The Political Experiment

A few years ago, I went to a workshop by Tono Campolo at the National Youth Worker's Convention. One of the recommendations he made during that workshop was to expose yourself to a diverse variety of news media, so that you were filtering through a more balanced perspective.

I've always liked this idea, but I've never pursued it...until now.

Presidential elections always peak my interest around this topic of "what's good and right" in our voting, because as American citizens and participants in democracy, we hold a vote to elect the most influential person in the entire world. We ought to take that rather seriously, because it not only impacts American lives, it impacts the lives of men, women and children around the entire world.

Last week, I bought and read a book living green...you know living without creating a lot of waste and being carbon neutral and things like this...because I've been thinking about how the things I buy and what I throw away affects other people.

And now...I'm going to pursue a politically balanced reading list--so that I can understand more about how my votes, my activism, and my non-activism is honoring Christ and impacting people that are being oppressed.

For starters, I have trial subscriptions to 4 magazines in 4 categories:
Sojourners Magazine, representing the religious left
World Magazine, representing the religious right
The National Review, representing the political right
The Nation, representing the political left

I plan to update you on my learnings via the blog...and...if you have any recommendations for better resources in these categories, please share. If you want to join in the dialogue about these particular periodicals, please do.

I'm excited to embark on researching and bettering my understand of present in order to better understand how to apply our learnings from Scripture into this world. I'm excited to see where this journey will take me.