The Machine Has Been Raged Against

Rage Against the Machine

My friend's brother is the bass player for Rage Against the Machine, a band I've been into since high school. We got to met them and then watch their show that was a protest against the Iraq war at the Democratic Convention. That was amazing! The show was really great.

After that, Larry and I decided to join the war march, whichended up being about 4,000 people with banners and signs, led by Rage and the Flobots, as well as a group of soldiers that had come back from Iraq and now oppose the war.

It was interesting. The group was non-partisan, and I mean that. They hate all parties equally. Larry is a Republican, I'm an Independent, he's neutral on the war, I'm against it - and neither of us has made our mind up for November's election, but are both leaning certain ways.

It was fun, had a certain element of danger - but, ultimately we decided to run ahead a bit and watch things unfold. All in all, we walked 12-15 miles that day and saw some crazy stuff.

I'm not a Democrat ...

Or a Republican. I am sick of the stuffed suits that we elect (or sometimes don't even). I know it's cynical, but I feel like every politician is out to make money and be famous, maybe in that order, maybe reversed. I like some of them as thinkers and maybe even kind of good guys, and I believe that most of them mean well, but there's some sort of gap there.

I can't really get into the fact that it seems like most conservatives just want to get their cash and also make their friends money, and all of the dying people around the world are just unlucky. Even the programs aimed at aiding the developing world seem like a pat on the back to justify not paying taxes. And I can't really get into the increasing self-congratulatory manner in which liberals hate conservatives. Our troops are still in Iraq and Afghanistan, and all over, so how are you guys different?

All I really know is that I hate the political season that is fast approaching. I barely made it through the last one with all of the hatred and fighting. And the TV commercials! They're kind of funny at first, like John Kerry is responsible for everything bad that has ever happened, or Bush is trying to kill your grandma by cutting off her healthcare - but then by the end it's just sad.

Christians in America need to wake up to the fact that neither party is looking to advance God's Kingdom. They just aren't. And that doesn't mean we don't vote or stay active politically, what it means is that aligning ourselves with a party line is aligning ourselves with the Father in Heaven. It's pushing agendas that we as average citizens don't even realize.

All this is boiled down to how do we love people better? Is it by making them behave certain ways because laws say so? Is that really life-changing? No way. Jesus' agenda was to love the unlovable, to reach the unreachable and to make the outcast the most revered. I don't see modern American politics or politicians effectively doing, or even trying, much of this at all.