Wanderings of a Post-modern Pilgrim bounced a post off a Jordon Cooper post that kind of stunned me. I thought it was just me.

Jordon reads a lot.
And he posts what he reads.
The guy is a veritable library.
He tosses it out, and some of us pick it up and look at it.

And Barry ran with something Jordon tossed out that hit me kind of hard.

Why am I so often afraid?

Well…
sometimes it is because I can be a man of such little faith…
sometimes it is because I am a follower who can’t think for himself…
sometimes my comfort and ease is more important…
sometimes it is because I want people to like me…
sometimes it is because life is already hard enough at times, why bring more on myself…
sometimes it is because I don’t want to start controversy…

I thought of all this when I went to one of the Christian/political blogs after writing my post last night. I thought of the strong opinions expressed on many of those blogs- whether right or left or somewhere in the middle. I realized I don’t want people to attack me, or criticize me, or think less of me. So I take the safe road. Even though I know and believe that as a Christian I am to be a leaven in the world, even though I know and believe that God has strong opinions about a great deal of these political issues, I leave them aside in order to not rock the boat too much.

World’s Magazine article, A Servant, not a God, addresses what the bible says about government. It is extremely interesting what the bible doesn’t say.
And what the bible doesn’t say, some pundits do; with passion, and conviction and verve and black and white certainty.
You know what is really weird?
I’d swear some pundits think everyone on a computer lives in the US and thinks in Repubican or Democrat.

I’m turning into a blog coward with pundit avoidance behavior.
There are good pundits - passion and fever aside; who don’t sacrifice people for opinion. To be honest, they are kind of hard to find, and when you do and you dare challenge them, they don’t slice you to shreds. Some can even say I’m sorry or I’m wrong. If some pundits didn’t pundit, I suspect they’d let off that steam and ego being serious sports fanatics.
Some can lay down pride and intellect, but that is rather hard in a political arena where winning takes precedent over all. Truth be told, pundicy is a cheap game and a rough one.

Maybe we have to pick our battles.
But even more importantly, I think we have to pick how we fight them.
Leighton Tebay is working for a party for the someday soon to be called Canadian federal election. He wonders;

Wouldn’t we all rather have at least some transparency in government? When the government actually admits it has a problem we want to crucify them. Has the Canadian public become so cynical of government that it can no longer accept the notion of honest governance?

Cynical. Apathetic. Shouted down. Fed up. Tired. Cowed.Take your pick. It’s peanuts compared the the atmosphere in the US.
The discourse at The Heresy has remained civil, and given past posting history will likely remain that way. We could discuss honest governance, the politics and the people without scorning others.
I don’t need to be surprised when pundicy is civil.
We Canadians get six weeks of it. The US has another 7 months. The rhetoric is already scorching. And some god-blog pundits don’t give a damn when they cross the line to shove their point down the readers throat.

All my common fears with Barry aside, I think I’ll keep praying about how to pick my battles, and I’ll try to pick how to fight them. There are blogs I really don’t need to go to. That choice doesn’t need to be complicated.

How well God must like you–you don’t hang out at Sin Saloon,
you don’t slink along Dead-End Road,
you don’t go to Smart-Mouth College.
Psalm 1:1 The Message

Mockers stir up a city,
but wise men turn away anger.
Proverbs 29:8 NIV