Every campaign is different. During my time at CNN, the last four campaign cycles dominated my life. It started with planning the 2000 campaign coverage and went to 2012, when I was in the field. At one point, I traveled up to 200 days a year and lived from my suitcase.
Friends would email me, or later post on Facebook, “Where are you today?” — trying to find me like Waldo. In 2016, I am pretty much following from this cycle from the sidelines. I help out where I can, but I am no longer living from a suitcase following candidates across the country.
I felt a void from my career change, but I have Acts of the Apostles. It’s the original “campaign,” or the biblical version of “Boys on the Bus.”
As I read through Acts, I keep coming back to our current political system. Candidates spend hours courting voters throughout the country. I have been to battlegrounds like Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania more than I can count. Heck, I went back to Mansfield, Ohio, so many times that my colleagues nicknamed me the mayor.
Every political candidate sells their message — and so did the Apostles.
Before I read the Bible, I am not sure whether I fully understood how, exactly, the faith spread. I thought of the Apostles as missionaries, on fire for the faith. But not necessarily organized.
But they had detailed assignments and “beats,” or areas to cover — just like journalists.
Acts of the Apostles is filled with their travels through Syria, Antioch (modern day Turkey), Cilicia (more of Turkey and Asia Minor through Cyprus), Samaria (the northern part of modern Israel) and other places far and wide. They took their work — telling people about Jesus — very seriously. As the various Apostles spread the word, their messages was clear– don’t worship those idols, forget the kosher dietary laws and marriage is different.
The Greeks were so impressed that they called Barnabas “Zeus” and Paul “Hermes,” incorporating them into their own tradition. But the Apostles didn’t appreciate the “compliment.
“We proclaim to you the good news that you should turn from these idols to the living God,” they said, “‘who made heaven and earth and sea and all that is in them.'”
Paul and Barnabas weren’t universally embraced, though — some resisted their message and stoned them.
Don’t worry, they lived to preach another day. Still, that’s far worse than a heckler in a crowd.
But there were also other deeds meant to convince the crowds. For example, in Joppa (modern day Jaffa) Peter raises Tabitha from the dead. That’s definitely a way to sway that town. And in this book, you find out what happened to Herod. By now, you know I am fascinated by the worst ways to die. Herod is no exception. He was struck dead and “eaten by worms” (Acts 12:23).
I have just a few more chapters left of this book for the week. I am going to continue to read it through a prism most familiar to me: watching the presidential debates from my couch.
