiction, the things I had thrown away, or because I had been in and around treatment programs. I have seen the despair and hopelessness in our society. It turned out there was an easy solution, I quit my high paying job, went back to school, I got good and trained up, and went to work in the trenches. I suppose fiscally, I may still be a liberal at least where spending for social programs are concerned. It's truly the social area of liberalism that makes it impossible to believe in God, and the Bible, and the secular progressive ideas of the left. There's too much effort to remove our Savior from everyday life. There's too much effort to remove morality from our families and our culture. When we discuss the breakdown of the family, it is because of the break down in morality. I do not believe our founding fathers wanted God taken out of our society, when they, or future generations, were discussing the separation of church and state. The left wants to replace the concept of right and wrong with the term rule of law when in reality the very principles of western law originates in Judeo-Christian teachings, or more precisely, the Bible.

Why is it so important for the love and influence of Christ to be prohibited from our political conscientious? Moral decisions from elected leadership based on; love thy neighbor as thy self; would there not be less violence and war? Why must we allow the destruction of our precious children? The reason we give is that a woman should have the right to choose; but does a woman have the right to choose to cause herself great bodily harm? Does a woman have the right to choose to kill herself? Does a woman have the right to choose to ingest, for recreation, controlled substances? There is so much we don't have the right to do. And that's the way it should be. Shouldn't the good of the child be more important than the good of the parent? Who will stand for the child? Jesus came for the sinners and the unholy. There is no sin in the sight of Christ that cannot be forgiven by the Father through the Son.

Spirituality, religion and faith all have a prominent place in our culture, our nation and our government. Is it a decision between liberal and conservative, or is it really a choice between good and bad, right and wrong, just and unjust, American and un-American? The predominant ideologies fighting each other in our country are passé' and restricting. Extremist on both sides fill civilized debated with hatred and hurt. But with the unbearable screech of their terrible voice, they control policy and public opinion. Our leaders and our electorate fear the use of compassion and common sense. Praying for wisdom, patient and understanding is decried from fanatics on both sides. We see evil and delusion in the shadows of all political discourse. But can a consensus of educated Americans ever elect a truly malevolent Chief Executive?

Not as long as we have faith in God!

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;"