intertwinings
I was searching the web and checking email, and I came across a letter from the DNC. In it was a link that I really liked… Howard Dean on the Daily Show on Sunday night
He said something truly profound… “The philosophy of the Democratic Party… really is to love thy neighbor as thyself, and you don’t get to choose your neighbor.” The goal for the democrats in the next year is to call the GOP’s “B.S.”, for example, renewing the Voting Rights Act instead of just visiting black churches and rallying for support of the GOP party just because you’re Christian.
I’ve been reading “God’s Politics: How the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It” by Jim Wallis. Probably the most profound thing that he stated in the entire book so far was at the very beginning of the book, in regards to the “God is not a Republican [or a Democrat]” campaign they ran in the 2004 election. Wallis claimed that the candidate’s faith was a huge piece of the vote in the election, saying that it “directly challenged the single-issue voting that comes from shrinking all our religious and moral values down to one of two issues, and said that all candidates should be examined by measuring their policies against the complete range of Christian ethics and values. On that wider and deeper list… were poverty, the environment, war, truth-telling, human rights, our response to terrorism and a ‘consistent ethic of human life’ that included abortion, but also capital punishment, euthanasia, weapons of mass destruction, HIV/AIDS and other pandemics, and genocide around the world.” He went later on to say that he had “never seen such an outrageous behavior by a political party in trying to manipulate religion for its own agenda while so disrespecting the faith of millions of other believers who disagree with the Republican political agenda.”
The “God is Not a Republican. Or a Democrat.” campaign stated the following beliefs:
• We are not single-issue voters
• We believe that poverty – caring for the poor and vulnerable – is a religious issue
• We believe that the environment – caring for God’s earth – is a religious issue
• We believe that war – and our call to be peacemakers – is a religious issue
• We believe that truth-telling is a religious issue
• We believe that human rights – respecting the image of God in every person – is a religious issue
• We believe that our response to terrorism is a religious issue
• We believe that a consistent ethic of human life is a religious issue
I found it very interesting that the book didn’t tell you which side these statements chose. In fact, when each issue is observed with much depth, you’d find that either candidate would have suited each belief, or lack thereof. The beginning of the list said that “Christians and other people of faith can choose to vote for President Bush or Senator Kerry – for reasons deeply rooted in their faith. If only I knew about this sooner… even my own family criticized me for voting the way I did. I voted for certain reasons, and against certain reasons.
An article in RELEVANT magazine was talking about how people view Jesus… lately there has been a revival of “Republican Jesus.” Well, since Roe v Wade anyways. In the article, it said that “republicans took note and began treating religious people and their ideas with a lot more respect than the Democrats seemed to. Soon, evangelicals and Republicans were indistinguishable. The GOP evolved into a party of traditional values. The Republican platform became the biblical one. Which would be a good fit for Jesus, if He spent large chunks of the Gospels worrying about abortion and gay marriage. Or, for that matter, exhorting James and John on the need to support American foreign policy.”
Compelling stuff… there is proof that you can be a Christian and vote the Democrat ticket in the South. You’ll face ridicule, for sure. But the next time I get asked how I could possibly vote the way I did, I’ll be sure to bring up the fact that issues like poverty, HIV/AIDS, genocide, etc. are issues in my book as well… not just whether 2 or 3 televangelists tell me it is God’s will to vote for someone.
There is always an issue of separation of church and state here in Alabama. People believe that we were founded as “one nation under God” and we were created because “in God we trust.” I keep wanting to suggest to them that each of those phrases were added later… or even the simple notion that many of the founding fathers weren’t Christian, but deists. I’m sure that would rock their world… or they’d claim heresy and want to know where I grew up because it was obviously in the liberal socialist regime. But, not quite… I just know the history behind it. Like the fact that the colonies were formed because they were disgusted with the entanglement of church and state, after the English Protestant Reformation/creation of the Church of England/insanity of Henry VIII/puritans went nuts on the high church goers.
George Santayana once said, “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” If only we’d learn from history, we might not be in the mess we’re in…
Can we load all of our Puritans (see: Roy Moore) up and ship them off?
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