Voting Week--do God's best

This Week at UCMHE; blog below

Learning Opportunities

Monday: noon: Misquoting Jesus—chapter 5 led by Dr. Fred Richart, in the circle area, food court, MBSC
Tuesday: noon: The God within—led by Barbara Catterton; MBSC food court
Noon: Islam 101: led by Dr. Paul Williams, Room 207, 1313 Farnam on the Mall
This Wesleyan Live event is organized by UCMHE for you for six Tuesdays. This week we learn about Relations between Muslims and Christians—how they view each other. Call me for a ride.
Wednesday: noon: Community of Faith—led by Liz Polivka; MBSC food court.
Saturday morning: working for Habitat for Humanity; Anna Cox is coordinator. Email her with your plans to be there. She’ll have details.


Next week: in addition to the regular schedule, there will be a Labyrinth at the Fireplace lounge most of Tuesday, beginning at 9am. Don’t miss this spiritual awakening event.

Also, the UCMHE Board will meet at 4PM, Tuesday. These are the sponsoring denomination representatives. John and Lori will be introduced and talk a little about their projects/faith/style.

And we’ll be making plans to get the word out about the trip to New Orleans, leaving December 30.


Now the blog:

This is voting week and there’s really no excuse for you not to vote, if you’re of age and your leg’s not broken or something. Don’t forget to vote your values. The values of this ministry are:

Free food—It’s all about fellowship and getting together. Some candidates are not about explaining their views out there. Instead, they seem to be all about division, creating hate, etc. Those are not my values. Free food and gathering is about inclusion. My values say we’re all in this life thing together. I think God values all people—no matter who they are or where they live.

Make yourself Useful: Not only do we expect ourselves to be useful, we expect to have a chance to be useful. This is where I go with that thought during election week: I vote for candidates who provide opportunities for people to be useful. We want opportunities to make the world better, not more cost effective. (Oh, and did I mention there’s a seat for you on the bus to New Orleans on December 30?—we can help out victims of Hurricane Katrina).

Be Sweat Free: Biblical Justice is a good thing. If you spend much time in the scriptures, you can quickly come to the conclusion that God has a spot for the poor, and has an expectation of those who are wealthy. My thinking is that God expects the wealthy to help the impoverished. Does your candidate/proposition work to help the impoverished, and just as importantly, does your candidate work to change the system that creates and sustains poverty? (Oh, and did I mention there’s a seat for you on the bus to New Orleans on December 30?—we can help out victims of Hurricane Katrina).

Progressive talk about God is a value. A wise woman once said, “A good question is worth a thousand words”—that’s four typed pages, double spaced. Some of us (you’re welcome to join us!) meet on Mondays at noon to talk about how the Bible was compiled and has been changed over centuries. But at the same time, there is truth about God’s love on the pages we have. That’s a miracle! Does your candidate have optimism or pessimism? Does your candidate have a plan to let God’s love out? (Oh, and did I mention there’s a seat for you on the bus to New Orleans on December 30?—we can help out victims of Hurricane Katrina).

Yep, these are values worth voting for, and that’s what I plan to do.

--Fred