Holy Hillary!

My gosh do I love Photoshop!

I'm learning something about politicians. When all is said and done, they are people.

When someone is running for office, it is so natural to assume they are lying. How can you gauge their sincerity? What about that gut reaction you get every time you see them on TV, whether positive, negative, or hungry.

Thanks to another one of my better-liked bloggers/authors Matthew, I am gaining more perspective on other candidates.

As much as I would love to deny it, I'm biased to a sinful extent. I am denying candidates their humanity, and stamping them with their policies, their pasts, and even their political parties.

Every time I see or hear Hillary Clinton, my grandfather's voice creeps into my head saying "What a sad sack of sh*t she is!" "She's just a socialistic baby-killer." It's like I have to cringe when she appears because, much like Pavlov's dogs, I have been conditioned my whole life for this reaction. But I must come to the place where I realize Hillary Clinton isn't evil... well no more than you or I at least. She is a person with feelings, dynamics, beliefs, convictions, and humanity.

Hillary does not hope for the downfall of America or morality, as some might think.


And, despite her husband's fall into a sin made public, that was not Hillary's sin. It is unfair to label her immoral because of an action her husband did, and did against his wife as well as himself.

In an interview Hillary talks about her faith, which seems genuine, and whether or not it truly is genuine, I want to believe her. She talks about the role of her faith in shaping her life. She answers questions very clearly, without stumble, about her beliefs in scripture, God, and other faith-based topics.

"I think the whole Bible is real. The whole Bible gives you a glimpse of God and God’s desire for a personal relationship. But we can’t possibly understand every way God is communicating with us. So I’ve always felt that people who try to shoehorn in their cultural and social understanding of the time in the Bible might actually be missing the larger point that we are actually supposed to take from the Bible."

- Hillary Clinton

I spoke of the religious right losing it's solid hold on the republican party, and instead having something that is a combining of the right and left into what Jesus really addresses. Where we often associate Republicans with being strong Christians, and Democrats with being without any substantial faith, this really takes away a persons name. This takes away who they are, their nature, their individuality, and it labels them.

"Well I was bewildered by it, that it was somehow illegitimate to talk about faith as a democrat. I just found that so bizarre, that we were being written out of the whole faith experience. So much of the faith journey in this country are people who put their faith into action on behalf of others; people who fought for abolition, people who fought for women’s suffrage, people who stood up on behalf of the concepts of justice and so much more."

- Hillary Clinton

Perhaps in some ways the Republicans have been the faith and the Democrats have been the works. I believe James makes specific mention of how necessary and interconnected the two must be.

In some ways I think adding the Democratic sympathy of the weak to the Republican notion of God's goal of justice can create a satisfying stew. It will allow the two to check each other, not too unlike how I mentioned in this post. It would appear Hillary is at least somewhat in line and prepared for this bonding together. Once again realizing that Christ is available to all... neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, neither Republican nor Democrat...

"I’ve always been skeptical of people who wear their faith on their sleeves. I think it’s a good skepticism to have. But we’ve gone too far the other way where it was somehow illegitimate to express your faith in the public square. So many of us… we’ve been trying to search for the common ground where we can have these discussions without falling into the trap that is too easily tempting; that we are somehow judging based on our personal experience instead of trying to offer a perspective to kind of move forward together on."

- Hillary Clinton

I don't care who you vote for, and I probably won't vote for Hillary... but let's get to the point where we can appreciate everyone; where we can appreciate differences; where we can recognize that we are all unique, but equal, humans made in God's image.