Was it the message or the messenger, or perhaps the way in which the message was delivered? That is the debate going on among the political pundits assessing the post-election wounds of the Republican Party. My take? All of the above, and they had better get used to it.
As I enjoyed another basketball game between Oklahoma University and Oklahoma State University this weekend, I was reminded how insignificant those sporting events really are in the greater scheme of my life. But being a die-hard Sooner fan, I have watched and attended countless battles in what is commonly referenced - and it was again by these television announcers - as the Bedlam series, adopted years ago from a sportswriter's description of one of their games.
I saw this week that the National Rifle Association (NRA) released a new mobile app entitled "NRA: Practice Range." The app permits shooters to try their skills at shooting coffin-shaped targets with bulls-eyes on the head and heart levels, and the app is approved for persons aged "4 and up." Now, this comes from a politically-motivated group who, in the wake of the Newtown, CT killing of 20 children, publicly blamed violent video games for the carnage. The hypocrisy is a little rich to say the
"Too hot. Too hot." It was 40 years ago that the little 9-year-old Vietnamese girl would painfully cry these words as she ran from the bombs that ravaged her village, bombs dropped by the good guys in a war in which she had no voice to that point in time. There is never a good war, but there are just wars that we Christians must fight. And with war there will be collateral damage and death.