Politics is a poison for me

Politics is a poison for me.

When I get "into" political issues I easily fall "out of" grace; in other words, I lose track of the grace of God and become judgmental and narrow-minded. Of course I justify that by saying/thinking that I am "right" so it's ok! The problem is that I really don't like what happens to my spirit when I get into that mode.

What is it about politics? One of the two "no-no's" of polite discourse, I can discuss religion without getting "holier than thou," but not politics. Why is that? Hmmmmm… something to ponder.

I left the Democrat Party because I could no longer stomach the two-faced, hypocritical stances it took. I did not join the Republican Party because I observed its hypocrisy too. So I'm an independent; a conservative independent. And while I find myself aligning most frequently with the Republicans, I do not want to be boxed in by any particular political party. I fancy myself as one who's politics are determined by his relationship with Jesus. But that's a hard sell.

Especially to my more liberal friends; they think I'm a sell-out to Rush Limbaugh. They cannot imagine a follower of Jesus being against something as momandapplepieish as universal health insurance. But then, they couldn't understand why I was not hypnotized by Obama-charm. But to my more conservative friends, I'm too squeamish (not the "kill a commie for Christ" type).

I reserve the right to be considered wrong by both sides of the aisle.

And that's ok with me. But I need to watch myself, that I don't get too carried away by political poison. Christ didn't die for the world so that I could dismiss those with whom I disagree. Love is bigger than opinion. Eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is a fundamental human predicament, and I've eaten more than my share.