Obama's Running Mate

Last Saturday Obama named Delaware Senator Joseph Biden as his vice-presidential running mate. Apparently he was trying to make history by announcing it through e-mail and text messages, but good old CNN confirmed it two hours before official word was released. Anyhow, many people marked this as a good move on his part.

It seems ironic to me thought that Biden hasn't had a lot of popularity himself. He tried to run as a presidential nominee twice in the past:in 1988 and in 2008. The first time he dropped out and the second time he gained a miserly 1% vote. Still, he has a lot of foreign policy experience, which is something Obama is particularly weak in. I don't know too much about this, but apparently Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili invited Biden to Tbilisi to advise him on the recent conflict.

I am ashamed at how little I know about politics and the news. I am not quite sure how this has come to be. It is true that my parents aren't much into politics and didn't discuss it much as I was growing up. Yet, it is something I enjoy reading about. I think it just all seems a bit overwhelming to jump into if you don't have a good background in it, and it also has to be something that you keep up with on a consistent basis. Actually, that is probably the real issue. It takes discipline to read the newspaper or get online each day to look at the news. Furthermore, you have to read critically to be able to understand the issues better instead of being swayed by the common biases.

Hopefully this blog will encourage me to keep up with the news more. It reminds me of a book that Dr. Orr had me read in Senior Seminar: "God at Work: Your Christian Vocation in All of Life." It dealt with 4 different areas that a Christian needs to seek balance in: work, family, church, and society. Orr admitted that he hadn't always participated in ministry in his church, as he felt like he was involved with ministry through being a teacher at Moody. Yet, God convicted him about there needing to be more of a balance in these areas.

It is so true that it is hard to find a balance between many issues in life. Of the four areas, I am weakest in "society." Most of my focus goes towards work, family, and church. Unfortunately, I find that many believers know very little about politics. Many Christian circles discuss the issues of "abortion" and "gay marriage," and know the candidates opinions on those matters. Yet, they know very little about other issues. Frankly, as long as they vote for Republicans they don't seem to care about the other issues.

It is also very ironic to me that even though many Christians are strongly opposed to abortion, they know little about birth control pills and how many types can kill a fertilized egg (which most Christians view as a life). If they really cared about the issue of abortion, then why do they spend more time picketing abortion clinics then they do studying contraceptives? Also many do little to care for orphans or adopt. I am convinced that until we pick up the pace and start adopting more and giving support to orphans, we will see little change in "sex abstinence education" and "abortion." Okay... I'll stop with the side trail, as this was really supposed to be more about politics.