Zombie rights and eternal politics

So I’m driving down the street and, yes, singing out loud in my car, when I spot this sign in a neighbor’s yard:

Yes, I did indeed hide behind a tree and my friend while taking this photo.
In case you can’t read it, it says “Vote NO on Zombie Rights.”

Is that awesome or what? I LOLed, for sure. (Or would that technically be LedOL?)

However, I did start to feel a little guilty at the same time. I mean, I thought I was pretty up on my political savvy and all, and here I didn’t even know there was a push for zombie rights. What rights do they want? The right to vote? To carry arms? To marry?

Or maybe just to walk down the street without hearing screams.


I don’t know. So I did what any uninformed, yet curious person should do: I Googled zombie rights. And then spent a truly entertaining half hour visiting sites like www.citizensfortheundead.com. Good times, my friends.

So…politics. We’re heading into the home stretch on a campaign that started incredibly early. Generally, it seems we as voters fall into two camps. And I’m not exactly talking Republicans and Democrats. More, this: The people who share political thoughts openly and often on Facebook…and those who share their tiredness of political thoughts openly and often on Facebook. 🙂

I don’t know which camp you fall into, or what party you prefer, but I’m guessing we can all agree on one thing: It’s easy to become disillusioned with politics. Even the most politically in-tune must have those moments when skepticism overrules optimism.* After all, our country spends months…no, years, focusing on two or three men when we know the issues facing our nation are bigger than, well, two or three men.

Enter, Jesus.

Seriously. I was thinking about this the other night after seeing the zombie sign…how easy it is to get frustrated with politics…and with zealous campaigners who talk as if one man can seriously fix every problem we’ve got going on in here in the U.S.** But then I realized…

One man did fix the hugest, horrible-est problem facing not just a country, but all of humanity. 

One man, in one amazing act of sacrifice, vetoed sin and death.

One man.

The awesomeness of that is unfathomable to me. 

And yet, I want to keep attempting to, well, fathom it. Because when Christ and his power and sacrifice fill my thoughts, all sorts of hope and joy and confidence take the place of skepticism and disillusionment. I may not know where this country is going, but I know where my soul is headed…where my heart is. 

I care about politics, I do. But there’s an eternal election that matters even more–and its process turns ours around. Jesus already won the thing. But we still get to vote. Even do some grassroots campaigning.

And that energizes me. How about you?

 *Okay, so when I mentioned skepticism in a post about politics, I couldn’t help thinking back to one of my favorite conversations in the TV show West Wing. Two guys–Toby and someone else–are talking about optimism versus skepticism. One guy says something like, “That’s the problem. I see the glass half full, you always see it half empty.” Toby says, “Either way, you’ve got the same amount of milk.” I probably totally butchered the quote, but still, I love it. 
**Or as if just one man caused all the problems.

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    Comments 28

    1. Huh. You should dress up like a zombie and go talk to that guy about who he’s voting for–just to see what he does.

      Loving your post, and yeah, Jesus. He did it all. One guy. All because He loved us right where we were at. Amazing.

      Have a great weekend, Melissa!

      1. Oh my goodness. I want to be that brave. I wonder if I could pull it off seriously…like really earnestly act curious about what candidate he backs and what specifically he has against zombie rights… 🙂

    2. So with you M-Tagg! And I love the idea of you dressing up as a zombie and interviewing your neighbor. Put it on here!

      Kidding aside, you are so right. One political party is not going to turn this country around. Only Jesus, but first His people have to confess their sin and turn from it…afraid that’s not going to happen because so many don’t think they have any sin. And that’s what’s sad.

      1. Umm, I’ll get somebody to videotape me when I go speak to my neighbor. Getting right on that… 🙂

        Good point, Pat. How can we recognize we need Christ when we don’t, uh, think we need Christ.

    3. One thing I loved most about this post, as I was scanning to the comments I saw this in your labels: Jesus, Politics, Zombie Rights. 🙂 If one had not read the whole post, one would question how those three correlated!

      You’re right on, Melissa! It is hard to fathom how one man, Jesus, could fix the world’s problems, but I want to keep trying to understand. I think if everyone sought the answer to that question, we’d be living in a much different world. He came to set the captives free, He flung open the gates – but the prisoner must decide to leave the cell and cast off the shackles.

      1. Haha, yes, that’s a very random conglomeration of tags. I also have no idea how to spell conglomeration, but I don’t see a red line beneath the word, so did I get it right?

        And as for your last paragraph, I just have one thing to say: awesome. Well, two things: amen.

    4. Funny sign.

      The political season has been great theater, but I’m ready for the vote now. If you look closely at the ballets, you may see a few old zombies running…lol! Definitely in my state!

      I loved the West Wing too!

      1. I just recently got into West Wing! All the seasons were free on Amazon Prime. I kept thinking, if I could believe everyone in politics was as idealistic and hopeful as the people on this show, I’d want to move to D.C. 🙂 Even when I disagreed with the actual politics of the show, I still loved it.

    5. I confess to being quite open about who I’m voting for, but I try not to shove it down people’s throats. Doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy tweeting during Presidential debates…hee. It is funny to watch reactions from both sides of the aisle on my twitter feed. And I actually made a follower of someone of the opposite party, and we’ve had a good time debating things our parties stand for.

      That sign is hilarious. The zombie fascination is beyond me (and I’m a sci-fi girl from waaaay back). Zombies are cannibals, plain and simple. Seems to me that’s worse than vampires!

      Thankful our hope is in Jesus, not in man. But at the same time, I think we’re responsible to vote for the person who best represents and supports Biblical values. He’ll never be perfect, but so thankful we can vote, instead of those poor Israelites who got stuck w/kings like Ahab (or was he Judah? EEP).

      1. I think the hard part comes when you’ve got two Christian people side by side who feel the opposite person best represents the Bible. I guess that’s the point at which I say, okay, I enjoy a good debate, but my goal isn’t to win people over to my political perspective…it’s to win hearts for Christ. And if somebody’s heart is firmly grounded in Christ, then the Holy Spirit can do much more to influence their vote than I ever could.

        That said, I enjoy it when people have respectful political discussions and debates–online or off. Sounds like that’s the case with you and your friend from the opposite political party. Cool! Part of what makes our country cool is the fact that we can vote and disagree and hold elections without having riots and rampages. We’re free to state our viewpoints without fearing for our lives. It amazes me that there are places in the world today, still, where that’s definitely not the case.

    6. Melissa, such an uplifting, inspiring post! I’m tired of political stuff, too, and I focus on keeping my eye on “the prize” and the winner who most certainly isn’t an ordinary man.

      Thank you for this!

      1. You’re welcome, Cindy! Election fatigue is rampant… 🙂 I know the election is important, and I do care about it…and have pretty strong thoughts actually…but at the same time, I’m so frustrated by the sharp divides in our country…and no party is going to unite us…only Christ.

      1. Thanks, Susan. I figured people might be wary of a political post–but throw in zombies and certainly it should get interesting if nothing else. 🙂 Plus, a person just can’t see a yard sign like that and let it go.

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