Wow, this is a tremendous article by Ed Stetzer. Much for me to take to heart. A few excerpts:

“Statistically, the unchurched lean heavily Democrat. So—and I know it’s just me talking crazy now—if you want to reach the unchurched, maybe constant Facebook/Twitter posts about how stupid Democrats are might be a bad idea….Christians are often unnecessarily burning bridges on the altar of political partisanship.”

“It may be an appropriate missional decision to voluntarily restrict your own freedom to constantly blurt about politics, in order to reach your neighbor who holds a different view.”

“An endless stream of calling people fools or liars–people who your neighbor voted for–just does not make sense for the Christian….The end result is another stumbling block for those we are trying to reach.”

“I want my unchurched neighbors (who are statistically more likely to be Democrat) to know they are welcome in my home and my church, and that I do not hate them or the president for whom they voted.”

“I suggest we tweet thinking more about Jesus and less about politics. That’s just basic Christian prioritization.

Can anyone explain the purpose of the “Truckers Ride for the Constitution” thing in Washington DC? Truckers want to circle the beltway for three days, slowing down traffic and angering tens of thousands of local people. The publicly state their goal as “shutting down Washington.” They want to tie up traffic for the citizenry.

Isn’t that called anarchy?

Okay, “anarchy” is a stretch, I admit. Though anarchy does involve purposely creating disorder and confusion.

How does this rally support for the Constitution? How does this further their goal of ending Obamacare? If truckers came to Fort Wayne to do this, I can guarantee that plenty of Tea Party supporters trying to get to work would be upset.

I just don’t see the point of this protest. As reported in the Washington Post: “At one point, according to the Virginia State Police, four commercial vehicles slowed traffic to 15 mph after the drivers rode side-by-side across all four northbound lanes of I-495 in Virginia.”

That’s not taking a stand for the Constitution. It’s just irritating people of all political stripes who have places to go. Senseless tactics.

Do they really think Obama will say, “Oh, truckers are blocking all lanes of the Beltway. Can’t have that. I guess I’ll just have to repeal my healthcare program.”

At the end of the Bush presidency, we had that big market crash. I remember meeting with our investment guy and learning that my 401K had lost tens of thousands of dollars. Same with Pam’s retirement funds.

Well, since then our funds have steadily climbed back up–not to where they were, but they’ve been doing well. I know, the right-wing pundits tell us the economy is terrible terrible terrible under Obama. All I know is, our funds have been rebuilding, and we’re pleased.

But that could all come crashing down–again–next week. For our funds, and for your’s, too.

The Republicans are threatening to not extend the debt limit unless certain demands are made. Obama’s “gun to the head” metaphor is totally appropriate. “Unless you defund Obamacare, we’ll shoot the economy.” Some of the more irresponsible and ignorant Republicans are even saying that the debt limit is no big deal–that the US can forego paying its bills, and that the US credit rating can drop, and the economy will continue on just fine.

Tell that to my retirement account next week. Tell that to me after, again, Pam and I lose loses thousands and thousands of dollars of value because of Republican irresponsibility.

Thank you, Tea Party. Thank you, Ted Cruz.

I have no–zero, zilch, nada–patience for the Tea Party. Not so much a problem with their goals as with their attitude of all-or-nothing. They will never be satisfied.

A couple years ago, Obama and Boehner agreed to a deal that would have cut the deficit by 5 trillion. But when Boehner took it back to the House, the Tea Party wing killed it. They wanted more. This past Sunday, Boehner admitted to George Stephanopolous that he and the Senate had reached a deal some weeks ago that would have averted the government shutdown. But then they added defunding Obamacare, and now here we are. Boehner no doubt took the deal back to the House, and the Tea Party wing killed it, again.

It doesn’t matter what kind of a deal is reached with the President. The Tea Party will not be satisfied. They’ll always want more, and unless they get absolutely everything they could possibly want, they’ll be afraid of being accused of compromising.

It reminds me of anti-abortion legislation during the 1980s, when pro-life Congressman wouldn’t settle for compromises on abortion. I heard a very upset pro-life Congressman from that time say something like this: “We could have saved hundreds of thousands of babies, but the hardliners wouldn’t settle for anything less than saving ALL babies. And the result–we didn’t get anything. We should have saved the hundreds of thousands NOW, and then continued working to save the rest.”

The all-or-nothing mentality never works in divided government. It’s about compromise, about give-and-take. But that’s the mentality of the Tea Party.

And it’s why, sometime after next week when the US defaults on its debt, Pam and I will loses thousands and thousands of dollars of value in our retirement accounts.

Oh–and so will you. Even if you’re a big Tea Party supporter, you will lose, too.

Two great political analogies during the “Winners and Losers” segment of the October 5 Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live.

Seth Myers said pf John Boehner having to deal with his Tea Party Congressmen: “You’re like Seinfeld if there were 30 Kramers.”

Co-anchor Cecily Strong then said of the problems on the Healthcare.gov website:
“You can’t campaign on the fact that millions don’t have healthcare, and then be surprised that millions don’t have healthcare. How can you not be ready? It’s like 1-800-FLOWERS getting caught off guard by Valentines Day.”

They goofed big-time with the sign-up process at Healthcare.gov. I went through the registration process twice last night, yet still couldn’t log in. I tried both accounts this morning, and still no luck. Says my username or password are wrong, and I KNOW they aren’t. So I created a third account this morning…same thing. I’m rapidly approaching the definition of insanity.

These are not fatal flaws–just technical glitches that can be fixed. But it’s a PR fiasco in getting Obamacare started. I’m sure millions of users are frustrated. And the wait times are unacceptable. Makes me seriously wonder, considering the virulence of the opposition, if some high-tech sabotage is occurring.

My interest is only curiosity. The exchanges are for the minority of people who either don’t have insurance or who buy insurance on their own. Most of us get insurance through our work, and it’s generally better insurance than the exchanges offer. But I did want to compare costs, out of curiosity, and so far I’ve not been able to get that far.

Fortunately, there’s plenty of time. Obamacare coverage doesn’t start until January 1, and people can sign up through March. Hopefully they’ll fix the site to allow for the traffic, which should have been expected and is totally capable of being handled.

Having said that–I’ve been using the Healthcare.gov website for several weeks to do research. It’s well designed, very user friendly, easy to navigate, and clearly written. The sign-up screens are very user-friendly. I’m quite impressed overall. I experienced no problems until October 1, when the sign-up began. They just have some major functionality and bandwidth issues with the enrollment process.