Pope Benedict, Sevies, McCain & Charbenaeu

Four guys walk into a bar........


It sounded like a joke, didn't it? Between some recent mailings I received and a phone call yesterday afternoon from a pollster, I couldn't help but blog.

Last week I got a letter from "Keep the Faith", a Seventh Day Adventist organization; in it they railed on Geedubya because he said he "sees God in the eyes of the Pope" and said they were "shocked" and that this is "a wake up call" (I wish I had a dollar for every "wake up call"). It went on to say essentially that Bush is going to construct an idol to the beast because of a desire to coordinate our policies with Rome, yadda, yadda, yadda.....ok, it didn't say that specifically, but it is implied. This is pretty fundamentalist stuff here. Anyway, I quit reading at this point, but kept the letter for a Catholic brother in Christ because I knew he would be fried. I haven't spoken to a good Adventist brother in Christ about this yet, but I intend to.

Did you notice I referred to both of them as brothers in Christ? Because I have no doubt they are. It's too bad right wing nut jobs have to target the Catholic Church with this end-of-the-world garbage........rather than target the homeless and hungry with Christ's love. Not that I'm an expert on Catholics, but this is what I know: I've got a couple of awesome Catholic friends who have portrayed the image of Christ (ie: I see God in their eyes) far more so than some of the hate-monger evangelicals I've had the distinct privilege of knowing. I've sat and talked with nuns in a round table discussion where it was evident in the 2 hours we spoke they were far more concerned about reaching a hurting world than anything I heard in six years at a Baptist school.

Now to give props to the sevies (Seventh Day Adventists), and I mean no disrespect, they call themselves this. I went to a Seventh Day Adventist University, after going to a Missionary College, after attending a Baptist High School, being raised Charismatic, after leaving the Church of God (it's a wonder I can think straight). Fact is I didn't know it was Seventh Day until I was taking a tour and the guide asked me if I was "SDA"...thinking he meant some kind of disease, I repeated it back..."SDA? Uh, no, I don't think so" and he had to explain. I broke a cardinal SDA rule by having a pepperoni pizza delivered to studio once and a girl friend asked if I knew what I was eating and I said, probably hog mixed up with a bunch of other bits and pieces......they don't eat meat, particularly pigs. I tried not to offend and started referring to Saturday as Sabbath....which thoroughly confused them and they began to think I was SDA again. Some of my profs and friends from there are honestly some of the best people I have ever known.....with a concern for people unparalleled by even Catholic standards. I assume my name is on some SDA list, hence the Pope letter.

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oh yeah, and John McCain. I got two.....2.......count them, TWO more letters from his campaign one day last week. In the one he addressed me as "Dear Friend"....I thought that was a nice touch. The friend letter was a pretty positive one, to get me jacked up about a RNC Victory this fall....it has VICTORY capitalized and in bold print 3x on the first page alone. The second one is more serious with an underlined statement saying Obama will surrender to Al Queda. So, I guess the difference is clear, Obama "surrendering" to Al Queda or McCain surrendering to big oil companies. Crazy. John did want to make it clear I can only give up to the legal limit of $2300. So how did he just get over a million bucks from the oil companies? I can't compete for influence even at $2300.

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And since yesterday was a testy day with some insurance issues and phone calls I had to make, seemed like a perfect ending to the afternoon when someone from State Senator Charbenau's campaign called my house to ask if I thought Indiana was going in the right direction. The poor girl didn't stand a chance. I said "NO, absolutely not" and then she asked about voting republican and I said "the quicker we get those guys out the better", then she told me how Charbeneau understands the tough economy and voted for property tax reform, at which point I cut her off and said "let me tell you, my taxes, as a middle-income now out of work fella are going to go up by nearly $800 because of Mitch's tax reform while the slumlord across the street is going to have his taxes go down.....do you think that's fair?" uh, no, sir, she said. She asked if I planned to vote for Balmer (his opponent) and I said, "well, I plan to vote against Charbeneau." I wanted to go into the whole quality of life issue in Indiana, but I realized that the RNC may have the phone tapped, peg me as an Obama sympathizer and make me rat out my Catholic friends.