She goes on to describe Justice in the Burbs:

"The fictional part of the book describes a story of a husband and wife who live in the suburbs and start feeling the need to be more connected to issues of justice. The non-fictional part follows this story line with facts and examples as to how and why the Christian couple were Biblically sound in their endeavors--and how they (and others reading the book) could do more to promote justice where they live. Here again the focus is on sacrificial love: the non-fictional characters learn about the poverty around them and start to give up a lot of what they have and wanted in life in order to care for others."

This brought about the topic of Sacrificial Love in relation to Jesus... but what I'd like to mention is Sacrificial Love in a more political way.

Sacrificial love is self-sacrifice with the pure motivation to alleviate the suffering of others. These are not just Christian values - but appear in old African Traditions, Confucianism, Islam, and many different sects within them - one could even argue that many threads through Harry Potter are reminiscent of this sacrificial love.

I don't consider myself a higher being or on a higher plain of existence than many other people, though oddly a guy I constantly run into at the coffee shop says that I am more awake than many people he knows. I think he's just trying to flirt. But, when it comes to the responsibilities I feel to my fellow beings I find my sacrifice is deeper than that of many people, certainly traditional republicans.

When I look at our party, the policies we produce, the work that we do, I feel that we are on a trajectory of sacrificial values. I don't want for our party to be the Holier than Thou party but the number of policies we've pushed this Congress alone with the New Direction for America's Future (pdf) and the number of vetoes the President has signed that hurt everyday people like us, well its a pretty good indicator that one party is keeping their promises and the other is just playing politics as usual.

Now some of the Bush Dog Democrats are holding out on being moral leaders. It's easy to follow the loud conservative mantras that come out of many of these districts. After all most of those voices are the hardest to ignore because they won't shut up. And when the majority is quiet - even silent, you end up with politicians who think they are representing the values of their district.

Leadership, my brothers and sisters, is defined by ones ability to lead. Democrats in conservative areas of the country like Nancy Boyda here in my district, walk a fine line between leadership and representing the values of her district (even people who aren't always voters). And as sexy as it might sound to be the servant of two masters, you can end up with a cluster of opposition and confusion.

Boyda wasn't named to the exclusive group of "Blue Dog Dems" - what we lovingly refer to as Bush-Dog Dems. I wonder if she ever wanted to be. I see these BushDogs beholden to one ideology or another - picking which issues they decide they'll be conservative on based on strength of the voices advocating.

I see people like Boyda quite simply lead... beholden only to their districts. Sacrificing great networking opportunities for sure on The Hill, possibly even re-election to simply stand only for their districts, however quite their majorities.

Most politicians wouldn't sacrifice their power even for a second to do the right thing. But when I see people do it, the way so many democrats - and a few Republicans have done this year - Like San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders - who put aside a party agenda to advance a Kingdom.

It makes me wonder how many Representatives are more beholden to loud voters or contributors instead of the thousands of people who spend every day just trying to get by.

What do you sacrifice for the greater good?

This holiday season, what are you doing to lead?