Two nights ago I posted my thoughts on being on radio. I followed it up on radio yesterday afternoon. In both, I made this observation:

No one likes people who talk politics all the time. I’ve spent an entire segment once on the fine art of browning onions in butter. And you know what? It’s been a widely requested segment of my show for repeat airings. People care about more than politics and, on radio, they want to know the guy they’re listening to on the way home does too.

First, it is absolutely true — I spent 20 minutes on the radio talking about browning onions in butter and how cookbooks lie that it only takes 10 minutes. It has been a highly sought after segment of my radio show. But second, people were downright offended that I’d suggest there is more to life than politics. I’ve gotten angry emails from a lot of people on the left and the right.

When I point out I find some things the President does, like talking about sci-fi, endearing and find Michelle Obama to be a very beautiful First Lady, my conservative friends go insane. While I was at CNN they were convinced I had sold out to the liberal media. Now, at Fox, it just perplexes them.

When I talk about my faith and my views on gay marriage or abortion, liberals are convinced I must be lying when I say I have gay friends and pro-abortion friends and we get along just fine and they are wonderful people. Surely I must think they are going to hell and how could those people be friends with me. Folks, I think we’re all going to hell, but by the grace of God.

There are subjects I do not tackle with friends with whom I disagree because I value their friendship far more than I value my view on some subject that divides our ability to be friends. As a Christian, to me evangelism and sharing my faith is much more about being a good friend to someone, regardless of their faith or world view, than about being right in an argument or going to some beach in Mexico to work on my tan while I hammer a nail or two in a hut and speak Jesusese to a total stranger.

The worst thing about America is the politicization of everything.

Why the hell must I pick a side in the George Zimmerman trial? A 17 year old boy is dead and a man who may or may not be guilty of murder is on trial but, even if not guilty, will never again be safe because so much outrage and so much politicization has been poured into the trial. A 17 year old is dead. Why am I forced, as a conservative, to cheer for the guy who took his life? And you people who support Trayvon, how are you given a pass on seeing things from George Zimmerman’s perspective? Why must I decide on the guilt or innocence of George Zimmerman based on the outrage of people whose politics differ from mine? Why must a death and trial comport to a political world view?!

While I tend to think the left is worse about it than the right, I’m sure liberals think otherwise. But why must everything be so damn political? The President of the United States is a good father with a lovely wife and I disagree with both on pretty much everything. But I do not hate them.

A lot of people on the left and the right hate each other for a lot of stuff that in eternity really won’t matter. And here is what I find most and what will offend many of you on the left and right — those of you whose lives are most connected to your online personality and bravado, your blog or your twitter account, regardless of which side of the aisle you are on are some of the least well adjusted and most malcontented people in the world. Consequently, you are at war at all times and dialed up to 12 on a ten point scale of outrage about everything from a photoshopped picture to a male politician who really does want to save the life of a child who could survive outside the womb (hi, Media Matters).

I’m sorry, but I can’t live my life constantly fixated on the political outrage of the day and I can’t be outraged about every damn thing under the sun. I go out with friends and talk about stuff other than politics, I play with my kids, I love my wife, I cook gumbo and make fantastic ice cream, I watch a bit of TV, don’t read as much as I should, I go to church, and I try to focus on the good in a world filled with sin and bad and evil some people do not even want to call evil because they might have to concede a political point.

I think the world is going to hell. But I believe in God the Father and in his son Jesus Christ and the second coming and a judgment and a final victory over death and sin and evil and a life everlasting where I will walk one day beside my very real Creator. The rest? It’s rather small potatoes in the eternal scheme of things. God is permanent and politics and political coalitions are not.

I get why so many on the secular left, who don’t believe in a Heaven or a Hell, get so upset about certain things and want to politicize everything. To them this life is all there is and every advantage, in politics and culture, is fair game to get to the grave in first place.

But I just cannot understand why so many self-described Christian conservatives are so angry so constantly that they get mad at the suggestion there is more to life than politics.

Truth is, there is more to life than politics. And while you and I can find things that outrage us and they may be different things, to hell with you for being outraged that I’m not outraged about something that outrages you.

While you’re firing up your twitter account or blog to tell the world what a terrible person I am for disagreeing or not caring or not apologizing for some perceived slight or injury you think I’ve caused, in the actual real world that exists off the internet I’m going to go build a train with my 4 year old and fly it through the rings of Saturn before sitting down under the oak tree in my backyard to have a scoop of homemade ice cream with my 7 year old and play a game of catch.

You should try it.