About Dave

Well it’s important to know where an author is coming from when he is giving his opinion on a topic.  So here it goes. I was raised in a Judeo-Christian, lower middle class home.  We weren’t poor, we definitely weren’t financially wealthy.  My dad was unable to work due to his physical condition. That left my mom the burden of not only providing for the family, but also taking care of my dad with what help I could provide.  Not the ideal situation in any day and age, but it definitely helped to shape my view of society and government.

Religiously, my parents were, I guess, what most people would consider conservative.  Given the church (a conservative, independent northern Baptist church) we went to for the majority of my youth, I would call them liberal within the narrow focus of that church and comparing how other people raised their children within the church’s confines and definitions of right, wrong, and proper behavior.  My parents were not exactly hands-off in my raising (both figuratively and literally), but they allowed me to make my choices, my mistakes, and helped me to learn to deal with the consequences of said choices and mistakes.  Given the church (and subsequently, its private school), I made more than my fair share of mistakes, and privately rebelled against these two major edifices of my teenage youth. Socially, I was raised to take people as they were:  their differences (physical, racial, religious, sexual), their shortcomings, et al.  My parents were of the philosophy “Hate the sin, love and accept the sinner.”  While I honestly believe (even to this day) that this is what Jesus taught while He was on Earth, this was in conflict with the practiced teaching of the church we attended (the church vocally espoused this teaching of my parents, but in practical day to day living the church (and I’m talking the majority of the attendees not the building obviously) fell far short of this concept).  Therefore I believe my parents deserve the label (with the scope of that church) of liberal-conservative.

My political upbringing had no direction from my parents.  What they taught me from their lives said volumes however.  They taught me not to rely on my government for anything.  I was taught self-reliance, and that the less I let the government dictate anything about my life, the better off I would be. So after I graduated high school (remember this was a conservative church school), I promptly went on to college.  In retrospect this was probably the worst and best decision (at the same time) I made at that time.  It was the worst decision because I went to a college that was small and conservative, and the administration felt the need to dominate most aspects of my life.  Rather than come out of my teenage rebellion within the confines of college, I rebelled more.  It was the best decision because it helped me to further define my own beliefs about my relationship with God (my Christianity), my religious beliefs (how I choose to worship within the Judeo-Christian movement with other Christians of similar beliefs), and my social and political beliefs.  When I finally realized what I believed conflicted with what the college was trying to make me swallow under the guise of teaching, I dropped out.

So while my beliefs are consistently going under refinement, here is what I basically believe:

Now you know where I am coming from when I post my opinions.