everybody loves the Lord these days

My favorite Nintendo game is BanjoKazooie. Ok, its really Donkeycart racing (MarioKart) but Banjo is a close second. A few years ago when that came out, Jack and I practically morphed cells with the game controller. In the sequel game, there is a 2 player, split screen game in which you seek to destroy your opponent. The game takes place in a castle and you and opponent of course can see one another’s players, but not in your own half of the screen. So you can see where he’s going, but you don’t know where he is. The excitement builds as you get closer together and finally both players appear on both screens as you enter the same room.
These past couple weeks I’ve had a similar feeling while following the race to presidential candidacy – on the radio. I rarely turn on the t.v., but I really enjoy NPR’s “All Things Considered”. So here I am, camped out in the South – evidently a pretty special place. I guess the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary are important because they’re first, but it seems the Candidates just go up there and get exposure. “Hey, I’m a nice guy, vote for me.” But according to the news, people down here actually care about specific things. So the candidates come down and take a more biblical approach. They try to be all things to all people. Want a definition of ignorant cultural bias? "I want to be the candidate for the guy in the pickup truck with the confederate flag." You think that will win the South?
So here I am watching on the split screen. I can see what they’re doing, but can’t really tell where they are out there in that “other” world. They don’t know I can see them, or at least they don’t think it matters, since I have no context in which to put them. But I’m listening in. I hear what they say to “them” to gain their favor. I hear them try to explain what they meant when they said something that meant absolutely nothing to them and turned out to be something that mattered to a large group of people about whom they know nothing. As the campaign goes on, I sense they are getting closer. Then it happens. Super Tuesday approaches and just in time. The same national radio broadcasts are now taking place from just a mile away from where I’m sitting in traffic on the ride home from work. They are on my screen now and they know it. Now they’re aware that I matter. So they’ve got to be who I want them to be.
“Everybody loves the Lord these days.” That is the sound bite that starts the segment. The first segment of the program is from Charleston. Every candidate has visited a single AME church whose pastor muses at the spiritual fervor of this election’s candidates. (They’re also all headed to Jimmy Carter’s Sunday School class) The second segment is from just down the road here in Columbia. It’s a wing joint where Kerry and crew just spent a fortune on Buffalo wings and over $400 dollars on liquor in a much deserved break from the fast paced campaign. The restaurant owner was ecstatic. Pump the hands of the finger licker wings consumer, spread the buzz among the small business owner. Drink your weight in spirits on the way home from addressing the spiritual at the AME church.
Please just tell me who you are. Don’t feed me conflicting stories and let me guess at whether there is chance that either one has anything to do with you. I have an idea. I’ll vote for who seems to be the best candidate for PRESIDENT. I’ll hang with my real FRIENDS. I’ll try to be the HUSBAND and FATHER to my family and we’ll continue to let GOD be GOD. I sure don’t need a candidate to tell me how he can be all those things.
Besides that, Mr. Candidate, there is something else you don't know about the South. The Super Bowl is tomorrow and the Panthers are playing. Hope you're a Carolina fan.