This is my first post on my new blog. I am going to write about my take on faith and politics. I will leave the history to my brother in law, as he is much more versed in this than I am.
It is interesting to see both parties engaging in discourse which address matters of faith. Frankly I think neither party gets it totally right. The Republican party to get elected, has placed their emphasis on social conservatism to win the vote of conservative Christians. Being in favor of unrestrained capitalism, they tend to ignore the little guy in favor of big business. While making money is not a sin, making money at the expense of other people is not how a Christian should set up a business model. We are called to be Christ’s example in the world. He called us to look after the widows and orphans. I do not think it is the government’s job to provide charity, I think that is a clear mandate to the church from Jesus. But until the church takes this role seriously, I think there is a government role in making sure people do not slip through the cracks where health care and education are concerned. The vast majority of this however, should be done at the local and state level and not at the federal level.
The Democrats on the other hand place their emphasis on social equality and wealth redistribution to appeal to their many interest groups. Some of these groups include the pro-abortion and pro-homosexual lobby. As a result they like to cherry pick the parts of scripture they cite. They like the Sermon on the Mount, but not the parts where Paul speaks about condemning homosexuality and calling us to live righteously. They like big government because the more affect the government has in your life, the more they will have a say in how we live our lives. This is a system with very little self-responsibility or accountability.
For this reason, we can no longer just follow a party and as the saying goes, choose the lesser of two evils. We have to seek out those candidates that uphold righteousness. We cannot wait until the general election to ask God who we should vote for; we must begin asking for guidance now. We cannot be discouraged by the perceived lack of candidates; we need to ask God to raise up those candidates that He wants in office. Just as Gideon defeated the army of the Midianites with 300 men, so too we can with “the sword of the Lord and Gideon” defeat the political and spiritual enemies of the Lord in this country.
On a side, I noticed this quote by one of the Democrat candidates for President Barack Obama in an article on the CNN page.
The article stated that Democrat candidate for president Barack Obama said "We're going to keep on praising together. I am confident that we can create a Kingdom right here on Earth." Hmm, I thought the Kingdom was all ready here. This sounds a little humanistic to me.
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6 comments:
So would you vote for a third-party candidate? I'm thinking that will be a big issue coming up.
I would have to pray long and hard about that. But why not.
I'm glad you're writing. I know you have a lot of wisdom. Thanks for sharing it.
I sometimes hate it that we only get two choices with a two-party system, but a third-party at this point would only take votes away from the "lesser of the two evils" Makes it tough.
I am in complete agreement that we need to pray now about the elections, not wait until there's not much of a choice.
As my niece is fond of saying... "Preach up preacher!"
I am in complete agreement with you on the elections. And I have the same difficulty with the "lesser of two evils."
May God increase our faith to believe and pray for true men and women of righteousness to rise up!
I have been thinking a lot lately about the role of government in education, healthcare and welfare. I do not have a solid conviction on them yet but I want to share some of my thoughts.
I have heard some discussion on the use of government to coerce people into doing good. Basically by taxing for welfare the government is using the point of a gun to make me give to the poor. Now, giving to the poor is a good thing and nearly commanded in the New Testament, but if it is coerced is it still good? If my giving is not from a heart of love then it is not a following of Gods direction but an attempt to stay out of jail.
Again on education, the government uses the point of a gun (laws with penalties) to force me to pay taxes for government schooling. My biggest issue with this is the teaching of evolution as the only origin of man. This is directly contrary to my religious and intellectual beliefs! And the atheistic assumptions behind evolution are just as religious and the 6-day creation that I believe the Bible teaches.
On the other hand, there are no easy solutions to these issues. I believe that government comes in where we fail to govern ourselves. If the church were taking care of the poor and educating children the way we should government would not need to. I think we need to educate ourselves on the proper role of government in a Christian society.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
I agree that it would be hard to vote for a third party candidate. I was listening to Rush the other day and he was talking about the first Pres. Bush losing to Clinton because there was enough of a vote for the third party that mostly pulled votes away from Bush. For now I guess that I will pray that the right man be nominated in our party.
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