New Blog

Dear Friends and Patriots,

Most of you who know me know that I am a preacher of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! That is what my vocation would be considered--even though I don't consider what I do a job. It is more a calling and a labor of love! However, I am grateful that at least for now it does provide for my family.

Many of you know that I have a blog already thats primarily to discusss life in ministry as well as many important topics before the Lord's Church these days. However, this new blog I am starting "In The Arena" is a little different. Some of you know that long before I went into ministry, I spent my teen years and all of my 20s and early 30s heavily involved in government and the political process.

I reserved a different blog to discuss political matters--because I try as best I can to separate my Christian views and focus from some of my more political in nature views. I don't believe we can ever completely separate them--but I think there needs to be some healthy divide. I don't want to ever confuse or in any way make politics appear more important than what pleases God--HE is our only one true leader and King!!! But since politics and government are a part of our lives--perhaps its ok for preachers to speak out also. I will try to always do so fairly and kindly.

Let me share my story of a former life spent in the trenches of politics.

I grew up around the Mesquite City Hall in the 70s and 80s when my later father, Elland Archer was the City Attorney. When I was 10, I got to accompany my dad to Washington where he tried a case for the city before the United States Supreme Court. I remember sitting in that large courtroom and watching my dad stand before legends like Chief Justice Warren Burger, newly appointed Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and Thurgood Marshall to name a few. I knew then I wanted to be involved in the political process, although perhaps not necessarily law. I remember that President Reagan had taken office just a few months before and it was an exciting time in Washington. I was just mesmerized by that early visit of Washington--a city full of history that I had read about so much as a boy already.

When I was about 16, I started volunteering in political campaigns. I started out as a Republican because my dad was an Eisenhower Republican and thats what I knew. I worked in numerous campaigns from city council, mayor, state legislative races, U.S. House races, and eventually worked very actively in then State Treasurer Kay Bailey Hutchison's U.S. Senate race. I worked as in intern for Senator Hutchison for about a year in her Dallas office a couple of years after she was elected. I was very involved with student government at Eastfield Community College and was a Student Senator for a year. I also wrote for the Eastfield Et Cetera, doing mostly political stories and writing columns/op ed pieces. However, being involved in politics and being a student did not so much pay the bills and I eventually had to make some money.

I got into restaurant management for several years and continued to be acitive in my community of Mesquite. I served on what used to be called The Mesquite Historical Commission (now called Historic Mesquite Inc.) for a couple of years and later served on the Mesquite Planning and Zoning Commission. During much of that time, I was a manager at CiCi's Pizza in South Mesquite for 8 years. During that time, I began to have a change of heart on many of my political views. While I considered myself somewhat of a social conservative, I found myself moving to a more progressive/democratic point of view. I tutored for a few years at a low income school in Mesquite and worked with many low income children as well as many teachers who were all struggling together to carve out some kind of future. I looked closely at many of the positive impacts FDR and later LBJ had on the lives of the "little people" in America and was very moved by it.

So in 2000, I cut my teeth on my first political race. I was 29 and on fire to do good! I was very naive and ran for state representative as a conservative democrat in a heavy republican district--with George W. Bush on the national ticket. Needless to say, I did not win--but it was an incredible experience and I gathered much more support than anyone expected--including myself! :) Two years later, I ran for a county office (Dallas County District Clerk) in the democratic primary--and was expected to win--as I had a strong name and good credentials in the party. Unfortunately or perhaps fortunately, my primary opponent was a woman whose recent name had become "Kay Hutchison." She campaigned not a bit, received no endorsements, spent not a dime and I was sure to win. And win I did--in early voting--which is generally where more educated voters vote. However, on election day--she beat me and I lost the primary election 51 to 49 or so I think. I was so crushed and could not believe it!

Whats even crazier is that she was kicked off the ballot a few months later due to a judge saying her name was not on the up and up. The party chair then offered me the first choice to be back on the ballot. By then however, I had married the love of my life, Christi, and had taken on new and more important priorities--including two small step-children. But it would not have mattered, it would be another 4 years before the democrats would take back Dallas County. So I got involved in a few other races and helped them and then slowly pulled out of politics. Not because I suddenly disliked it, but that it had been too important to me for too many years. It was time for me to focus on other things.

Since those days, taking care of my family and serving the Lord by taking Jesus to the impoverished and more difficult parts of Mesquite has been my top priorities. But I do love my country very much and believe that until Jesus comes back--we can still make our country and community better. I no longer subscribe to a particular party or have my feet positioned as either a Republican or a Democrat. I find myself fairly conservative on some of the social issues of the day--and fairly progressive when it comes to economic justice and making life a little better for the working poor and the vulnerables of our nation. So really I don't much fit into either party.

So since I am an average citizen and voter, I get to now express how I feel about the issues of the day without having to worry about whether or not it will cost me votes or get me elected. So as I write on this blog what I hope will be regular, I will side with whichever party or elected officials who I happen to think is right on each individual issue. What you can expect from this blog--is NO PARTISAN POLITICS! You can expect to always read about the fact that I believe in our system of government and I am an American first. Which means I respect those who have been put in authority, even when I don't agree with them. I believe there is no room for hate and ugliness in the political process. I greatly appreciate and value and honor both President Obama as well as the leaders of the Republican Party and other partisan elected officials nationwide of both major political parties.

In my next blog, I will discuss why this blog is titled "In The Arena." So, LETS HAVE A CONVERSATION!

Bruce Archer
Mesquite, Texas