Stop the Madness.....

As Election day approaches, I've been getting more and more emails from friends/acquaintances and/or family members about the election. Let me just put it out there...I'm a registered Democrat and I will be voting for....UUUGHGHGH OBAMA. There I said it. Now the emails I get frequently are usually forwards of some kind written by someone from the right who has distorted the facts about Obama and paints a rosey picture of McCain. I hate to say it, but since campaigning began I RARELY get propaganda from the left. I say that in all honesty. Once in a blue moon I will receive something but usually from a FRIEND who knows where I lean. My question is...why? Why do conservatives/Republicans, etc feel like they have a right to send a mass email out with extremely skewed points of view and call it fact, say Obama has LIED...meanwhile they are doing the EXACT same thing they are accusing the left candidate of. It's hypocrisy at its best. It's also extremely arrogant if you ask me. First of all, voting for a candidate and forming your points of view are extremely personal descisions. I take offense and have for a while, to those emails that are based mostly in bold face lies while some are based on half truths. I've been thinking about why it is that I get so mad. I think it's because some people assume that by me reading one of these half truth tidbits that I will read it and subsequently change my mind...my choices...that I have thought about, read about, prayed about and discussed. Like my descision was made by reading one of these bits of nonsense in the first place.

Maybe that's how they formed their opinions, by following what someone else has told them...I doubt it...but you never know. That's not how I've formed my own. I don't like that my opinion isn't respected when I do my best to respect other people's opinions and RIGHT to have a different opinion. I do not forward these emails because I do not presume to think that my email will change your mind. I do not assume that I even have a right to impose my beliefs on you in the first place. So why do people think they have a right to impose their beliefs on me?

And how Christ gets thrown around in these petty emails infuriates me even more. Insinuating that I can't be a Democrat and still whole heartedly be a CHRISTIAN. Last I checked this was a free country. This country was founded by those escaping religious persecution. Our Founding Fathers demanded a Separation of Church and State so that no one could impose their religious views on another. This melding of religion and law....threatens the very freedoms men have died fighting for. I believe in Christ and that he is my Savior. I don't believe that John McCain or George Bush for that matter, are the chosen few. And as a Christian, I resent that insinuation. That Barack Hussein Obama can't be one because of his middle name. And even if he WAS Muslim....how great a country is this that a mixed race man, of whatever religion has been able to do what he has done.

I know many of you have different opinions and I respect them. I silently respect them by NOT forcing my views on you. I think it's an awesome thing that we can all believe different things in this great country and NOT be persecuted for it. So please, stop the email propaganda...just vote your conscience. I certainly will vote mine.