ain't nobody got time for that

I remember a time when I was profoundly politically apathetic.  I didn't have an opinion on most everything, and would politely listen to whoever had an opinion and be okay with their opinion because I didn't really care too much either way.  I liked it that way; it afforded me sanity and a carefree attitude.

It especially came in handy when I moved to northwest Washington, quite possibly the liberal capital of the world. I am certainly not from a liberal background, and I went to college at a largely politically conservative college, so my apathy to all things "opinion" gave me the chance to not lose my mind the moment I stepped onto blue territory.  It allowed me to create friendships with "the liberals" and "the conservatives" alike, and smile politely and nod whenever anything came up that seemed to require an opinion.

And I was in graduate school; ain't nobody got time for politics and opinions about anything present day.

One thing happened, though.  Graduate school taught me how to think.

And then I graduated.  I moved literally across the country to the heart of American conservatism: rural Georgia.

Suddenly, I found myself having an opinion.  The curious thing about no longer being in school is all the time one has to think.  I had started following a few blogs here and there in graduate school, but with no more homework to distract me, I became obsessed with practical theology and with following the Christian blogging world.

There's a lot of anger in the Christian blogging world.  So many opinions, too much information on all the stupid things Mark Driscoll says and does, too much angst about the pain that people cause other people on Mother's Day, too much bitterness about almost everything.  It was too easy to get sucked in.  After all, I found myself agreeing with these people.  They thought and reasoned like me, and I suddenly found that I wasn't alone.  They challenged me intellectually and strengthened my faith in entirely new ways.

But now I can't go a day without running across something that gets my blood boiling.  Today it was some random video from the archives of Mars Hill's youtube account about the Driscolls' opinion that it's tantamount to outright disobedience to God for a dad to stay home with his children.  I found myself outraged by the words that so easily spilled out of their mouths like so much honey laced with arsenic.  I was outraged by their anger and their fear-mongering, outraged by the lack of thought that went into their words.  "The Bible says so" was the extent of their reasoning.

Here's the thing, though.  I can't live like this.  I can't be constantly angry at things Mark Driscoll believes and does.  I can't constantly be waiting for Christians to say something that will expose them as hateful or uninformed.  I can't waste my energy being a hypocrite, saying I hate hate and then doing a whole lot of hating myself.

And so I'm done with it.  Do I have opinions?  Absolutely.  Do they matter?  Not really.  What matters is how I love.  What matters is how I act when faced with moral dilemmas.  Will I live my life with my opinions on gender roles in the church at the forefront of many of my decisions?  Sure.  Will I make it my mission to make sure all my twitter followers and facebook friends agree with me?  No.

Ain't nobody got time for that.