From the liberal Christian

I believe in God. And I'm a liberal.

It's two sentences that people rarely hear in the same breath, or even the same paragraph. I really don't find it that surprising. And you ask, how can this be?

Well, for one thing, I hate labels. I hate the fact that because I live in San Francisco, I have long hair, drive a Prius, go to drum circles and, well, do whatever it is with patchouli that people do with it. (What is patchouli anyways?)

The fact of the matter is I grew in a rural Minnesota. A very "red" part of Minnesota. My mother is a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat, but my father is a conservative independent. I was raised not to take one side or the other, but to come to my own decisions. Their offspring created me, my brother (a self-identified Democrat) and my sister (a self-identified Republican). Yes, we all survived just fine in the same house!

And often I come to clash with my fellow San Franciscans. I voted for Democrat Gavin Newsom, to which one friend of mine responded "You voted for that Nazi?" instead of voting for the Green candidate. And while I'm socially liberal, I'm fiscally conservative. I don't believe in just handing over money to a problem. At the same time, I do realize there's certain problems that the government is the best at solving. No one complains about socialized police enforcement. (See my previous posts for more examples.)

And, I believe in God. My parents raised me religiously. We were raised Lutheran, and we went to church most every Sunday. I was baptized and went to Catechism, and attended Sunday school up until high school.

And I still believe in God. I pray, and I believe God watches over me, and sometimes, I even ask for His help to get through the tough times. And He does.

So one asks, how can you be a liberal and a Christian?

Well, it's not terribly difficult. For example, I've become rather offended that some people are against science simply because it interferes with their beliefs. For example, people believe evolution goes directly against the teachings of the bible. It was an issue (like many things) I've had to confront in my own beliefs. I remember asking my Sunday school teacher about the discrepancies between the Bible's version of Creation and what science tells us. She put it very well. God didn't fax the bible from heaven. What we read in the bible (especially the Old Testament) was told in lore for thousands of years before it was committed to paper. Secondly, trying to explain the Big Bang to a people who don't even yet know the world is round might prove a little difficult. Thirdly, would you want to? Perhaps God's plan is to let us figure it out for ourselves, at a time when we're ready. Ultimately how I resolved it was, why can it be so awful to learn about the wonder of God's Universe? Honestly, it's really a beautiful thing.

And yes, I'm gay. This was one of the most difficult issues I had to face in my life. Ultimately, I came to the conclusion, I'm not a bad person. I do believe in God, and I believe it was just the way I was made. Who is to say this wasn't God's plan for me? And why throw out the baby with the bath water. We are all sinners, and just because we're gay doesn't mean Christianity isn't for us at all. We are also all God's children.

And you know? Jesus was the original hippie. Long hair, love one another, thou shalt not kill. And we know he loved a lovely glass of Chardonnay. Something light and summery, but with an explosive finish. :-)

Hey, maybe being a liberal and a Christian ain't so bad after all.

Did we liberate Iraq, or occupy it?

I've noted a dangerous trend among Republicans. They are quick to curtail any discussion of exiting Iraq by simply dismissing it as "cut and run".

That begs a question from me: I thought were liberating Iraq. Are you saying now we are simply to occupy it?

If we never make any plan to exit it, then we truly are just occupiers. There was a famous line from the movie The Battle of Algiers from the commander of the French forces that the problem was simple: The French wanted to stay, and the Algerians wanted them out. And then:

Should we remain in Algeria? If you answer "yes," then you must accept all the necessary consequences.

Cut out "French" and put in "American" and cut out "Algeria" and put in "Iraq".

And personally, I'm not ready to accept the consequences. Thankfully, the problem is that they want us out, and we want out too. We do, don't we?

So, please stop dismissing any discussion of ever getting out as "cut and run".

Make a plan and make us liberators, not occupiers.

Soccer.... in the US?

I was amazed, and I think I wasn't alone. This is for sure for me the first World Cup I've watched, mostly as my interest in soccer has grown from my trips to Europe, and you can't follow German news without following the Bundesliega. Plus as followed my interest in all things German, you couldn't without hearing about the then-impending World Cup.

I did ended up watching most of the games on Univision (the American commentators absolutely suck in comparison), and my Spanish soccer vocabulary has improved immensely. But today, I think everyone came out of their respective closets in support of their teams, and gathered en masse in bars, in parks, even in the streets, wearing their respective shirts, jerseys, even with painted faces and flags. Part of it is there's a huge Italian American population in San Francisco. Part of it is that everyone here is from somewhere. A couple British coworkers followed the England team. Several coworkers from all over Latin America watched their respective teams. I myself rooted of course at first for the US, and then Germany. (I even learned a German idiom, "Drück uns die daumen", literally "press the thumbs for us"... physically do it and you'll realize it means "root for us".) Like the games themselves, it was a fascinating insight into the nations themselves. At one of the Mexico games, the crowds were so raucous, with yelling and drums and trumpets, you couldn't hear anything. But we also saw the England-Sweden game at the Royal Exchange (itself a British pub), and British expats lined in and politely cheered for their home team, and ended with a genteel applause.

I recall a story from a week ago Friday when after Germany played Argentina, I wore my FC Bayern jersey to work. I had to drop off my bike south of Market and walked up to Market to catch a bus downtown a few blocks to get to work. I walked to the back and sat down. Two guys across the aisle looked at me with this huge smile, then looked at each other. I took my headphones off, and the one looks at me and says... "Sind Sie Deutscher?" (Are you German?) I laughed. "Nein, ich bin Amerikaner." "Aber du sprechst Deutsch!" "Ja, ich bisschen." And then we got interrupted by someone asking about the world cup, and then I had to get off. It was very cute. Actually the second time that's happened to me here in the US wearing the jersey. :-)

But perhaps it's a generational thing. Kids all across America are learning the sport, even coining the term "Soccer Mom". Yes, the US team sucked ass this time. But give them a few years. Wait for those kids to grow up, and ya never know. Maybe then the US will be playing Italy (or Germany or Brazil) in a final game (or semi-final, or quarter final... give them time!), instead of just the first round. And then we don't have to root for our ancestoral country. We can root for the US. Just maybe. :-)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/07/10/WORLDCUPWATCH.TMP