This past weekend was one of the best I've had in a long time, and I've had some pretty good weekends. Ryan, Pam, and I put together the First Annual Sooners for Christ Alumni Reunion to happen over Homecoming weekend in Norman, which turned out to be a huge success.

I've been around quite a few of my closest college friends off and on since I graduated, but this weekend was the first time when all of us really relived many parts of the whole experience. If you know me, you know that my four and half years in college were some of the best I can imagine having in life. Now, imagine reliving many of the best parts of those four and half years' worth of experiences in just about 40 hours, and that's the life I lived last weekend. It's almost like a chemical high. We did a devotional on Saturday night where we spent most of our time recounting experiences that changed and affected all of us individually, and I eventually just had to cut the thing off or we would have gone all night long.

What's great is that we will be doing the same thing here in Manhattan this weekend with the Cats for Christ ministry. What's interesting is that a majority of the former Cats for Christ students that have been running and participating in the alumni reunions here are of the same general era of students that participated in the SFC reunion last weekend. Our ministries seem to have had very strong groups of students at about the same time over the last decade.

I think I've said this before, but I consider what I do every day of my life now to be somewhat of a tribute to my experience every day with Sooners for Christ during the first part of this decade. One of my goals as a facilitator of this ministry in Manhattan is that these students are experiencing the kind of powerful life-changing community of God that so obviously impacted the people I was with last weekend and the others that I will see this weekend who were part of Cats for Christ. And I really mean life changing. To hear the stories come straight from their mouths as we sat around the Green Room on Saturday night of entire lifestyles that were radically changed for God - real people connecting with a real God, not just good church kids getting into a nice college group - is a reminder to me that we are doing something real. Something truly worth doing.

Something that is quite literally changing the world.

Was doing my regular perusing of Facebook stati just now and stopped in my tracks when I read this one:

[Girl's name] doesn't make anyone a priority who is only willing to make her an option.

This weekend is the Sooners for Christ Alumni Reunion and OU Homecoming. I was thinking about writing a post trying to describe my experience in college and with the people of Sooners for Christ, but if you know me you probably have a sense of that already and I really don't think I could do that in less than 500,000 words. And even then it would be incomplete.

Let's just say that every day of my life now is a tribute to what that experience meant to me. I'm really looking forward to spending a whole weekend with many of those people who revolutionized my life in eternal ways.

I realize that many of my posts lately have been antagonistic towards the political process. In many ways I hate that but in other ways I have become convinced that moderate America needs to begin making it known in no uncertain terms that intelligent, reasonable, respectful discourse and independent thought is what will be our game in the United States. Not slander, backbiting, fear-mongering, lying, bandwagoneering, unyielding party allegiance, and ridiculous characterizations.

As we lead up to one of the great college football rivalries in the nation tomorrow (OU and Texas), I am realizing more and more that this athletic tradition may be what is teaching us how to behave when it comes to the leadership of our towns, states, and nation. As you know, I am a huge Sooner fan. In 1999 I became an OU student, where they immediately begin infusing in my head the deep traditions and beliefs of the institution. This is, of course, a normal part of identifying with anything that is truly great, such as the University of Oklahoma. One of the deeply held traditions at OU is the intense rivalry with the University of Texas. It infuses everything. The upside down Longhorn logo is almost as much a university brand as the OU logo itself is. The bottom line is that you HATE Texas. You hate them now, you hate them tomorrow, you hate them for life. When someone asks you the time, you tell them, along with "...and Texas still sucks." But the thing about a rivalry like this is... you don't hate them for any particular reason. It's just that all the people who came before you hate Texas and therefore you hate them too. To ask "Why?" about something like this is to completely miss the point. Hating Texas is something you do simply for the sake of hating Texas. And everybody loves it. All of this is true on the side of Texas as well. It's what makes the great meeting in Dallas every year so incredible and dramatic.

But here's the reality of it too... IT DOESN'T MEAN ANYTHING. At the end of the day, especially after the yearly game, you go home, and whether you won or lost, nothing important is affected. The whole thing is just a fun ego contest. You trash the other side just for the heck of feeling better about yourself, and this is okay because it's just stupid football.

Unfortunately, for many this mindset does not end with meaningless athletic rivalries. And tragically, this has become readily apparent in the world of politics.

The function of goverment is one of the most important issues on the face of the earth. Humanity rises and falls on the effectiveness, wisdom, and intelligence of governments. Studying world history is essentially the practice of learning about the story of local and national governance. Therefore, it would seem that the process of creating, maintaining, and running government would be one of the most sober, serious, and deeply thoughtful things that modern humans would do, especially in a society that is as advanced as America's.

Instead, the whole process is run like a giant, raucus college football rivalry. Sides are immediately drawn up. Millions of people who were trained to cheer for a particular team years ago don the T-shirts and signs and immediately begin the effort to out-scream and ridicule whosoever happens to be on the "other side." This is regardless of whoever the players on their team are or how well they are playing. Enemies are immediately identified and labeled as "dangerous" or "stupid." The trash talking begins and never stops. "Conservatives" mock "liberals" and vice versa. People are lumped together and disposed of both politically and personally if they happen to lean in a somewhat different ideological direction.

And the labels. The labels always trump actual ideas. The worst of the worst, sadly, are "liberal" and "conservative." Two of the most misused and abused labels on earth - both of which carry almost no meaning whatsoever anymore and have been relegated to convenient political tools or weapons, depending on the circumstance. Others that fly about like poisoned arrows are "socialist," "terrorist," "right-winger," "evangelical," "special interest," "partisan," "elitist," "big business," "out of touch," and "Washington insider." All convenient, easy-to-use, loaded words that quicky reduce complex issues and identities to fast soundbites and make it simple to discredit anyone at anytime.

Fashioning government is a complex, vitally important job of the nation's people. Is this not a responsibility that should inspire a quest for unity, dialogue, cooperation, understanding, and intelligent discussion? Does this not call for a serious examination and discernment of all ideas? Instead I see things like a friend's Facebook status that actually invited people who supported the "other" presidential candidate to "get in his face" because he enjoys seeing "ill-tempered [insert political ideology here]s." Seriously? Is this honestly what we're hungry for when it comes to the process of deciding our most important leaders? Are we really just interested in standing on our side of the stadium and taunting the other spectators just to get a rise out of them?

One thing about being a die hard OU or Texas fan and hating the other team so much is that it requires absolutely no knowledge or understanding of the other side. And that's okay. Very few OU students have ever even been near Austin, let alone the campus of UT. The same goes for UT students of Norman and OU. Nobody expects fandom to be a result of a deep, intellectual, informed decision made by weighing the merits of two institutions of higher learning. We just see the good things about our school and our team that we love and assume that that creates an automatic superiority and that anything different must be inferior.

But if we are "liberals" or "Democrats" and spend our days throwing stones at the "right-wingers" without seriously considering the deep implications and goals of more conservative social or economic policy, does that not rob us of ideas that may possibly actually have some ring of validity in keeping America on a responsible track? Or if we are "conservatives" or "Republicans" who detest the vile "liberals" who seek to make America a moral free-for-all and a "socialist" state, does that not keep us from considering real ideas that have shaped America for the good? By blindly casting insults to pre-defined groups of nasty ideologues, do we not all rob ourselves of what could actually be a beneficial give and take between a lot of ideas that ultimately balance each other out for the greatest common good possible? Is it not possible to stand outside the walls of an entreched ideology and continually examine the merits of ideas as you experience them? To me this exemplifies independent thinking, which is something that has played a massive role in building America into such an incredible nation.

But political parties, in the quest to conglomerate resources among those who are ideologically similar, have instead involved into homogeneous power machines. For example, the quest becomes not for the American people to get the best person into the White House, but for the Democrats to get a Democrat into the White House. This was the great problem facing a divided Democratic party after the hotly contested primaries. Thus, the language becomes about advancing the cause of the party, not of the collective will of the American people. This same language would have come from the Republicans had John McCain had any real competition from within that party. Thus, for many people, the most important goal is to either get a Republican or a Democrat into the White House. This means that ultimately, the identity of that person as an individual is actually less important than their party affiliation. We have actually seen this play out in very specific ways in this election. Had Barack Obama made a VP choice of a Democrat who was just like Sarah Palin, the Democrats would have found every reason to accept her and promote her while the Republicans would have found every reason to discredit her fitness for office. As it is, very little true, independent reasoning has taken place here. The party line has become the deciding force in how identity is shaped. This is exactly how big, crazy university rivalries, which are ultimately meaningless, are created and sustained.

I realize that it is difficult to always independently assess every idea and individual. Things like political parties, loaded labels, ideological loyalty, and simple punditry make decision making much easier or simply remove the labor of decision making altogether - and this is what many people truly want. When what you know or believe or have always done is obviously superior, why examine anything else? Just tow the line and everything will be great.

But, unfortunately, the stakes are much higher than this. In the end, no one will care if the Oklahoma Sooners or the Texas Longhorns have the better record. But everyone must care about the future and direction of our nation - care enough to truly examine all of the ideas and options and make informed, independent decisions about what is best. We can't leave the future of this nation up to the protection of ego or shallow self-promotion. And we can't let the process that takes us into the coming years be determined by who screams the loudest or fights the dirtiest. We are better than that. Let's prove it.

Dear Barack Obama,

You promised a different kind of politics. Of course, many have made this promise, but you delivered it in a way that perked up my ears because it sounded very sincere, and to your credit, you backed it up in many ways and at many times when you could have easily taken the low road. But the siren call of smear tactics and disgusting attack seem to have finally become too much for you to resist and now I open the New York Times to read this:

WASHINGTON — Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama entered their general election contest this summer denouncing American politics as trivial and negative, and vowing to run campaigns that would address the concerns of voters during a difficult time.

But Mr. McCain made clear on Monday that he wanted to make the final month of the race a referendum on Mr. Obama’s character, background and leadership — a polite way of saying he intends to attack him on all fronts and create or reinforce doubts about him among as many voters as possible. And Mr. Obama’s campaign signaled that it would respond in kind, setting up an end game dominated by an invocation of events and characters from the lives of both candidates.

I expected this from McCain's camp because he was obviously never serious about a different kind of politics and has been doing this all along. But for you to cave to the bloodthirsty fray of lowest common denominator fear mongering and political scum sucking by relentlessly attempting to discredit the character of your fellow presidential hopeful is a betrayal of all those who put some kind of hope in the fact that you would at least show the American political system something more dignified.

In your latest book, which I read voraciously this summer, you had an insightful observation into the motives of the politician:

Neither ambition nor single-mindedness fully acconts for the behavior of politicians, however. There is a companion emotion, perhaps more pervasive and certainly more destructive, an emotion that, after the giddiness of your official announcement as a candidate, rapidly locks you in its grip and doesn't release you until after Election Day. That emotion is fear. Not just fear of losing--although that is bad enough--but fear of total, complete humiliation.

You went on to talk about your one defeat in politics and how it came about because of a public relations disaster that occurred in the heated days of a campaign because you chose to do what was right over what was politically expedient. Has this fear you described now overtaken you so that what is right now has a backseat to what will appeal to the bloodthirsty masses? Are the stakes in winning now too high to do what is dignified?

A major part of your appeal to some who have always otherwise voted Republican has been your intelligent approach to and unwavering focus upon the things that matter. For the most part you have kept to the issues, articulated your positions with clarity and confidence, been honest with your humanity, and taken the character high road when it comes to those who oppose you. But if you steer this campaign into the gutter with John McCain, then you will be taking a knife to the throat of the credibility you have built with those who have seen you as a breath of fresh air and have truly contemplated crossing the party lines for the first time in their voting lives.

Many intelligent people support John McCain for intelligent reasons. Many intelligent people support you for intelligent reasons. But the kind of campaign you run demonstrates just how intelligent you actually believe the American people to be. John McCain has already told me I am not intelligent by trying to get me to believe you are sexist by saying that repackaged old policies are like putting lipstick on a pig and by passing off blatant lies about you and your legislation. In what kind of ways are you going to now tell me that I am not intelligent and must make my decision based on some kind of character flaw or backroom association of John McCain? You've already come dangerously close by showing ads attacking his lack of computer skills.

Show me that I should vote for you for intelligent, well-argued reasons that have everything to do with who you are, what your platform stands for, the kind of tone you will bring to Washington, and the kind of leadership you will provide, what kind of place you will take this country in world affairs, your economic vision, and your social policy. Do like you have done and continue to give me the specifics of why you are the best choice.

I don't need you or John McCain interpreting each other for me. I am not stupid. Do not treat me as such.

With love for America and respect for you,

Cary McCall

Sometimes I am very embarrassed to be a Christian.

I was in the local small Christian bookstore earlier today picking up a book, and there were two gentlemen standing near the front talking loudly back and forth about how anti-Christian and anti-biblical Barack Obama is. One loudly stated that Obama has, on multiple occasions, said "I am proud of my Muslim, oops, I mean Christian faith."

What made this worse is that these two gentlemen at least appeared to be intelligent, successful people.

I respect anyone who is supporting one of the presidential candidates, or who has strong political viewpoints, based upon their religious convictions. But lies, deception, and ignorance do not become us. When this is communicated to the world at large by Christians and in the name of Christianity, it cannot help but paint Christianity as a system steeped in shallow and untrustworthy thinking.

To all Christians - please watch what you say. When your facts are missing your butt is what starts doing the talking. And like it or not, this reflects Jesus Christ poorly to an already cynical world.