We the Purple
by Marcia Ford
(thanks to Mike Morrell/the Ooze for hooking me up with this book to review and many others that will be coming to you quickly now that I’m “back in the blogging saddle”, as it were)

The Independent. Not unlike the Loch Ness Monster or Big Foot or the legendary Chupacabra - if they do indeed exist, they are surely to be feared. Marcia Ford creates an Independent scrapbook of sorts in her book, We the Purple. Through snapshots, stories, statistics and studies she runs aground the mythical Independent revealing that not only do they exist, they are thriving in places like the Internet and local political landscapes all over the country.

Ford does two things well in this book; she maintains a light-hearted wit that makes otherwise droll political talk at the least, bearable and at its best, downright exciting and she keeps complex political issues simple enough for even the most daft to understand.

But be forewarned, this is first a book about politics - non partisan politics to be specific. Ford talks of issues for sure, but as every good journalist, she peppers it all with narrative - and we all know how every good post modern loves a good narrative.

Ford goes to great lengths to examine the sociological back story to the Independent voter. I consider myself an Independent even though I am technically a registered democrat (I wanted to participate in the Colorado caucus this year and it felt really naughty checking that “democrat” box after being raised in a dyed in the wool Republican family…and you all know how I like being a little naughty now-a-days). After reading this book however, I have been emboldened to consider officially becoming an Independent; which, to my pleasure, Ford has convinced me is even more naughty - primarily because Ford successfully articulates that there is an Independent “cause”, a fight to be fought in the political sphere…and that we are not alone.

One of the points Ford attempts to make throughout the book is that true Independents are not “undecided” and they also aren’t the “swing vote”. There are, no doubt, people who ARE undecided and people who can be “swung” but they are a different breed than Independents. This is important to grasp if you are to understand the reforms Independents hope to push forward, reforms that are certainly not the stuff of cocktail party banter but important to the political landscape nonetheless.

In addition to some of the more banal explorations of non partisan politics, Ford discusses the deeper issues at hand, including those for Christians in particular. She echos Jim Wallis’ sentiment that Christians really should ALL be Independents. We should never allow a party to capture our hearts, allegiances and subsequent votes because we are not to be loyal to the cause of a political party, we are to be loyal to Christ and the causes of being a Christ follower.

The final 45 pages or so of the book are dedicated to profiles of real-life Independent voters…just in case you still weren’t convinced that they actually exist.

This is a very timely book but not timeless so if you can, get over your cynicism and apathy or your devout party loyalty and get it while it’s still relevent - it’s a worthy read that is educational and inspiring…even if you decide not to make the switch.

Technorati Tags: we the purple, book, review, marcia ford, independents, politics

We’re not very expressively patriotic here in our family. My husband was born in Canada and I’ve never understood the pride people have in their birth country. After all, I’m an American because I was born to American parents in an American city - Fargo, North Dakota of all places, how can you be proud of that anyway?

I have always felt that I could happily live in many countries around the world, even ones that aren’t “western”. I’ve definitely lived in a diverse number of cities - from a town in ND called Killdeer with about 500 people to a city you might have heard of called Los Angeles (Hollywood to be specific).

So I struggle to find the balance between complete apathy or even loathing of my birth country (esp. in light of my country’s most recent behavior) and crazy nationalistic flag waving patriotism. I grew up in a faith tradition that married patriotism with the Christian religion - you weren’t a true Christian if you weren’t a true patriot. Most people I knew practically deified our founding fathers and to this day, they refuse to hear any negative words spoken about men like George Washington even when those negative points have been proven historically accurate.

The 4th of July carries with it a weird mix of feelings for me. My birthday is July 6 and my mom always tells the story of how she was in labor with me while watching fireworks. Growing up, we took our annual trip to visit family in ND and MN around the 4th holiday so we would always get to buy fireworks in MN and light them off at my grandparents dairy farm (those poor cows) and then I would celebrate my birthday with my family. So if we could have the fireworks and family bbq’s and all that without the excessive patriotic sentiment I’d be happy but the flag clothes and national songs at churches really just inspire me to stay home.

But then I think I’m probably just a grumpy killjoy and should get over myself.

Technorati Tags: independence day, patriotism, nationalism

Jake Bouma on Reuters
Bob at the Corner
Ed Cyzewski

I’m telling you, a new wave of prophetic voices are picking up the bull horns and they are SPOT ON. Either catch on that we’re living in a different world or step aside because most of us are tired of beating the proverbial old dead horse. In fact, most of us are just tired. This fatigue is leading to very different questions and very different actions.

What are you seeing, hearing, feeling, experiencing that rings true with a fundamental (dare I said it, deep) shift?

Technorati Tags: church culture, cultural trends, jake bouma, reuters, bob carlton

This post makes 492 blog entries on this blog - if I added my old blogs for a couple years before this one I’d beat grace by A LOT *take that!* but since this is the newest incarnation of my blog self, I’ll stick with inhiscourts/swingingfromthevine. This doesn’t include the many posts I deleted when I moved from inhiscourts. So grace, watch out, if I get on a blogging roll again I’m going to pass you up! Cheers to us! I’m still in awe about how different my life is now than when I started blogging way back in 2003 but since I already ruminated about that recently I’ll spare you I will link you to a “best of” list I compiled in lieu of new posts.

The most shocking thing to me through this blogging journey is how many amazing people I have met through this medium. I’m very thankful.

On June 23, 32 bloggers (and counting) are going to attempt to flesh out what missional means to them. This is far more valuable to me than one person summing up a scholarly response in an obtuse paper or book. I encourage you to join in and/or read the blogs. Rick is keeping an updated list going and you can comment over there if you want to join in the fun.

I’m hoping this will be motivation for me to get writing again. Oh, and to update you, the trial I was testifying in was canceled - my guess is the guy plead out.

In other news - Happy Father’s Day to all you wonderful dads and esp. to my own daddy who I love and admire so much and to my hubby who is such an amazing man and father to our little girls. And in other other news, David is up to 172 pages on his book and is almost finished (90 thousand words or something crazy like that). I’m so proud of him. Praying that it’s not excruciatingly painful to get it published. (it’s hard sci fi if you’re curious - fiction)

I’m looking for a cd called The Event Without Walls. Or more importantly, a song called We’re So Nervous For Your Glory (also called Wilderness or the Wilderness Song by Stuart Garrard from Dilerious). That’s the song we danced to at our wedding reception and in 9 years we haven’t been able to find it anywhere. The cd is no longer in stock anywhere and is not distributed and we have been out of touch with our friend who we borrowed the cd from. We only have it on a bad cassette.

I thought it was distributed in the UK but I think it was actually the US but the last store that sold it was a Christian music store in the UK. If anyone has the CD and would be willing to burn it for us, we’d be eternally grateful. Thanks!

** by the way, I did find some storehouse that has one in stock and is selling it for $40. They’re in the UK somewhere and a. I don’t trust them, b. I really don’t want to pay $40.

**edited to add, we also found a site in Korea that (I think) has it but I can’t decipher the site even with the google translator

This was taken at the parking area of the wilderness area where we hiked on Sunday.

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