Jesse Caro’s Blog
ENCOUNTER ~ REAL. RELEVANT. CHURCH

thank everyone for praying for me as I was away last week in the Dominican Republic. We got back last night (Saturday) late and tired. However, the Lord is so good and has refreshed me like he always does.

We went to several sugar cane villages and orphanages and ministered the powerful Gospel message both with words and deeds. There is salvation and comfort in the name of Jesus. His tender mercies were on display in the D.R. and it was every bit my honor to go. I will write another post later with pictures and some notes.

For now, I thank the Seneca Trail kids, Todd Baker (friend of years and great encouragement), and Mrs. Dillon for the invitation to go. You all have blessed me.

When they called the senate race for Kay Hagan and said Elizabeth Dole had lost… I knew it was going to be a long night.

You know, I am the first to stand and say that I think it is a milestone that a black man was elected president and clearly he ran an unbelievable campaign. But (and here is my lament) I think the country chose this man for alot of terrible, misguided and poor reasons. That is for another blog, however.

I will just say this… the reason McCain lost was because McCain was the candidate. I reject the notion that conservatives need to move to the center or left of center to win national election. The idea that elections are won because of moderates… that notion was proven woefully incorrect. Noone could ever again argue that going left is the way to win an election. Indeed, the problem was that McCain was a moderate and with that came the inability to show a clear contrast in positions. Once you are unable to contrast position, you are left with a race based on personality. Obama wins that race every time.

Conservatism is nopt something that shifts. It is what it is. It is based on principle and world view and principles don’t compromise. How, for example, do you compromise with the principle of “you should not raise the minimum wage because it inflates the dollar”? If you believe raising the minimum wage inflates the dollar (which it does), then when democrats want to raise it a dollar you stick by your principle. There is no compromise with principle. Some conservatives would say “well, let’s raise it 50 cents… meet half way”. What? The democrat compromised an amount but the conservative compromised his principles. McCain had no core principles with which to contrast.. or else he was willing to compromise them to reach moderates. That is the absence of leadership and the conservative movement lacks leadership. Plain and simple.

McCain lost but definitely conservatism did not. Conservatism wasn’t on display this cycle and so it was not on the ballot. I contend that if conservatism would have been a choice, Tuesday night would have shown different results. Conservatives need to take note, be true to principles. I only hope that the conservative morons who are being elected (or the ones that are left on capitol hill) have principles upon which they operate. If not, on 2010 and 2012 there will be more singing of the blues.

OK. I am going out on a limb and making some election predictions just a few hours before NOV 4.

McCain will win North Carolina. Florida and VA also. Pennsylvania… I am not going that far on the limb. Ohio? McCain. West Virginia? McCain. Indiana? Don’t know.

Lots of states still for McCain to win to secure the election, but Obama is not a sure thing. And this notion that he will win by 7% is ludicrous. It will be close. But I don’t think there is a chance in the world he will take this state of NC. Now, tomorrow I may eat my words.

Haloween is tomorrow, November almost here and Christmas around the corner. I sit and think about how quickly 2008 has gone and I can hardly believe it. It has been a good year with alot of surprises, good and bad.

But, we still have 2 more months to accomplish big things… for God, I mean. You ever feel like a failure? I have and do often. Have been feeling that way some even recently. I think it is a reflection and consequence of looking at self too much and not on Him enough. Ultimately our success or failure in life is based on our obedience (or disobedience) to what He calls us to do. The rest is His and His alone.

I will write more about it later, but I am going to the Dominican republic here in the next couple of weeks. My sixth time to go on this mission trip! I get sad, of course, to leave home for a week, but I need it every time I go. I think I need it especially this trip. God always speaks to me in special ways. He has used this trip to add clarity every time I go, mostly through books. I have already picked out my reading list. But, I need God to set my focus, recalibrate and reallign… speak. All with coconut trees blowing in the back ground.

Election is drawing near, and though I am a ploitical junky, I must confess to reaching the end of my tolerance line. I heard today that there have been almost 4x as many polls this election season then there ever have been before in any other election. Obama has raised more money (almost 2x as more) than Kerry and Bush combined in 2004. Unending coverage. Commercials run nearly non stop. To make it worse and more frustrating, if you watch the news, they have all but called the race for Obama. CNN’s electoral college map makes it look like there is no point in even showing up to vote. “If the election were held today, Obama would win…”, they say. However, not a single vote has been counted, and the election is not today. But why bother showing up?!… for heaven’s sake women, hispanics, all minorities, young people, old people, suburban and urban America, the poor and middle classes, kindergartners and maybe even dogs and cats are all leaning toward Obama.  Get this, amid all of the endless coverage and disection of these senator’s positions, there are still undecided people!!!!! If you are still undecided, I might ask a series of questions. 1) What in the world would it take for you to decide? I mean, do you need more time? Is it ambiguous where these men stand? 2) Have you been paying any attention, or have you been in a cave? I have some advice: if you don’t know yet, then you probably don’t have any deeply held core convictions to guide you… so I implore you to not vote! These men have diametrically opposed positions and this is just not rocket surgery.

Yeah, I am tired and disgusted. Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus.

Well, we had a wonderful day today at a great little pumpkin patch south of town. I won’t say too much, except that I am thankful to have such a wonderful family… gift of God.

Check out some beautiful pics of the family at the patch today at www.kelcaro.blogspot.com

The next president will appoint justices to fill benches. Alot of people get caught up in the arguments of Roe v Wade. While I am certainly against abortion, I think the president will never have much sway in this opinion. Let me make two observations.

#1  I am a state’s rights guy. I always have been. Some people, however, use this to say that the federal government has no role in abortion legal rulings. On this I could not disagree any more. The governemts primary role is to protect life… to give an envirnment where we value “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. If we can not protect life as a federal government, then what higher calling is there for us to make as a priority?????? Indeed this is a federal issue.

#2  However, I am a realist. No president will change the decision. However they will appoint not just supreme court justices but hundreds of justices to fill positions all over the country (appelate judges, district and local judges). A president makes a huge impact on the way the laws are written and governed. Contrary to what some people say it is not “the economy, stupid”. It is “our culture, stupid”. Judges play the biggest role in culture setting. Don’t believe me! Look at California. The reason CA is so left-leaning is not because of the people there, or because of Hollywood. It has a liberal culture because of the laws the judges in those districts have passed over decades. Judges pass laws… government enforces… people abide… culture sets in. That is very simplistic but it holds true no matter where you are in the country. I am not so concerned with the supreme court as I am the courts. Now, I don’t think we ought to legislate morality per se, however goverment has the basic responsibility to make laws and enforce them, and like it or not morality bleeds in. What kind of morality do I want my kids to grow up in?

Again, I don’t think election politics is the answer to our ills. But, I am not for a moment going to conceed that the president plays no role in the moral compass of a nation. I believe they do.

An article in the Rhinoceros Times (a local paper here in Greensboro) is making quite a nation wide stir. The writer (lives in Greensboro) is a famous author by the name of Orson Scott Card… writer of books and apparently occassionally a columnist. He is my brother’s favorite author! He is a democrat who today wrote this article in the paper railing against the obvious state of the media and it’s unveiled and open interest in being biased in favor with the liberal agenda. In this election (as I said in the last blog) the bias has been undeniable and clear… unquestionable. A blind man could see it and honest men have to admit it. This article hits the nail squarely on the head (from an honest democrat author). I say “Amen and Amen”. Please read:

www.linearpublishing.com/orsonscottcard.html

I know discussing polls is not an election issue, per se, however it is pertinent to elections in general. I want to make a statement and then substantiate it. Statement: polls are biased and tainted and therefore should not be trusted.

One would have to be from Mars or have lived in a cave to not have noticed that the media is biased to the liberal, democratic perspective. Whatever your political persuasion, this should be troubling because it can skew the results of polls, for example, one way or another. I spend alot of time looking at polls and have read alot of data about poll conducting. Most polls (because of their left-leaning agenda) don’t follow, it seems, the basics to fair and accurate polling. Here is the basic poll primer:

1) The “horse race question”. The horse race question is: “if the election were held today who would you vote for, Obama or McCain?” In a well planned poll this question is first. If the question is posed last, or in the middle of the poll, the respondent can get discouraged about their candidate and possibly change their mind int he middle of the poll (before the horse race question is asked). Many of the polls are doing this (I note the ABC and CBS polls) in an effort (I believe) to upset the more conservative respondent. It is becoming accepted polling theory that the most accurate polls have this important question first (The Zogby Poll in 2004 is an example of an accurately taken poll… it was closest to getting the election correct).

2) Questions. If the horserace question is not first, then the questions used before it are often questions that make Republicans look bad. I recently read the “internals” of a CBS poll and the question was something like “How much do you actually respect George W. Bush?”… right in front of some questions ot McCain. What???? Please don’t say there is not an effort to affect the polls. Questions should be basic that involve only the candidates up for election.

3) Horse Race question alternation. When the horse race question is asked the anmes of the candidates ought to be asked in alternating order every other time. Why? Because there have been studies that show the last person’s name that the respondent hears is the natural answer they give (if the respondent is undecided or does not care). So McCain’s name ought to be asked last half the time and Obama’s half the time.

4) Timing. The state polls (this election cycle) have been taken at very fortunate times for the democrats (polls conducted the day after major rallies in big cities).

I say all this to illustrate that we can not trust the media and the polls they conduct. Whether you are a democrat or republican, this ought to be concerning because we are quickly getting to the place in America where we can not trust media outlets. Also, it illustrates that the national election is more close than we are being led to believe.

We had the tremendous privelege of having Addison Faith Caro dedicated at church this Sunday. We asked Lane Holbrook to actually do the dedication. He is my brother-in-law with whom I have the highest regard and respect. He is one of the finest people I know and we were absolutely honored to have him do it. He charged us to live as consistent godly examples, free of hypocrisy, before our daughter. he charged the family to do the same. Finally, he charged the church to live before all the children in a way that they would see real Christians as they grow up. Then he annointed Addison’s head with oil and prayed a dear prayer over her.

Dedications, as Lane said, are simply acknowledgements of what is already true… that Addison is the Lord’s and we are just entrusted to care for her. So, we affirm that she is God’s and we live in humble gratitude at the immense privelege of raising her in our care. Children, all of our children, are gifts and vessels we pour ourselves in to. and by God’s grace we do it always in His name.

Thank you, Lane, for the example that you are to our children (even as an uncle) and for the bar you have set in leading a beautiful dedication.