Andy Borgmann's Blog

One of the greatest moments in a Presidntial Campaign happened last night and I am pretty sure we all missed it because we were watching Phelps get his 8th gold medal.

I am not really sure who "won" this discussion; Obama, McCain, and Warren for that matter all represented themselves beautifully. But I know with out a doubt, hands down who the losers were: James Dobson, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Al Franken, Bill Maher, and countless others.

Warren showed us what it truly means to be a patriotic American and to ask the tough questions that we aren't all going to agree on, but deserve to be discussed in a civil, mature, and respectful manner.

There was no "Stop Obama Expresses" allowed at Saddleback. There were no "Evil Neocon Bush Administrations." Simply tough, fair, and introspective questions for two people running for a very tough job.

In the opening segment Warren made the comment

I have to tell you upfront but both these guys are my friends. I don't happen to agree with everything either teach or believe, but they both care deeply about America. They're both Patriots and they have very different views on how America can be strengthened in America. We've got to learn to disagree with out demonizing each other and we need to restore civility. We need to restore civility in our civil discourse and that's the goal of the Saddleback Civil Forum.

Great job Rick! I am very proud of you. Great job!

Since January, people always come up / email / send messenger pigeon to me saying, "can you believe Allen became Catholic." And I always say, "for those of us who know Allen, it really wasn't that much of a surprise." And I can attest that since becoming Catholic, not much has changed.¹

One thing that has changed: Allen has increased his use of the phrase the "seven deadly sins" exactly² 834%.

The seven deadly sins make for a great movie³ but awful theology. The ranking of sin itself is determinental to a true understanding of grace and redemption.

The Catholic church has taught for years there are two categories of sins: venial and mortal. Venial being your light everyday sin that must be easy for God to forgive.⁴ Mortal, or deadly, being the stuff God must have to work at to forgive you.⁵

But it isn't just the Catholics. We all do it. Please rank with your best Protestant Theology from most to least likely to be shamed.

1. Worked everyday of the week
2. Looked at pornography
3. Thought of myself better than the homeless man
4. Lied to a friend about plans
5. Cheated on a spouse
6. Used the words God Damn It
7. Disrespected a parent on national radio
8. Downloaded MP3s illegally
9. Used Ecstasy recreationally

My guess is you would rank it: 5-9-2-7-4-6-3-8-1

If I came to you and said, "hey, I was just really busy this last week. Boss really riding me. Worked every single day of the week." Would you even think there was anything wrong with that?

Now let's say I cheat on my wife.⁶  Now let's say I regularly sleep with my girlfriend.⁷ Now let's say I came to you and said, "hey, for the last five years I have had a sex buddy. We have no real relationship, but you know, we both have needs, and we both get pretty stressed out, so you know, from time to time we are 'friends with benefits'." Tell me you would not think differently in this case?

The point. We all rank sin. But does God?

The way I read it, there is no goody-two-shoes in the Bible.⁸

Paul, killed thousands.

Peter, denied his relationship to Jesus when Jesus needed him the most.

David, slept with Bathsheba, tried to cover it up, murdered her husband.

Abraham prostituted his wife for safety.

Name one person in the Bible who actually lives up to a sanctified life.

Heck, even sweet Ruth seduced Boaz on the threshing floor.

Do any of these sound like your pastor? Better yet, let's say your pastor did any of this, do you think he would keep his leadership position?

The modern Church has missed out on being apart of the story of redemption and grace for thousands of years. And it is all due to the fact we have an erroneous, sanitized view of redemption and it starts with the ranking of sin.

I have wrestled with a question for years; probably since I was at least 8. It's an odd question, especially for an 8 year old. Ready?

Is death the only thing that makes life enjoyable?

As years past, and my belief in Christ grew, I have later rethought the following question this way: is eternal life really an eternal hell?

I very much enjoyed a short-lived show on Fox this past year called New Amsterdam. It was about a man (John Amsterdam) who had been alive since 1642, who couldn't age or die until he found his true love. Through out the centuries he married different women, held different jobs, but in the contemporary, he was a police investigator. Because of all this, the show had a weird modern crime fighting feel mixed with a quirky historical feel with a slight touch of a romantic comedy.

In the pilot, John asks the following question to his son (yes, his son is the older, half-black gentleman in the clip).

"To be human is to die. To die is what makes life worth living."

I remember being assigned a book to read in high school titled "Tuck Everlasting." I say be assigned because the only two things I remember about that book was: a.) not being able to participate in the Socratic Seminar because I was honest about my failure to read the book, and b.) the book was about people who found the secret to everlasting life and how they grew to resent it. I guess it was made into a movie in 2002 (which I was unaware of until writing this), and it's tagline sums it up: "If you could choose to live forever, would you?"

Seriously. I know I am like the worst minister ever because most of the modern presentation of the Gospel is built on the premise that all want to live forever. But that is not why I believe in the Gospel. Nor is it why I think you should believe in the Gospel. In fact, I often wonder if heaven is going to get boring after a while?

Think about it. If you never die, what motivates you? If you have unlimited amount of time to spend with your kids, do you still want to? If you don't have to eat to stay alive, do you still work? If you have just as much time to marry, or see the Pyramids, or watch the Cubs go the World Series today, as you did yesterday, why do any of those things matter?

The weird thing about it is that we don't really have a choice in this matter do we? We either are eternal souls, and as Colin Hay would say, "waiting for our real life to begin." Or, all there is to this life is the material, and when our 80 years or so are up, we're done. Not sure which is better, but I guess I shouldn't lie around and ponder for too long.

If you aren't a psychologist you can go ahead and stop reading this post. Alright, all psychologists now? Here's the question I pose on this proverbial, digital couch: why is it that I truly like Erik, but I can't stand JaSoN...

Ohh, you'd like a little bit of context.

Sure.

See, Erik is the creator of AllenHuntShowSucks.com. We sometimes exchange as much as 15-20 e-mails a week. He tells me when he goes on vacation. I tell him when I am sick. I generally care for him as a human being. He's an atheist. He pretty much hates everything I stand for. Our relationship reminds me of Professor X and Magneto in the movie X-Men. We are bitter sworn enemies, but we have a fondness and respect for one another that seems to transcend the enemy thing.

JaSoN on the other hand is an annoying blog commenter at TruthTalk Live (a Christian radio show, on Christian stations that Allen and I sometimes fill in on). JaSoN and I's relationship is strictly bound to the blog. He tells me I don't believe in Sola Scriptura. I tell him Sola Scripture isn't even in scripture, so we must rely on theological concepts like the Wesleyan Quadrilateral to pick up where scripture leaves us. I really could careless about him. He's a Christian. We probably basically agree on about 95% of the main issues related to our faith. But for the 5% we disagree on, I want to punch him in the face. Our relationship reminds me of Peter La Fleur and White Goodman in the movie Dodgeball. We are bitter, sworn "brothers", and thanks to atonement for sin, we will have to spend eternity with one another.

So Dr. Internet, do you have enough to figure out why I truly like my "enemy" but dislike my "brother"?

I know. I don't have an answer either. I have been puzzling about this for months now.

I guess if I had to pinpoint it, my real distaste for some other Christians probably stems from what I would call the "bastaderization" of the Gospel. We have reduced the Bible to be "the owner's manual of life" and it has all the answers. We come up with inconsistent theology, and we proof text certain scriptures to make our point more convincing.

But the way I see it, there are some questions the Bible doesn't answer (i.e. How do you make a plane fly? How do you start a heart after a heart attack? Why are some people always depressed?). And that is where we turn to science or medicine or psychology.

And whether preachers would like to admit it or not, there are gray issues in the Bible (i.e. Why does it seem perfectly acceptable for Solomon to sleep around, but I can't? Is is wrong to use English swear words? Is masturbation a sin? Is it ok to pass the homeless guy on the street and not help him out?). And that is where we turn to scripture, reason, experience, tradition, and prayer.

In the end, I guess it is that I seem to forget that I need to approach JaSoN with grace and patience and love, because I think it doesn't matter. Sure we disagree, but his opinion of me won't have any effect on his life or eternity. Where as, psychologically speaking, with Erik I seem to think the way I interact with him could have an eternal difference.

I should probably pray about that inconsistency of behavior.

Thanks Doc. This session has been great.

I would like to thank the American Family Association for reminding me why, as a Bible-believing, Evangelical Christian, I hate Christian political organizations. Why? It only took one look at their 2008 Official Voter Guide. I seriously laughed when I saw it.

First off. It should be stated a 501(c)3 organization is not allowed to endorse a political candidate. The way around it is to release a voter guide about the "issues" and assume that those who align with your organization will align with the person with the most yes-es. You know the people at AFA wish Huckabee's name started with an "F" just so they could have put him in front of Guiliani (although then they probably wouldn't support him because his name would be a swear word and we all know the Bible talks A LOT about swearing {sarcasm} ).

So what did I do? The only responsible Christian thing to do: I created my own version of an official AFA (only this time AFA = "Andy's Faith Awareness") 2008 Voter Guide to make fun of them. I included a Jesus column (as well as a column for me and the AFA as well). I added eight "faith based" issues the AFA should have mentioned. And I also assigned a numerical value to the AFA, Jesus, and Andy column on a scale of 1 to 10 on how important that would be to each "candidate". Take a look.

Click for a larger version (Or Download the PDF to print out and give to friends )

Now admittedly, I do not get to speak for Jesus. I will acknowledge this. I wish the AFA would. But given my extensive reading of scripture, the above 1-10 scale resembles how I interpret a modern-day Jesus would rank the political issues. Please also note, that I do not always "agree" with Jesus. Why? It isn't because I am right and Jesus is wrong; but because I at least have the integrity to recognize that what I think about our current American socio/political culture is potentially wrong.

What I would rather point out is the difference between AFA and Jesus. I hate to break it to you, but Jesus could careless about gun laws and taxes. Remember his answer about paying taxes to Caesar? The ambivalence was astonishing. Don't get me wrong, I want small government. I want low taxes. But to say that low taxes is a "faith" issue is irresponsible at best.

But now lets look at what Jesus did talk about more than just about any other topic: taking care of the poor? Ohh but wait, it isn't on the list. Ohh so gun laws and taxes make the list, but taking care of the poor somehow is not a family value?

Let's talk about pro-life. Sure we all know Jesus is against abortions, but what about the death penalty? What about health care? I hate to break it to you, but being pro-life is more than being anti-abortion.

But then I get the predictable response from my friend when I object and she states:

Are you going to mention in your blog that it is the church’s responsibility to take care of the poor (not the government)?

Now I don't blame her for this comment. Why? Because it is quite the popular assumption within the faith community. But I have to call BS. That mindset is fine, but you don't get your cake and eat it too. If you are going to scream at the top of your lungs for traditional marriage and abortion, then you have stated that your intentions are to yield the "churches" role, at least in part, to the government. If you want to lobby the government for pro-life laws, then you better be willing to lobby the government for poverty laws as well.

So why does this matter? Well you will notice that I put "?" marks under the candidates column for the issues I created. When I originally went to do this I was going to include where I thought the candidates stood on these issue. But then I realized that was the wrong approach. The AFA (and other's like it) have a lot of authority in a very powerful constituency. Millions of people look to them for political guidance. But if they turn non-faith issues into faith issues (i.e. gun laws), and forget to mention issues that are faith issues (i.e. poverty laws), then they are doing a huge disservice to the American political arena, and more importantly the body of Christ.

As a Christian political group, we must recognize that we are following Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh and Karl Rove and Fox News closer than we are following Jesus - and that is a horrendous offense. As Barack Obama said at a recent Sojourners event in Atlanta, GA, "before we get carried away, let's read our Bibles now. Folks haven't been reading their Bibles."

I will close with this. Before I get labeled a helpless liberal, I want to state sincerely I have not decided who I am voting for. The way I look at it, I am either voting for Huckabee or Obama. The point is, I would vote for each of them because of what my faith tells me is important. Neither Huckabee or Obama or Guiliani or Edwards are Jesus Christ. Neither one of them is right on every issue. The AFA can continue to follow Coulter and Hannity and Limbaugh and Rove, but for me, I will follow Christ.

Today was AWESOME!!! I can't state that any better. Today was probably one of the top 5 experiences I have had in my life. Why? Because I think I killed a bunch of Navy Sailors!

Allen and I left the office this morning at 7:30 am and headed to Dobbins Air Force Base in Marietta, GA. We met up with a friend of the show (callsign Toolrod), and he took us onto the base. It reminded me of driving around Kadena Air Force Base in Okinawa, Japan. But this had a twist Kadena did not have: today I was going to the Navy's F-18 flight simulator!

Most of you know my love of aviation. Some of you know that for a six month period of my life I aspired to be a professional pilot until (and I don't claim this very often) God spoke to me (not audibly) and told me that wasn't the plan He had for me. Very few of you know that during that six month time period I actually visited the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO as I was very seriously considering entering it, as I aspired to pilot the F-16.

I knew today was going to be amazing. I found the F-18 astonishingly easy to fly. It accelerated like a fighter jet should. Rolls and climbs were remarkably smooth and quick. At one point I was climbing at a rate of 24,000 feet/min (your average airline flight shouldn't usually exceed 3,000 feet/min). The only real problem I had for the day was I couldn't figure out how to trim the aircraft very well, which meant I had a hard time keeping the aircraft at a constant altitude with no change. This surprised me because when I flew a Cessna I remember being surprised how easy it was to control the trim.

I had two highlights of the day:

1.) I pulled a 4G Inside Loop that started at 5000 ft, climbed to (if I were to guess) 12,000 ft, and then (and I kid you not) returned to exactly 5000 ft. I can't explain the rush when doing that and then looking at the altimeter and see it read exactly where I started (all while flying 600-700 MPH).

2.) I almost landed on an aircraft carrier. I had a little bit of a hard time figuring out the Instrument Landing System (I am used to the way it looks on commercial aircraft), but I got lined up perfectly with the carrier on the first try. The only problem was, I was a little low and didn't realize it until too late and crashed right at the back of the carrier. I certainly would have killed myself and a whole bunch of Navy Soldiers on the boat. But I was freaking close I tell you!

Now if someone out there from Delta can get me a couple hours in the Boeing 777-200 simulator at Hartsfield, I think I could die a happy man.

But what is the point of all this? Well lets be honest, I mainly just wanted to report on the cool thing I got to do. But it also got me thinking about interests and hobbies in our lives. I can't explain why I like aviation the way I do. I spend way too many hours a airliners.net and flying my computer game simulator at home. But this I do know. When I was in high school, I used to question why I spent so much time dinking around on the computer and with technology. I had no idea how God was going to use that. God creates passions in our lives for a purpose. So with aviation, I have stopped questioning why I spend so much time learning about it, and I just hope and trust that I will get as much out of it as I have with technology.

I am in Fort Wayne right now. One of my favorite things about going home is to catch up with friends I talk with occasionally on the phone, but see rarely. Lissa, myself, and another friend named Laura were set to meet at Buffalo Wild Wings. It turned out about half my graduating high school class showed up. But when Lissa walked in, all other conversation in my book ceased and the fun was about to start.

So you might be asking yourself, why is this girl so important? Do you have like a major thing for her? Not exactly. On paper, Lissa and I should be enemies. In our "Fox News" world, we should not be friends. We should have a TV show where we fight to the bitter death over just about any topic, accusing the other person of being anti-American and a horrible person¹. But there are few people I look forward to hanging out with more than Lissa. The night always seems to end too early.

Lissa is agnostic, liberal², cute, and smart. I am a Christian, conservative², ugly, and not-too-bright. But what I love about our relationship is that we have always had great respect for each other, and we have, with out actively trying, always abided by the rules of an article I came across on Cracked last week titled 10 Things Christians and Atheists Can (And Must) Agree On. The basic gist of the article are these 10 points:

1. You Can Do Terrible Things in the Name of Either One
2. Both Sides Really Do Believe What They're Saying
3. In Everyday Life, You're Not That Different
4. There Are Good People on Both Sides
5. Your Point of View is Legitimately Offensive to Them
6. We Tend to Exaggerate About the Other Guy
7. We Tend to Exaggerate About Ourselves, Too
8. Focusing on Negative Examples Makes You Stupid
9. Both Sides Have Brought Good to the Table
10. You'll Never Harass the Other Side Out of Existence

I think all of these points are right on. The only exception being #3, and while I think it is true in reality, it is a sad thing about modern Christianity. I mean, take a couple of different social choices away, the fact I abandoned any desire to go to Law School, and our Sunday morning activities, and Lissa and I live pretty much the same life.

But think about how great this world would be if we approached all people we disagreed with using the above guidelines. Think how politics would look. Think how families would look. Think how relationships would be different. Think how more civilized this world would be. Think how much fun life would be. And both sides are just as guilty of continuing the hatred of the other.

This Christmas I received a present³ from Erik (creator of allenhuntshowsucks.com). I even opened it with my family around the tree with all my other presents (we joked about the fact it might have anthrax). But I sincerely enjoy Erik as a person. We don't agree on religion. But we have respect for one another, and our e-mails back and forth are a lot of fun.

My hope (which they know) is for Lissa and Erik to one day realize the fullness (I didn't say easy) of life found in a relationship with Jesus. But until then, I am thoroughly enjoying the fun times and journey together.

Last night Allen posed the question, "who would Jesus vote for?" Like only the Allen Hunt Show can, we received responses from across the political spectrum. At one point, I got on the air and said that if elections were held today I would probably vote for Huckabee (if he were in it) or Obama (probably who I am going to vote for).

I like Huckabee. He gets a bad wrap because of his stance on science (which I disagree with) and comments about people with AIDS made back in the 80s (who wasn't ignorant about AIDS in the 80s...sheesh, forgive the dude). But in all seriousness, I think Huckabee is incredibly compassionate to the poor and recognizes that being Pro-Life is more than just being Anti-Abortion. It means taking care of the poor and having a social responsibility.

But that really isn't the point of this entry. I came across CNN's "Millionaires-In-Chief" article this morning and I think I have a modified response, but the same conclusion. If Huckabee isn't in the picture, I am voting for Obama.

Here's the thrust of the information:

A couple of things stand out to me big time.

1.) Fred Thompson (and Ron Paul) are the ones who are held by the true "Fiscal conservatives" as "their guy." But Fred's info here is alarming. He is the only one who's net worth is less than that of his 2006 income. How is he going to be a federally fiscal conservative if he is personally fiscally inept.

2.) Mitt Romney seems to have more money than god (good thing since he is Mormon who believe they will one day become a god). The other interesting thing about the article is that until he ran for President, he owned stocks in casinos (real family friendly) and companies doing business with Iran (real "pro-American" there).

3.) John-"I-am-taking-care-of-the-poor"-Edwards seems to have built a nice nest egg for himself there. Making money is not wrong. Hoarding money is. I'll respect his stance on the poor when his net worth is significantly less because he gave it away to help those who in poverty. Either that, or provide he IRS return showing that he gave ridiculous amounts of money away.

4.) Barack. Barack is quite poor - relatively speaking of course. Only person who didn't make over 1 million in 2006.

Now Barack's political poverty isn't why I would vote for him. Nor is it why I think Jesus would vote for him. But I think it shows why people want to vote for him. I said last night on air that voting for Barack was like voting for the "anti-Politics" vote. He's different. He gives politics and the Presidency a chance. I think most of us wanting to vote for Barack have no clue if he will actually be a good President. What we do feel like we know is that no other legitimate candidate will be. Thus the only shot we have at having a good President is by voting for Barack.

Does this mean Jesus would vote for Barack. No. I am sort of with Allen in believing that Jesus probably wouldn't vote. But it means that as a Bible-believing, somewhat-conservative, Christian, I am not counting the dude out just because he is pro-choice (even though I sort of want to just to stab that at Oprah).

Sidenote: I'll blog some other time why even though I am pro-life, I have no quarrel with voting for Barack (and you can thank Bush for this one).

On the show we have about 7 or 8 people I call "regulars." These are people who listen to just about every show and e-mail us all the time. Most are non-Christians and think our presence on the radio is pretty ridiculous (although a couple are ultra-conservatives and think our show is too liberal). Usually I love these people. Honestly, it is what makes my job so much fun. Their e-mails are usually very creative, hilarious, crude, and thought provoking. I love it. However, a couple of weeks ago, I got an e-mail from one of the regulars who took a fairly cheap shot at Allen after he shared something very personal over the air. I don't care what gets sent to me - it can be vulgar, crude, inappropriate, heretical - anything, but I don't respond to cheap shots.

But the cheap shot got me thinking. I think one of the most frustrating things about faith is what I am labeling its catch-22 syndrome. No matter what happens, faith can't win, and there is always an excuse not to have any.

Lets say I come to you and say, "Jesus is the most important thing in my life." And you say back, "well yeah, but what happened in life." And I say, "well my parents got divorced when I was 12." And then you say, "well there ya go. You need faith because of what happened to you in life." Fair assessment huh? I use faith as a crutch. I get it.

But then you go over to a friend of mine, and they say, "Jesus is the most important thing in their life." And you say, "well tell me about your life." And she says, "well I have had a pretty good life. My parents love each other. My parents love me. We haven't had a whole lot of adversity." And then you say, "well there you go, you have had an easy life. No wonder you believe in God, you have such a naive perspective of life."

Lets say your parents were Christian. Well then it's obvious why you are a Christian - you were raised to be. Lets say your parents weren't Christian. Well then that is obvious too - you are just rebelling against them but instead of smoking some pot and sleeping around, you found this imaginary being called "God."

This conversation could be repeated about a hundred different times with a hundred different circumstance and the conclusion is all the same: "you have faith because of something in your life, but frankly, I don't need faith because I haven't experienced what you have experienced."

But really that is just a scapegoat isn't it? The reason we don't have faith is because we don't want it. We don't want to be told we are not in control because we think we are. We don't want to be told that we are loved unconditionally because it seems illogical. We don't want to believe that God exists - so we come up with any and every reason He can't.

I never finished the book Catch-22 when it was assigned to me (actually I never started it), and I probably should. But I found this excerpt from Catch-22's wikipedia page ironic:

Within the book, "Catch-22" is a military rule, the self-contradictory circular logic of which, for example, prevents anyone from avoiding combat missions.

So whether we are using circular logic to avoid combat missions or accept faith at face value, it still doesn't change reality. And from my observation, it is a reality where faith makes all the difference.

I did something this week that I have only done three other times since graduating college: I took a full, 2-day weekend. I have worked 6-days a week 108 of my 111 weeks of employment (except vacation). I am not complaining about this. But this 4th 2-day weekend got me thinking about why I don't take more of them. And then that brought me to the realization that I think Jesus probably pissed off a lot of people sometimes. Why? Because he wasn't afraid of "wolf criers."

I have two people I work with that are awful wolf criers (you know, as in the boy who cried wolf). But instead of crying about a wolf, they come to me with projects that are usually last minute and always an emergency, with the tone that their department is more important than everything else going on (even though the "Worship" department is what is always tasked as what is most important). I'll spare the details. But sure enough, at the end of this week, I had another wolf-crying session from one of the two and it got me thinking about Jesus.

Jesus wasn't afraid of "wolf criers." I think a passage in Mark sums this up the best:

Mark 1:35-39 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. 36Simon and his companions went to look for him, 37and when they found him, they exclaimed: "Everyone is looking for you!" 38Jesus replied, "Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come." 39So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.

Now a little context. Jesus had just got done healing many people in Capernaum. So, naturally, when people caught wind of this, everyone who was sick came to him. Pretty noble right? I mean, healing people is way more important than producing a video. Yet Jesus "figuratively" stares them in the face, in all their pain, and says, I have better things to do (including rest) and I am sorry, but I need to stick to that.

Jesus knew two things: 1.) what His mission was, and 2.) that He, being fully man, was limited by time and energy to meet the expectations of everyone. These are two things I am not sure I am good at. I do think I am better at #1 than I am at #2, but it doesn't matter if I know what my purpose is, yet fail to hold to it. I can't blame people for coming and asking. I can really only blame myself for being more concerned with what they think of me over what my purpose is.