Religion and Politics

I have been so negligent with this blog lately...it's been really hard for me to carve out the time when working night shift. When I get home in the morning I'm too tired to write and by the time I wake up the boys are coming home and the rest of the evening I'm focused on them.

However, this week I have purposely avoided writing. As you can imagine, the mood in my household since the election has been somber. I know that I have friends and family who hold different viewpoints than my own and I don't want to offend or alienate people that I care about. So I have waited until the initial emotions have passed. I debated about writing on these topics at all. In the end I have decided to write this primarily for three reasons: 1. I want Thomas to have a documentation someday of how and why I feel the way I do right now. 2. I wonder how history will later show todays events and where my viewpoints will fit into that. I may change radically in the next 30 years (who knows?) and it may be interesting to look back and see who I was in 2004. 3. This stuff has been bouncing around in my brain all week and I just want to get it out and move on.

So, with those things in mind I write the following disclaimer:

THIS ENTRY CONTAINS EDITORIAL COMMENTS ON POLITICS AND RELIGION. I WILL WRITE MORE ABOUT OUR FAMILY IN LATER POSTS, BUT THIS ONE IS DEVOTED TO THOSE TOPICS. I AM A LIBERAL DEMOCRAT AND A CHRISTIAN WHOSE OPINIONS (AS YOU MIGHT GUESS) DIFFER GREATLY FROM THOSE EXPRESSED BY CHRISTIANS IN THE MEDIA. IF YOU ARE LIKELY TO BE OFFENDED BY THESE VIEWS, PLEASE STOP HERE. ALSO, ALTHOUGH I WELCOME COMMENTS, I AM NOT WRITING THIS TO ATTACK ANYONE OR ELICIT A DEBATE SO PLEASE BE KIND. I RESPECT EVERYONE'S RIGHT TO AN OPINION, PLEASE ALSO RESPECT MINE.




Okay, enough caps. You have been warned. ;-)


I'm going to start with what I imagine is the more controversial of the two aforementiond topics: religion.

I find it so strange that so many Christians embrace the Republican platform. It seems to me that there are so many viewpoints there that are not at all Christian. Yet, I must admit I was forced to examine these things when Bush won this election. I stopped and tried very hard to look at the other side. I considered that I may be wrong. Am I looking at all of this in the wrong way? Am I being led astray - tempted and influenced to embrace viewpoints that are against God? For many years my religious viewpoints were invalidated by my ex and his family because I did not have the religious education and background that they did. They tolerated my viewpoints with a pat on the head and an attitude of, poor thing, she only feels that way because she is ignorant. To this day I retain some feelings that because I didn't go to religion-based private schools, I don't have a right to have an opinion about Christianity. But I do. And I think that, at this point, I have been to church enough, taken enough classes, read enough, LIVED enough, to have a VALID opinion on the subject and what it means to me. Of course, those who believe differently will use whatever they have to to invalidate my viewpoints. One thing I've learned in life is that people are resistant to change and even if I somehow manage to present some very valid points, it is unlikely that anyone is going to suddenly change their mind about the issues because of something that I've said.

Besides all of this, I think that education about Christianity only goes so far. It doesn't take a four-year degree to understand the basic principles of Christianity. The messages are really pretty simple. Originally I was going to write this and back up all of my statements with quotes from the Bible (and it was extremely simple to do so - it took me about 3-5 minutes to do it). But then I realized that that's part of the way that Christian people are being misled in the first place and it doesn't make sense for me to perpetuate that. It's so typical. It works like this: write your opinion and then find some quotation in the Bible that will support your opinion. It's not that hard, believe me. You can page through your Bible and find all kinds of statements, extract them from the context in which they were written and suddenly your opinion has been validated by the Holy Book. Not only that but because you can quote the Bible, you are now an 'expert' on the subject. I used to fall for this a lot because I knew so little about the Bible and also about critical thinking.

The thing is that if you take a step back, go back to basics and use common sense it's so easy to live a Christian life, that is, a life that is complimentary to the values that are expressed in the Bible. Well, it's NOT easy, but it's easy to *understand* what you should do. And that is the basic principle that is behind my argument that, in fact, liberal politics are much more in line with Christian values.

It disturbs me the way that some Christian groups manipulate the Bible and twist in themes in such a way that it excuses, even EMBRACES, viewpoints that are so clearly not Christian. I'll give a couple of examples:

If you win the lottery the truly Christian thing to do is to use 100% of that money to do charitable works. This doesn't mean that you give it all to the United Way. Instead, shed your home, your car and all of your material possessions and personally divest yourself of all that wealth such that it benefits that Common sense tells us that materialism is evil. It's part of the 10 Commandments - which, I would think, most Christians accept as being the basic outline for living. In spite of them having come from the old testament, I do not think there is anything in the new testament that overrides those basic guidelines for 'clean living'. But a Christian needs to look no further than Christ's lifestyle to confirm the truth: yes, poverty is holy. Yet the word poverty has come to have so many negative connotations in our society that we look down at the poor and defend our desire to not live that lifestyle. We are all human and part of being human is that we like nice things. We defend our choice for buying a new car by saying that we *need* it to keep our children safe. Yet we are not completely honest with ourselves. One cannot deny that there is a pleasure in bringing home a new vehicle that has nothing to do with safe children. New car smell, the smoothness of the ride, the new 5-disc CD changer, whatever. I can come up with hundreds of similar examples, but here is the basic point I am trying to make: It is okay to be human, we make mistakes, we are tempted by material pleasures, it's natural, it's normal to want to live a more comfortable life. The problem arises when we try to find a way to sanction this, to say that in some way it is pleasing to God that you have bought a new car. I'm sorry, but it's not.







Revelation 13The Beast from the Sea1And the Dragon stood on the shore of the sea. I saw a Beast rising from the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads--on each horn a crown, and each head inscribed with a blasphemous name. 2The Beast I saw looked like a leopard with bear paws and a lion's mouth. The Dragon turned over its power to it, its throne and great authority.3One of the Beast's heads looked as if it had been struck a deathblow, and then healed. The whole earth was agog, gaping at the Beast. 4They worshiped the Dragon who gave the Beast authority, and they worshiped the Beast, exclaiming, "There's never been anything like the Beast! No one would dare go to war with the Beast!"5The Beast had a loud mouth, boastful and blasphemous. It could do anything it wanted for forty-two months. 6It yelled blasphemies against God, blasphemed his Name, blasphemed his Church, especially those already dwelling with God in Heaven. 7It was permitted to make war on God's holy people and conquer them. It held absolute sway over all tribes and peoples, tongues and races. 8Everyone on earth whose name was not written from the world's foundation in the slaughtered Lamb's Book of Life will worship the Beast.9Are you listening to this? 10They've made their bed; now they must lie in it. Anyone marked for prison goes straight to prison; anyone pulling a sword goes down by the sword. Meanwhile, God's holy people passionately and faithfully stand their ground.The Beast from Under the Ground11I saw another Beast rising out of the ground. It had two horns like a lamb but sounded like a dragon when it spoke. 12It was a puppet of the first Beast, made earth and everyone in it worship the first Beast, which had been healed of its deathblow.13This second Beast worked magical signs, dazzling people by making fire come down from Heaven. 14It used the magic it got from the Beast to dupe earth dwellers, getting them to make an image of the Beast that received the deathblow and lived. 15It was able to animate the image of the Beast so that it talked, and then arrange that anyone not worshiping the Beast would be killed. 16It forced all people, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to have a mark on the right hand or forehead. 17Without the mark of the name of the Beast or the number of its name, it was impossible to buy or sell anything.18Solve a riddle: Put your heads together and figure out the meaning of the number of the Beast. It's a human number: six hundred sixty-six.


I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer . . . be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. . . . Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee. Revelation 2:9-10, 3:9.