Politics, Religion and Her

There's an old country song by a singer named Sammy Kershaw called "Politics, Religion and Her." The song talks about two old buddies who meet up, and one of them is telling the other a list of things they can't talk about. The chorus of the song says, "Politics can start a fight, Religion's hard to know who's right, And one more topic I won't touch, That one's her -- it hurts too much."

I don't have a "her" in my life, as I've never been in a real relationship that ended badly. And since I am involved in a church (and married to a pastor), religion comes up pretty frequently. (For the record, I actually do think I know who's right. But I digress.) Politics, though -- on that one, Sammy and I can agree. It amazes me how vitriolic people can become when discussing politicians and political viewpoints.

Overall, though, what really astounds me is the sheer number of topics that are considered off limits in the average discussion. If one is to be considered a polite conversationalist, one must avoid talking about money, religion, politics, or anything controversial (or interesting).

So I guess my question would be, how do you ever get to know someone if you can't talk about anything fun? I want people to know me, to know the real me. That means sometimes I must give my opinions on subjects that people disagree about.

Since I'm just starting back to the blogging world, it seems like a good time to state this:

Just so you know, we are next to broke, I'm an evangelical Christian who strongly believes Jesus is the only way to Heaven, and I'm probably more libertarian than anything, politically.

There you go. Now I guess we talk about the weather?