Analyzing My Vote

With my only votes comprising of an absentee vote from Mexico, and an off the cuff vote in person, I decided to take this Presidential Election a bit more seriously. So seriously, in fact, that one of my personal goals for this year was to understand 27 key political issues. So, on the eve of the eve of the election, my wife and I used a method to determine our candidates that I would highly recommend if you have the time or interest. Warning: You very well may end up splitting your self up across party lines instead of down them.

Method:
1. Find some list of core issues which have the presidential candidates charted out on each one. Here's what we used.
2. Without looking at what each candidate said, answer each question yourself as Pro or Con.
3. After finishing, compare your answers to each candidate.
4. Take this as a percentage of the answers for which the candidate actually took a stand (ignore Not Enough Info and Not Clear. Also, correct "Now Con" to be "Con").
5. Review your top 2 candidates and ensure that the candidate with the highest score does not support any non-negotiable issues for you.

There was no surprise that my Yankee wife was heavily Democratic. What was interesting is that her second choice was the Green party! As for me, the surprise was an even split between the Republican and Democratic party, and a clear favorite for the Conservative Party's candidate.

We'll see if we follow these intuitions at the poll. Maybe my best choice will be wearing yellow boots to the church to cast my ballot.

Gnostic Miracles

But if I do it, even though you do not believe me, believe the miracles, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.  John 10:38

In high school, my AP English Literature teacher and I had lengthy conversations over whether it was acceptable to believe Jesus just because of the miraculous signs and wonders he did. Because of this verse, I said of course it was acceptable. Jesus did mighty and powerful things to demonstrate his power to the Jews. Jesus was certainly a demonstration of the power of God. He did have a point, though, because as Paul reminds the Corinthians in his letter, Jesus' death was a stumbling block for those looking for God's power because he was weak. He was also a stumbling block for the Gentiles, because as they looked for wisdom they found what appeared to be foolishness in Christ.

Nevertheless, his miracles remain as a testimony to his power and divinity, as professed by the blind man from birth before the Pharisees (John 9:13:34).

But what would the Gnostics have thought? They of course, would have assumed Jesus' divinity and separated his nature from his humanity. After all, the spiritual self is the true, pure, and better self, according to this worldview. So what miracles were given them so that they might know and understand?

Here is a short list of the Gnostic miracles - the signs and wonders meant to convince us of Jesus' humanity:

1. Jesus was born of a woman.
2. Jesus turns water into urine.
3. Jesus eats a loaf of bread and 2 fish.
4. Jesus swims in the water.
5. Jesus sees a blind man.
6. Jesus endures a storm.

While this list is certainly facetious, there are many comments in the Gospel that do lead us to see Jesus as a man and not just a spiritual representation. This is a wonderful mystery. The details include:

1. Jesus really was born, and was laid in a manager. He likely did cry.
2. Jesus walked with his parents to Jerusalem. He grew in stature.
3. Jesus got hungry after fasting.
4. Jesus was asleep during the storm.
5. Jesus was often at peoples houses eating and drinking.
6. Jesus was thirsty and asked for water to drink from the woman at the well.

Let us look at the miracles and ordinary acts of this man and trust that he truly was God's Son - Emmanuel.