the issue isn't the issue

I'm just about tired of all the campaign commercials and political advertising.  Okay, I've been tired of it since about MARCH... but alas now we can finally see a light at the end of the tunnel.  With only two weeks left till the general election, the candidates are ratcheting up their rhetoric... but its ALMOST OVER! 

I keep hearing that the candidates should be talking about the issues.  THAT'S what the American people want to hear about.  I'm not sure about everyone else, but I'm kinda sick of hearing about the "issues" myself, because I'm pretty sure that the issues aren't the issue.  Everybody is talking about the problems that face the country... there's the economic crisis, the war in Iraq, the global war on terror, the need for better & more affordable healthcare for every American, overwhelming poverty, abortion, same-sex marriage, etc.  The list is endless, really.  But I wonder... what's the #1, fundamental problem facing EVERY American?  Sin, isn't it?  Aren't we (as a people) in the shape we're in because of SIN... not just sin in a personal sense, but SIN in an institutional sense.  The truth is, its not just individuals who have "sinned and fallen short" but our entire world is fallen as a result.  SIN has so wreaked havoc in our world that we speak not only of lost souls, but we can speak of a fallen world.  And isn't that why we have the problems that we have... from abortion to the war to the economic failure?

Isn't the fundamental, bottom-line ultimately a spiritual problem?  If so, can we really "fix it" with a political solution?  I don't think so.  So, what is the "fix"?  This Sunday I'm going to pose this question... as we just have two more weeks left till the election, it may be a good time to stop and think... "Just what DO we expect a new President to do?"  Can either one of them really address "the issue" with a viable solution?  Can we?