1. If a teenager got pregnant and had to face some difficult choices, they would tell her to trust God.
2. If a single man had difficulty with sexual temptation and yet could not find a godly woman that would want to date him, they would tell him to trust God.
3. If someone comes up to members of the Religious Right and tells them to stop picking the "lesser of two evils" and vote on principle, suddenly they get all pragmatic and run around like a bunch of Chicken Littles, clucking about how "that other guy will win if we don't do something!" Umm, what was that part about trusting, again?
As it is, some Evangelicals are really not "pro-life" because they supported this man who is a flaming liberal on social issues. Why did they support him? Because he supports the War.
I have one question to ask: Why is God beholden to the Religious Right to give them another Republican president? Because the president says he is "pro-life"? You know, I read my Bible, and I think the Israelites thought they were safe because they had the temple, etc. A few prophets told them they were not safe. God got to a point where he did not accept the worship of Israelites. God did not save the Israelites from the Chaldeans because the Chaldeans were "heathens" and the Israelites were "God's people." Chew on that.
I don't believe those of the Religious Right trust in God. They may trust their religious leaders with the multi-million dollar ministries. They may trust the halls of power and wealth. They may trust in the State and big Daddy government. They may trust in the Flag. They may trust in the military and American Empire. They may trust Neocons to tell the truth about Iraq, though the stories and excuses seem to change from one month to another. They may trust the Department of Homeland Security to only spy on the right people. They may trust the CIA to only torture Muslims they don't like. They may trust in Bailouts and reverse socialism for their pension plans. They may trust in worthless fiat money of the Republicrat economists and think Prov. 20:10 is not applicable to the situation. They may trust in a mercantile economy where the government and wealthy collude for self-serving purposes. They may trust in Red State Fascism. They may hate the Democrats more than they love liberty and justice. They may trust the Republican Party to make good on its promises to achieve victory for the "pro-life" cause .... one day. But trust in God? I'm not seeing it.
The idea that Republicans are the party of life is a ridiculous lie. If you don't believe me, click here and smell the coffee. The Republican Party has been become the party of greed, kleptocracy, lies, tyranny, and death. They are no different from the Democrats in that regard. I will only vote for a Republican when he doesn't act like the rest of them (e.g. Ron Paul). I am probably going to vote for a third-party candidate come Election Day. If there was no one decent on the roster, I would not vote at all.
I am tempted to believe that the Religious Right has it coming to them ... just like the Israelites. I hope God has mercy on them.
[Edit: I forgot to add something. Christians voting for either major party remind me of two groups of people. The people from one group sit immobilized in a polished car without several important pieces of machinery; they frantically move the steering wheel left and right in the hopes that will cause them to inch forward. The people in the other group strap car engines to their backs and stagger around shrieking, "We have the most important part of the car! We have the most important part of the car!" None of the people in these two groups realize the futility of their choices.]
I have one question to ask: Why is God beholden to the Religious Right to give them another Republican president? Because the president says he is "pro-life"? You know, I read my Bible, and I think the Israelites thought they were safe because they had the temple, etc. A few prophets told them they were not safe. God got to a point where he did not accept the worship of Israelites. God did not save the Israelites from the Chaldeans because the Chaldeans were "heathens" and the Israelites were "God's people." Chew on that.
I don't believe those of the Religious Right trust in God. They may trust their religious leaders with the multi-million dollar ministries. They may trust the halls of power and wealth. They may trust in the State and big Daddy government. They may trust in the Flag. They may trust in the military and American Empire. They may trust Neocons to tell the truth about Iraq, though the stories and excuses seem to change from one month to another. They may trust the Department of Homeland Security to only spy on the right people. They may trust the CIA to only torture Muslims they don't like. They may trust in Bailouts and reverse socialism for their pension plans. They may trust in worthless fiat money of the Republicrat economists and think Prov. 20:10 is not applicable to the situation. They may trust in a mercantile economy where the government and wealthy collude for self-serving purposes. They may trust in Red State Fascism. They may hate the Democrats more than they love liberty and justice. They may trust the Republican Party to make good on its promises to achieve victory for the "pro-life" cause .... one day. But trust in God? I'm not seeing it.
The idea that Republicans are the party of life is a ridiculous lie. If you don't believe me, click here and smell the coffee. The Republican Party has been become the party of greed, kleptocracy, lies, tyranny, and death. They are no different from the Democrats in that regard. I will only vote for a Republican when he doesn't act like the rest of them (e.g. Ron Paul). I am probably going to vote for a third-party candidate come Election Day. If there was no one decent on the roster, I would not vote at all.
I am tempted to believe that the Religious Right has it coming to them ... just like the Israelites. I hope God has mercy on them.
[Edit: I forgot to add something. Christians voting for either major party remind me of two groups of people. The people from one group sit immobilized in a polished car without several important pieces of machinery; they frantically move the steering wheel left and right in the hopes that will cause them to inch forward. The people in the other group strap car engines to their backs and stagger around shrieking, "We have the most important part of the car! We have the most important part of the car!" None of the people in these two groups realize the futility of their choices.]
9 comments:
FINALLY! Someone who GETS it. I've been going around and around with my friends on this one. I believe as a man, you stand up for righteousness, you stand on principle. Even if no one else stands with you. I don't believe in the argument, "Oh No! If you don't vote for such-and-such candidate, you're going to let opposing candidate win!" And all the political talk coming out of Christian radio stations has been overwhelmingly McCain.
Obama talks about the Audacity of Hope. That's not hope. He is not the messiah. He is not the second coming of Jesus Christ. Neither is McCain our savior. Putting our trust in these men, I believe, constitutes idolatry. And I refuse to vote for either one.
The Audacity of Hope to me has always been that we serve a God who is still on the throne. He has not abdicated, he will not resign. He is just. He is able. And the only candidate worth putting my hopes and dreams in.
The lost art among Christians today (among others) is the ability to preach on his power and strength, the ability to sing about his power and strength. Anything less than a God who is full of grace, yet equally full in power is an incomplete God that I have no business bowing to weekly on Sunday morning. I have a responsibility to bow to the complete God every day, every hour, every minute. Because he is worthy.
But let's say that we get the occasional reference to God's power. The second question is much harder. Do we really and truly believe it? The answer in most mainline churches is "Probably Not." And so we turn to other gods. Other things that kick Christ off the throne. This is why I can't stand listening to our political process. It's all about who you trust. (I don't trust the press in this election... and haven't in some time, because the point of the press it seems is... ratings and money. Anyone driven by that cannot be impartial.) And frankly, the policy of Don't Trust Anyone but the Lion of Judah, seems like a sound political policy right now.
Anakin,
Why are youquoting scriptures about our standing before God, and our personal holiness? None of those verses have anything contextually to do with government and how we vote. We need to vote for the candidate who will best uphold the law of God.
3. If someone comes up to members of the Religious Right and tells them to stop picking the "lesser of two evils" and vote on principle, suddenly they get all pragmatic and run around like a bunch of Chicken Littles, clucking about how "that other guy will win if we don't do something!" Umm, what was that part about trusting, again?
That's sorta like saying that you will stab a knife through your heart, and just trust in God that you will not die. BTW, "trust in God" in each of those first two is rather inaccurate. A man who is struggling with pornography needs to be working to put to death the desires of the flesh, and a woman who has gotten pregnant needs to obey God and have the baby, and put it up for adoption if necessary. In everything, obedience to God is necessary.
Anakin, the trust in God comes in his promise to be with us as we take the gospel to all nations. The law must be present before we can have the gospel proclaimed. That is why we vote in accordance with the law of God. Jesus told us to make disciples of all the nations. He also told us he would be with us in that task. We vote on the basis of this, that the gospel has a redeeming power to heal the nations. He also told us that he would reign from sea to sea, and that all nations would go up to the mountain of God to learn of him. It is trusting in God that he would be with us to accomplish these purposes. Ultimately, therefore, it is a trust in him and his promises, not in government.
Even Ron Paul, although he ran as an independent before, changed his mind this time, and ran as a republican! These third parties know that third party candidates cannot change anything. So, how are you going to get the gospel to this dark area of politics by using an arena that is totally irrelevant?
You are right, both of these parties are corrupt. However, that means that both of these parties need to have the redemption of their minds through the gospel. To just abandon them is to give up on making disciples of all the nations.
God Bless,
PuritanCalvinist
The religious right has wedded itself to a party which takes it for granted. The establishment Republican party, in actuality, considers the concerns of the Faithful to be laughable. We are Bible-thumping freaks who are too steadfast in our defense of moral behavior and in our defense of marriage. Our defense of life is a joke to them. And we have made ourselves into objects of scorn because we seem to put away our values too easily when presented with a candidate that appears to allow us to hold onto worldly power. Thus the establishment Republican party knows that they can present us with a 'pragmatic' candidate because we've demonstrated that we'll set aside our pretenses and vote for political power each and every time.
Through this entire election, I keep thinking of the phrase "render unto Caesar". The political process...particularly the secular democratic process which is a product of the anti-theist and science-fetishist Enlightenment...is no more Godly than the rest of the world. I can vote and participate in it, but I would be very much mistaken if I were to sully God's image by associating him with it.
Really, what I think we are seeing is the characteristic behavior of practicioners of the American civic religion, the unification of church and state that the children of our Forefathers practiced and that left-wingers are forever trying to separate because they're god is the State...and it is a jealous god who won't permit them to have any other gods before It. This civic religion believes that America is God's blessed and chosen country, and that anything we do is Intended by Him. The Faithful, flag-waving right desperately needs to cleave their Faith from their sense of patriotism.
Lastly, I really hope that Boundless' exhortation to be a single-issue-voter in re: abortion doesn't seriously suggest that we vote for McCain/Palin. While both candidates may personally be opposed to that grisly procedure, I don't think for a moment that they'll seriously agitate to have Roe v. Wade overturned. And if they won't do that, then why in the heck are we being urged to vote for a pair of politicians, one of whom is a self-admitted feminist (and we know just how Godly feminism is).
Actually, it says quite a bit when pro-life groups won't even get behind the efforts of a woman who has taken serious initiative here.
I can see the case for supporting McPalin: the next President is likely going to get to replace 3, if not 4, Supreme Court Justices. Ginsburg, Breyer, Stevens, Souter, Kennedy are all getting up there in years.
I remember 1992, when many evangelicals--angry with Bush 41--voted for Clinton or Perot, and Clinton was elected with 43% of the vote. Clinton would go on to make two SCOTUS appointments--Breyer and Ginsburg--who are today the most liberal jurists.
Bush wasn't perfect on this either, nor was Reagan. On the other hand, Kennedy and Souter were--at the time--very good conservatives who morphed leftward whereas Breyer and Ginsburg were unmistakably pro-abortion, as Clinton had promised a litmus test on Roe.
While I absolutely understand the case for voting 3rd party--as I plan to do myself--I can see a good case for supporting McPalin.
While McCain and Palin cannot guarantee that 5th SCOTUS vote, they will be more likely to support a constructionist or federalist on this matter whereas Obama and Biden--you know where they stand.
I am old enough to remember the Bork fiasco, where the GOP--Arlen Specter--teamed up with the DNC--Biden and Kennedy--to destroy perhaps the most qualified SCOTUS nominee in the last 30 years.
Biden has not changed: you can be assured that any SCOTUS nominee by Obama will be a hardcore supporter of Roe.
McCain, on the other hand, has a near-100% pro-life voting record. Palin, while untested at the federal level, is also a staunch pro-lifer. On that issue, you have a good shot at getting solid pro-life conservatives on the bench.
One can make the argument that there are other issues besides abortion; on the other hand, the sacrifice of 50 million children to Molech is--and I say this in the technical sense--a goddamned big one.
I will not castigate Boundless over this one.
PC, Jesus never exhorted his disciples to engage in politics. He never told his followers to try to influence the Roman Senate. Any connection between God's laws and voting are tenuous at best.
I, regrettably, I've been morphing into a single-issue voter.
Doesn't mean I turn a blind eye to all the other things.
Problem is, I don't know what ANY third party candidate stands for (whose running anyway?) and I agree with McCain on almost every issue BO and McCain disagree on.
I'm not hiding my head in a pillow on this one. I know where McCain stands on the economy (he was against the deregulation of housing loans and voted against it to begin with, was against the re-financing plan though he regrettably caved).
I know McCain is not "pro-life". I know he's more pro-choice than pro-lifers would really like, but as my father likes to point out, no matter McCain's convictions on certain points, he has to go with his funding. He will lose GOP support if the majority of GOP's funding is lost because of stupid moves he makes in the abortion debate (I think the evangelical right really does provide some of the heaviest financial support to the GOP). I think that was one of the reasons for the Palin choice for VP - that solidifies his intentions in that regards to be thoroughly pro-life.
I don't expect him to make any major changes in the pro-life direction, but I don't expect him to go the exact opposite direction like I expect Obama to.
And to be quite honest, there really aren't that many black and white issues out there...and I KNOW I'm called to be consistent in my beliefs. If I believe Abortion is wrong, than i vote against it.
Abortion is WRONG from a scriptural point of view. War, socialism, economics, energy and planet usage - they all have wiggle room, even if termed a "necessary evil". Even the Electric Chair has biblical grounds!
Those things I can quibble about. I will not quibble on my stance on abortion. And because of that (and there may be other issues that I add to that list of non-quibbling) I will be a single-issue voter.
I may be a hypocrit (as is everyone else out there), but voting for such a staunch pro-choice candidate to me is like saying "I believe Jesus is the only way to heaven, but he might not be that for you." Because I believe abortion is WRONG.
Christina: That is probably the only compelling reason to vote for McCain.
I take that back: the other good reason is Gov. Palin.
I figure all 4 candidates--McCain, Biden, Obama, Palin--are emperors without clothes.
And if I have to look at an emperor with no clothes, I'd rather it be Palin. LOL
Really? And I had this election figured like the wizard of Oz:
You have Palin who wishes he had a heart.
You have Biden who wishes he had a Brain.
And you have Obama who probably needs courage.
That leaves McCain as Dorothy.
Oh gosh.
Actually, I always thought of McCain as the wizard himself; Full of good intentions but ultimately a fraud, yet still ending up looking like the good guy.
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