Warning: this post is all about politics. Feel free to skip it if you either don’t care or are going to leave me a nasty comment. Polite disagreement is fine, but this is my site and I like things to stay civil.

A while back, I signed up on Barack Obama’s website to be notified of any events that were happening in my area. They would send me things that were totally out of reach, like one email that told me that Biden was speaking somewhere in Virginia, which, um, no. Don’t get me wrong, I think Joe Biden is an ok guy and would probably be a really good vice-president, but I’m not going to drive for four hours to hear him speak for 45 minutes.

On Monday, I got a notice that Obama was coming to Raleigh. I debated on whether or not to bring Cate with me. On the one hand, I thought it’d be kind of fun – I could just pop her in the backpack carrier and off we’d go. I also considered asking one of the neighbors to watch her, since our neighborhood is chock full of stay-at-home moms, but that felt sort of awkward. (Hello, neighbor with a McCain/Palin sign in your yard. Want to baby-sit for me while I go root for the other guy?) I didn’t want her to interrupt Dave’s workday, but he said it was fine, he could watch her so I wouldn’t have to worry about keeping her happy for the entire duration. I decided in the end to go with that option. So Cate and Dave – the two members of our household who aren’t eligible to vote (for different reasons) – stayed home, and I went to the Obama rally all by myself.

It was seriously cool. Actually, the weather was seriously cold. I think it was in the low 40’s this morning, and there was a really crazy wind that was almost painful. I had to stand in line for over an hour, since it stretched out for over three blocks. The highlight was when the old man in front of me asked me if I was a student. I laughed and told him he was sweet, but I’m 32 years old. He said, “Well, we have a lot of graduate students around here who are in their 30’s…” Yeah, nice cover, grandpa. I’m just going to take the compliment that you thought I was 22 and run with it.

Anyway, once the TSA put me through a metal detector and searched my purse, I headed in to find a spot. It was a madhouse. It was still chilly by that point, but pretty soon the sun came out and then I was in a crowd of thousands of people crammed in shoulder-to-shoulder, so it started to get really hot. A couple of people actually fainted during Obama’s speech. Craziness.

I managed to get a couple of decent pictures while I was there.

It was great, I’m so glad that I went. You can see his speech in Raleigh here, if you want. (No way to embed it, unfortunately.)

Also, I’ve signed up to volunteer with the Obama campaign on Election Day. Nothing big, just calling voters and making sure they know where to go to vote. It’s only for a few hours, Dave can take care of Cate while I go do my part for democracy. Six more days, y’all!

So, that happened. Lesson learned: don’t antagonize the evangelicals.

I’m starting to think that there really is no point to these conversations at all. It’s not as though I’m going to change anyone’s mind, any more than they’re going to convert me into a Scripture-quoting, pro-life, anti-gay, right-wing conservative. It’ll never happen. So why bother discussing it? Both sides are equally convinced that they’re correct in their thinking, so even trying to have a reasonable “hey, have you ever considered it from this angle?” conversation usually just devolves into name-calling and nastiness.

I mean, thank God I’m not Dooce and don’t have nearly the number of hateful commenters that she had when she wrote about abortion. Still, y’all should’ve seen my website statistics over the weekend. If only our economy would have such a spike in numbers.

The funny thing is, all the conversation did was make me realize that I’m actually far more to the left than I thought I was. I used to think of myself as fairly moderate, but the more I look at the way that the Republican party is going, the more it’s repelling me in the opposite direction. This year is the first time I’ve registered to vote as a Democrat rather than an Independent. If the Republican party keeps moving in the direction that it is, catering to its evangelical base and trying to legislate morality, by 2012 I’ll probably be a full-on Socialist.

As for the religion issue, I just want to end with a couple of things that I don’t think are all that controversial. First, a friend linked me to a blog post called The Politics of Jesus, which I thought was interesting. And unbelievably neutral toward both liberal and conservative viewpoints. Seriously, go read it. You won’t be offended no matter which side of the aisle you’re on. (Well, you probably won’t. Some people – not naming names – look for excuses to be offended at every turn, and there’s just nothing I can do about that.)

Second, my favorite quote from the late, great Kurt Vonnegut:

For some reason, the most vocal Christians among us never mention the Beatitudes. But, often with tears in their eyes, they demand that the Ten Commandments be posted in public buildings. And of course that’s Moses, not Jesus. I haven’t heard one of them demand that the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, be posted anywhere. ‘Blessed are the merciful’ in a courtroom? ‘Blessed are the peacemakers’ in the Pentagon? Give me a break!

Ok, maybe not the most relevant quote, but you have to admit, he makes a good point.

Third, just to totally lighten the mood: a guy that I went to high school with created a blog a few years ago that I’ve been meaning to link to, and I just never could find a way to work it into the conversation. It’s called Crummy Church Signs, and it is friggin’ HIGH-larious. (Example: “Stop, Drop & Roll Doesn’t Work in Hell”.) Joel himself is a really good Christian guy, he just happens to have a wicked sense of humor when it comes to this stuff. Seriously, some of his captions make me laugh until my eyes water. Hope y’all read and enjoy.

Occasionally I go check out blogs that show up in my Blogher ad links over there on the right. I’ve found a few blogs that way that I really like and continue to read all the time, and then a few that are just sort of eh, whatever, move on. Probably the way a lot of people feel about me when they stumble upon my site – some like, some don’t like. No big thing, right?

I recently came upon a post over at Made2Mama, who I’ve been reading occasionally because she has a really adorable little girl, and well, I have a weakness for blonde toddlers (exhibit A: mine). And in this particular post, she mentioned her views on the election, and it’s clear that she’s obviously way in the other direction of my own viewpoint. And you know, that’s fine, nothing in how she said it was offensive. I was a little wigged out by the fact that she quoted James Dobson, who I generally think of as being one of the hate-mongering Christians that give us other relaxed and groovy Christians a bad name, but you know, benefit of the doubt, right? Maybe she just doesn’t know that he calls homosexuals an abomination and thinks that they can be “cured”? I hope?

Really, I should know better. I left a comment, not trying to be rude but more of a “this is the way I look at that particular issue” (in this case, the issue was abortion), and the replies from various “anonymous’s” on that site has me feeling a little bit stabby. And I don’t want to totally hijack someone else’s comments section (or worse, to be thought of as a blog troll), so I think I’ll just share a few choice bits with y’all over here on my own little site so I can vent explain my beliefs more clearly:

Fact, McCain is Pro-Life.Fact, Obama is Pro-Abortion.It’s not my strong opinion here that Life begins at conception,this is fact.

First, people who refer to pro-choice as “pro-abortion” drive me bonkers. No one in their right mind is “pro-abortion.” It’s a horrible thing, I don’t think there’s a woman alive who’s all, “woo-hoo, I’m going to go have irresponsible unprotected sex so I can have an abortion later! Oh happy day! Good times!” Yeah, sorry. That term just doesn’t wash.

Second, this person seems to be playing it fast and loose with what they consider “facts.” In my mind, no one except God can answer exactly when life begins. It’s fine if you want to believe that life begins at conception, but it can’t be proven. Back in the 1200’s, St. Thomas Aquinas said that life began at quickening (when you can feel the baby move), which is somewhere around the 16-20 week point of pregnancy. I’m not saying I agree with him – obviously that was a long time before we had ultrasound machines and all kinds of other medical advancements – but as far as when exactly it goes from a tiny cluster of cells to a living being with a conscious soul? There isn’t a scientist or theologian out there who can answer that question.

On the subject of abortion, this was one of the things that I had said:

The thing about Roe versus Wade is that it wasn’t so much about the right to have an abortion, it was more a question of, does the Constitution guarantee us a right to privacy? And the Supreme Court decided that yes, it does. So I hope that Roe v. Wade stands, because if we lose that right to privacy, and we only elect politicians that legislate their Christian beliefs… well, then we’re really no different from Iran. We’ll just have a Christian theocracy for a government instead of an Islamic theocracy.

I thought that was a valid point. One of the commenters quoted it back to me and then said:

There IS a difference, very basic, between Christianity and Paganism.

That’s where my head exploded. Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t paganism imply that one doesn’t believe in God? Because I’m pretty close to 100% certain that Muslims do believe in God, they just call Him by a different name, Allah. That statement alone, referring to Muslim people as pagans, makes this commenter one of the types of “Christians” (air-quotes on purpose) that I do not want myself to be associated with. There are more Muslims in the world than there are Christians, and the fact that this person can show such blatant disrespect for the religious beliefs of literally millions of people makes me shudder at the thought that someone might mistakenly categorize me alongside such incredibly close-minded, judgmental people. It’s even more unbelievable that he/she had quoted the Golden Rule earlier (you know, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”), and then has the gall to dismiss an entire religion as pagan. What-what-WHAT?!?!!

Oh, and I mentioned something about how the founding fathers were Christian and Jewish – I said it poorly, I meant that our country was set up with a Judeo-Christian ethic in mind. I know there’s some history buffs out there, can y’all help me with this? Am I right? I know there was a Jewish colony, I thought it was in Maryland, but I can’t remember if any Jewish people were part of the group that’s considered to be “founding fathers”? Help? Anyway, this was the response:

And…the Jews were not a part of our Founding Fathers. It was not they who were being persecuted in England. However, if we have learned anything from history (and this is doubtful) they would have shouted out the usual cry, “You’re trying to push Jesus on us!” : ) But that leads me to a completely different topic.

Again with the unbelievable complete and total lack of respect for other people’s religions. Seriously, it just boggles my mind. And even with a smiley face? WTF?

Ok, last thing:

I am not here to be inflammatory. As I said, I have my opinion, but let’s be real here. There is room for opinion, but right and wrong are very clear. It is a fallacy in this day and age that the world is full of gray. A desire to live in the gray does not eliminate black and white. A lie is still a lie, even when everyone believes it.

No gray at all, just black & white? Wow. I happen to think that some things are open to interpretation – like the Bible, which is why we have so many Biblical scholars in the world. A hundred people can read the same Bible verse and come up with a hundred different versions of exactly what it means. So yes, there is a LOT of gray in the world the way that I see it. But it must be nice to so clearly know exactly what’s right and wrong, and to be the authority on who’s good and who’s a sinner. It’s so easy and clear-cut. Sure sounds like the world this person lives in is nice and simple, huh?

Sorry, I’ll stop. I’ll be back to posting cute toddler photos next time, I promise. I just needed to get that off my chest.