I started reading Conservatize Me by John Moe, and I'm a little mixed about whether or not I should keep reading it.
It's not that it isn't good- he's hilarious. If you ever look at my twitter feed over there on the right, you will quite often see tweets of his that I have "re-tweeted." I feel like I just want to print off his twitter feed and give it to people to read because he is just that funny.
But this is a book about politics, which I have mostly sworn off. The premise is that he, Seattle born and raised, pinko, commie, liberal, spends 30 days immersing himself in all things conservative (and stereotypically conservative) in an effort to understand "the other side" and to see if he could be converted.
So he downloads lots of country music and even some Michael W. Smith, buys a power suit and some preppy clothes, only reads conservative newspapers and magazines, and travels to meet with some conservative heavy-hitters to see if they can convince him.
So far, he is being surprised by what he finds, as am I. He understands more of the points being made, and sees sense in much of the arguments. In this way, this book is good for me, because it's like I'm on this journey with him, even though I was raised conservative and have a slightly different view than he does.
The problem I ran into is when he finally met with some Christians. I know there will be more, and it's not like he's trying to make anyone look stupid at all. He is not being unfair. But when he went to the Family Research Council, that's where he finally ran into a wall of irrational (and I would say, un-American) beliefs. And I started to get angry.
I don't want to be angry. It's why I stopped watching The Daily Show and The Colbert Report and don't read articles that people post anymore. I want to love people on all sides and get along and not think that people are lunatics. Even the ones that are. (Believe me: I live in California. There are loonies that subscribe to any ideology you can think of here.)
I'll read it for a few more chapters, and if I find myself getting angry again and can't pray through my know-it-all-ness, I'll stop. Or I'll skip those parts and go to a funny part. I'll let you know how it goes.
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