As we're coming to the close of this oppressively long political season, I've been struggling to reconcile my religious views with my political ones. Certain religious thinkers, especially lately, have been espousing the idea that the purpose of Christianity is bring about God's Kingdom on earth, politically, environmentally, relationally, and so on.
The problem is that Jesus didn't really espouse a political system in the sermon on the mount. Some of the teachings sound close to communist system (toward which many democratic politicians lean): that is, giving to the poor whenever they ask, non-retaliation/peace, and an aversion to power and greed. This makes the republican party and their rich "cronies" look anti-Christian.
However, before we vote to crush the free-market, we must seriously examine a few things. In the Bible, God is the one who exalts the humble and humbles the powerful--in socialism, the government takes that job away from God, and in essence, becomes the god of its citizenry, by ensuring the health, prosperity, defense, unity, and personhood of its subjects.
Personhood? Yup. My biggest fear of the democratic party comes from their assault against the sanctity of human life: abortion, euthanasia, eugenics, cloning, stem cell harvesting, etc. We're very close to going down the same path as 20th century Germany in claiming that certain modes of life are not worth living. When we start getting rid of the old and weak, we are but one step away from mandatory abortions for special needs children (some health care plans already do this!!), mandatory assisted suicides for terminal diseases, and then comes genocide.
Alright, call me alarmist and crazy.
The thing that endears me most to Gov. Sarah Palin (you becha!) is her fierce insistence on treating all human life as worthy of dignity and respect. Early Christianity had a strong reputation for this, as well, most notably in rescuing discarded babies from trash piles, which was the ancient form of abortion.
While I can't wholeheartedly endorse every Republican candidate, this issue is a serious deal-breaker for me. It's not about devaluing women in any way, it's about the government protecting every citizen's right to life, even--especially even--when that citizen cannot speak for his/herself.
1 comment:
i'll call you "alarmist" and crazy and everything, but for completely other reasons, because you're absolutely right here.
i was listening to a professor talk to a student as their class was leaving and ours was entering the room. the professor was telling the student how she couldn't make abortion a voting issue because there are so many other life issues, like poverty and health care, in this country. she said it would be wrong to consider abortion when voting for a candidate. slippery slippery slippery
i was glad that the last debate brought up abortion. for the first time i really identified with mccain as he talked about the need to cultivate a culture that values life, and the problems we'll have in this country if we fail to do that. i was disappointed in obama for being so radically FOR abortion but so terrified to espouse his position when voters are watching . . . tsk tsk
good eye, keep up the good work
mike
Post a Comment