Christian

From the time I was quite young my parents would drop us kids off at the local Baptist church for Sunday School, but that was all, and they never stayed. We didn't spend any time socially with the people there.

Then when I was about 8 years old, there was a big change. One of my dad's sisters challenged my mother and she challenged my dad about what he believed. We went to one regular morning worship at the Baptist church and then one where my aunt worshipped, the Church of Christ. Shortly thereafter my parents were baptized and added to the church of Christ and have rarely missed a Sunday or Wednesday evening since.
Passed to me from my father and grandfather and many generations before them, back to Scotland, is a deep conviction that we are all responsible for our own actions, ourselves and our families, with no right or expectation of dependency on anyone else.
American

With all its flaws I believe there is a deep strength in the United States, rooted in the "Don't Tread on Me" attitude and self-sufficiency of the hard-headed pioneers that inexorably (and often wrongly) took this country from its natives. As a people we are sometimes crude, selfish, lazy, and ignorant, but we are also capable of high moments of beauty, sacrifice, industry, and wisdom.

Gadsden flag of the early Americans
It was some years ago that I wrote the previous paragraph. The September 11th terrorist attack, using our own civilians to kill thousands, lit the fire our enemies thought had gone out. To their dismay they've learned otherwise. The "ordinary" citizens on the fourth plane were the first to demonstrate that for them.
Obedience to the cross is the Way
When I was 10, by myself and with no direct prodding, I decided I needed to be responsible for myself and needed to express my belief in Jesus and be baptized. I've been a faithful, if imperfect, Christian since.
The Church of Christ embodies a conservative, fundamentalist belief in the Bible as the revealed word of Almighty God, and Jesus as his anointed son who lived on this earth as a man, was killed for no fault of his own, and who came back from death by his own power, offering the gift of access to God's perfection for willful, imperfect humans. This is what I believe. It is the rock and the power on which my life rests.
Thistle, beautiful and tough
I believe our government is too big and too intrusive. I'd be a Libertarian, I suppose, but I'm not much for joining groups.
Conservative
As I saw the responsibilities and rights of a mature human being usurped by foolishly handing more of our lives over to government control, I ended up joining one of the few organizations that more often than not stands successfully for the individual against the government, and the intention the founders of this country had for its citizens. I'm a life member of the National Rifle Association.

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Copyright © 2002 Bob Stewart. All rights reserved.
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