Stupid Things We Say

Everyday I hear people saying things that, when you analyze them, are downright stupid.  Many of the people who say these things are fairly intelligent and don't even realize what they are saying.  I, myself am guilty of saying such things from time to time.  We say many things that are incorrect, but listed here are a few of my pet peeves.
One thing that has become accepted in modern culture is the use of the words sex and gender interchangeably.  These two words actually have different meanings.  The word sex describes is something is male or female.  The word gender is a grammatical term referring to something as masculine or feminine.  I have even heard medical doctors using the term gender meaning sex.  In our laziness we have shortened our references to sexual intercourse to just the word sex, thus making people scared to utter this three-lettered word.  Your sex can actually be one thing while your gender is the opposite.  Outside of the family this means nothing, but people in my family can reference the tale about the man who was "so prissy he had to sit down to pee."  This person's sex would be male but his gender was feminine.
Probably at the top of my list is when people say, "I could care less" when they actually mean, "I couldn't care less."  Saying could in the phrase actually conveys the opposite meaning of it.  If you could care less, then you actually could care less about whatever you are speaking of.  Many people make this error.  Even in his recent hit "Do I" Luke Bryan uses this phrase incorrectly.  While I like the song, it irritates me slightly when he says the line, "Seems like you could care less either way."
One thing that I fall into myself more often than I care to admit, is when people make a phone call when the other person answers they automatically say, "yes" and the proceed to tell what they called for.  I guess this comes from most businesses when answering a phone tells the company name followed by "may I help you?"  However, part of my job is answering phones and I never ask, "may I help you?" but most people still say "yes" after I answer the phone.  The person on the other end of the phone could say, "Bell's Home Interiors, may I bash you upside the head with a two by four?" and the other person would probably still say, "Yes, this is John Smith and I need some home interiors."
As I stated above, we all say things that are incorrect.  I just think we should all be more cautious in what we are saying.  How often have we said things in haste, only to later regret them?  Proverbs 18:7 states that "A fools mouth is his destruction, and his lips are the snare of his soul."  We should all be more careful before we speak (or type) anything.  After reading this many of you may say, "Christopher should have thought more before he wrote some of those blogs."  I couldn't agree with you more.

Politics In Church

Today's blog is about a subject that has in recent years become taboo in many of our churches.  The subject is politics.  It seems before and after services we can speak to our brothers and sisters about sports, family activities, work and a wide variety of other topics, but many will not speak about politics in church - much less from the pulpit.
All of this seems strange to me.  I was raised in a small church where I the pastor would preach entire sermons reprimanding President Clinton for his poor moral behavior in office.  While not to the level of a "mega-church" I now attend what I consider a large church.  This past Sunday I was talking to a man, with whom I have had several political conversations outside of church, when I started to enter something political into the conversation he seemed uneasy attempted to change the subject.  When I said what I wanted to he said something about not talking about politics in church.
That is what seems strange to me because politics actually have more to do with church than many other topics.  This phenomenon I have observed is mainly in large churches.  Large churches have members of both political parties and the church leadership in many cases are scared to offend any of their members because they might move their membership to another church.  I, however, think it is high time we as Christians hold our brothers and sisters accountable if they cast their votes for an official who will not represent us on moral issues simply because they are a member of a particular party.  It is also time for pastors and church leaders to grow a set of cojones and proclaim the Gospel irrespective of who they offend.  After all, the Gospel is "sharper than a two-edged sword" and when proclaimed properly convicts and leads to change.  After all, it is completely acceptable to talk about Clemson and Carolina in God's house and there is nothing more divisive in South Carolina than that topic.
In my opinion, today's churches as well as politics have become too diluted with feelings.  Many pastors and elected officials walk around scared to death they are going to offend a member or a voter.  We need more men of God in the pulpit and in public office who actually have a backbone and will stand firm on the principles on which this country was founded.  Who cares if you lose a few members or a few votes, you are ultimately only accountable to One.