Doug’s Ramblings

A friend recently asked if a registered Democrat can be a Christian. He was obviously frustrated by things he’s seeing as the 2008 election season accelerates.

To answer the question, “Can a registered Democrat be a Christian”? I say “Sure!” Christians do all sorts of things and take all sorts of positions. An opinion or position on an issue does not make or break a person’s salvation. We should not divide over a person’s political party. That is a great opportunity for discussion or debate over the merits of each position but it should never divide believers.

It’s interesting that you’ve brought up the Democratic party. Recently, I’ve seen a trend among evangelicals, especially younger ones. More and more of them are siding with the Democratic party. I was a little confused at first, but it seems that the migration is due to a few core issues: poverty, social justice, war and protecting the environment which the Republican party often fails to address. These issues seem to have replaced, or superseded, the traditional conservative issues of abortion & marriage. Several of my Christian friends have headed down this path and are supporting Barack Obama for president.

I wonder if this change has to do with separating themselves from the political “religious right” that has gained such a negative reputation? Certainly many of them are unhappy with the current administration and are separating themselves from that.

Regardless, I think we would all agree that poverty, social justice, unjust war and environmental issues ARE important to God and therefore should be important to us. There’s no doubt that the Bible speaks of caring for the poor and helping the weak. To act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with our God. There’s no doubt that we, as the church, need to be practicing these things regularly. We’re also called to be good stewards of the Earth. We should not overreact to the vocal environmentalists who tend to go too far. Just because they go too far one direction doesn’t mean that we should swing the complete opposite direction and do nothing to protect our environment. Could it be that the church is failing in these areas and that is why more and more young Christians are looking to the federal government to lead the way in these areas?

It seems to me that an important factor in this decision making process is what you think should be the role of federal government. Personally, I don’t think its role is to address poverty. That’s an issue that should be handled on the local level (preferrably non-governmentally if possible). Possibly some social justice and environmental issues merit federal government intervention. Generally speaking, I think the federal government should be MUCH smaller and less powerful than it currently is. From my reading, this is what the founding fathers intended.

Although the issues that are attractive to many Christians who are switching to the Democratic party (poverty, social justice, war and protecting the environment ) are very important, should these issues take higher precedence than abortion and marriage? In my mind, abortion is a significant evil that should be addressed legally. It should be made a crime equal with murder since that’s really what it is. A small human being dies as the result of abortion regardless of when you believe the “soul enters the body”. I really think it’s that simple. If the states were allowed to rule on this issue as they ought to be, that might be the beginning of the end of abortion.

Legal steps for ending abortion are vital but we certainly shouldn’t stop there. If abortion was ended today, the adoption organizations would likely be overwhelmed. Young women would need our help. This should not be a government issue though. This is something that the church and other non-profit organizations should handle. I wonder if we should be doing more today to support and encourage adoption options for these young women faced with an unplanned pregnancy.

Regarding the issue of marriage, I don’t have a concrete position. Part of me says that we’re trying to legislate a Christian principle (marriage = 1 man + 1 woman) on a non-Christian nation. On the other hand, much of our legislation does have Christian origins (eg, property ownership, murder, etc.) which benefit everybody. This is a tough issue.

So, overall, I do think that the issue of abortion outranks poverty, social justice, war and protecting the environment. It is the greatest evil perpetrated by the United States in recent history. This really is the “slavery” of our time.

At this time, the Republican party and John McCain still take a stronger stance against abortion than the Democratic party and Berack Obama do. It’s still a SIGNIFICANT difference in position even after the Democratic party recently updated/softened it’s official position on abortion.

Having said all that, I still think the other issues are important and we should be contacting our Congressmen regularly to tell them what we think about marriage, poverty, war, social justice and the environment. Our top priority should be ending abortion though.

In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that I’m a registered Republican and plan to vote for John McCain. I’ve been somewhat hesitant about the Republican nominee due to his moderate stance on many issues but he does seem to line up more with my beliefs than Barack Obama does. I disagree with both candidates on several issues (eg, national health insurance, $700 Billion financial bailout, etc.).

-dougl

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