Every so often

Every once in a while I feel the need to express this is my blog. I write it. the words are mine. I get ideas on a subject from a lot of places. I may go over what I heard in a sermon. I may read an article that strikes a cord with me. When it is a sermon I try to give credit to the person that impacted me. I try to make it mine. The word of God is meant to put on. To add it to our lives. Sometimes that is what I am trying to do. Sometimes I am expressing an opinion  about current events or perhaps I saw something in the newspaper that I want to write about. The ministers I listen to are my Pastor Scooter Noland, who can be found on the web at Hope Church Tupelo. I also like to listen to Bill Wolfson of CFAN in Tacoma, WA also on the web at CFAN Tacoma. I like to listen to Charles Stanley of Atlanta, GA on the TV, In Touch. Occasionally I may listen to others. Sometimes it may be someone from Sunday School, like Jim Spencer, JJ Jasper, or Fiske. The ones that seem to get me into trouble the most are political ones. I have opinions, they are like noses, everybody has one. Recently I have run into difficulty with one individual and I don't understand why. I have been called childish, my thinking is screwed up, I must not be much of a christian, and more. I said a political candidate was a professional politician. I said that because I believe his radio and TV spots since the last election were designed to keep him in the public eye until he runs again in 2016. I am not sure I understand how I need to apologize for making a statement like that "he is a professional politician".  Then originally I chose not to listen Donald Trump, I consider him to be arrogant and I think he is about himself and making money. I don't remember my exact words, but I stated something like that. Any way it went from bad to worse, and I got tired of the put downs and hung up. I am an adult, I have a right to my opinions. I know so many people that voted for Obama simply because he was black. While I think that was not good, that was their right. I once voted for Nixon. While his presidency may have ended badly, he did some good things. We seem to be getting into an age of intolerance for any opinion other than our own. In the past years we saw a pro life guy kill an abortion doctor. We saw anti gay thinking men drag a gay man behind their truck in Wyoming. We have seen young kids in Jackson, MS run over a black man with a truck on purpose, after they had severely beaten him. They killed him when they ran over him. I stated a Biblical view on Homosexuality and I was called a homopho and defriended. I have been told that because I was a George Bush supporter, that if George Bush jumped off a cliff all us conservatives would jump off with him. If the tea party wins all women will be walking around with their faces covered under Sharia Law. While some of these are laughable, and others disturbing,  it shows an intolerance for those who hold a different opinion than our own.  This intolerance stifles communication. We don't all have to think alike, but I don't know how we got here to be so intolerant of someone who thinks differently than we do. The Bible teaches us to love, that is to be our calling card. Does intolerance show love? Do put downs show love? I think sometimes I can strike a nerve with the things I write. Doesn't that happen in newspaper articles on the opinion page. Are they not designed to get us to think? We are told never to discuss politics and religion, yet those are two things we can do something about. we can vote or we can change our life. We cannot change the weather. We cannot stop the Sun from shining. But why the intolerance? I don't understand. God bless, LVZ.