So, as many of you know, I’ve become a relatively politically-minded person.  When I was a Protestant, I had many friends tell me that in order to actually be a practicing Christian I MUST be a Republican, because Republicans are “Pro-life”.  Well, I’ve done quite a bit of research, and found that about the only remotely Christian value in Republicanism is the anti-abortion stance.  Considering the following, I evaluated my own stance and found myself to be solidly a Democrat.

Christian value #1:  Caring and providing for the poor.  The traditional R stance is that we need to inspire responsibility by letting people fend for themselves at under-stocked private foodbanks.  Having been VERY broke, I don’t know how we would have survived without government aid even with the very generous help of our church.  While the old style D position tended to make this process overly beaurocratic, it is fixable with some of the new ideas of guys like Barack Obama who has discussed this topic in his book “The Audacity of Hope”.

Christian value #2:  “Blessed are the Peace-Makers”.  I don’t know too many Anti-war Republicans right now, do you?  We need to help out in the Middle East, but we need to do that with nation building, not nation humiliation. 

Christian value #3:  “Blessed are the meek”.  We have a great country, yes.  But there is ALWAYS more we can do within it.  We need to be working to make this a better place to live for all of us, not out crusading to “cleanse the world of evil” – that’s our job through PRAYER, not guns.

Christian value #4:  Family Values.  How selfish are we as Americans when we won’t even spend an extra $50 a year to make it so our kids have what they need in school?  Our teachers can’t afford to be teachers and live in a decent neighborhood!  In this make-or-break economy our current president and his administration have set up, who can afford to home-school their kids to get them a decent education?  I couldn’t!  The R party puts a lot of emphasis on “Family Values” but refuses to put it’s money where it’s mouth is to enable this country to take care of it’s kids.  Also, for all their talk of family values, why is Fox News allowed to blatantly lie to people about what is news (see the documentary “Out Foxed”)?  Why are our kids subjected to horrifically manipulative commercials during Sesame Street (see the documentary “The Corporation”)?  That’s not even allowed in “godless” places like Canada!  Sometimes, we must force those who would sell harmful goods to our kids to be responsible for what they’re doing to our kids by using subversion tactics that are frequently beyond our control.

Christian value #5:  Intrinsic value of ALL life.  Even scripture encourages us to take care of our environment!  Why is it so important that R’s not give ANY heed to the truth in the Global Warming science?   Even our Lord has said that we are to be STEWARDS of the world he has given us!  That means we CAN screw it up if we try.  It’s important to do everything we can to maintain the ecosystems that support life on this planet, it seriously is a life or death issue – not just for animals but us people too.

Christian value #6:  Value of life part 2.  As a Christian, there’s no question that abortion is wrong.  I am disgusted that Roe v. Wade caused our two party system to choose sides on this issue.  In this country, abortion is a business with huge revenues to be made.  Planned Parenthood’s history is EUGENICS.  The founder of PP was a person who supported abortion in order to prevent people who are poor, minority, or intrinsically disadvantaged by relationships or handicap from bearing offspring.  Nancy (Roe) is now a part of the Pro-life movement.  The trouble now with the Pro-life/Pro-choice movement  is that our country has become accustomed to abortion being presented in polarized debates that don’t help women actually make choices.  Moderate Democrats have the best opportunity to end the stalemate and start changing things so that as a nation we can move toward a world free of abortion because women are cared for and empowered (not forced) to make decisions for themselves and their families – not out of fear or pressure.  It is biologically backward that a woman, given good, supporting circumstances would ever choose abortion. Research has shown this over and over again – truly empowered women choose life.  R’s making it difficult to get financial help, or access to professional counseling has not helped their pro-life cause.  This is a complex issue that deserves more than shouts and screams but actual research, discussion, and a WHOLE lot of prayer.

Christian value #7.  Treating others as we would like to be treated.  The concept of “homosexuality” as a lifestyle simply did not exist 100 years ago.  From my backround in science and genetic research, the fact of the matter is that God made us all differently.  Sexuality is no exception.  As humans, our sexual orientation spans the whole spectrum and is not simply a matter of “straight” or “gay”.   In many ancient societies (including biblical judaism and Christianity), while the tendency toward homosexuality was not unknown, men and women were expected to overcome their temptations to uphold their duties to society – namely to bear children.  I do believe that marriage must remain between that of man and a woman – that is Christian.  I do, however believe that it is unconstitutional and unfair in the society we have witlessly created to deny individuals who have chosen to live out the “homosexual” lifestyle from civil unions.  It is cruel to, by law, make it impossible for someone’s partner to receive the family privilege of hospital visitation, post-death financial decisions, and other such privileges – especially given that such individuals are frequently isolated from their families because of the nature of their lifestyle.  We should do unto these people, as we would ourselves, but PRAY for them also for mercy and healing by our Father in Heaven and remember ourselves that it is sin that separates us from God, not our tendency to sin. 

Christian value #8.  Fiscal responsibility/Stewardship.  Republican philosophy believes that fiscal responsibility lies in supporting and not inhibiting free for-profit enterprise by reducing taxation on businesses and persons who do well in the business sector with the intention of their business growth causing more jobs to be made for everyone else.  The problem with this, is that large companies have ONE responsibility and that is their bottom line – not creating jobs that pay well enough for their employess to put money back into the economic system.  The rich get richer, and while they hire more employees, they pay them less and cut their benefits to make their shareholders happy and increase their own personal wealth.  So the rest of us who may not be engineers or doctors, have little left but starvation wages, high rent, and are forced to live in debt.  Taxing and making corporations responsible for the effect they have on the rest of the country is the only sane thing to do.  There is something wrong with a business climate that is encouraging the largest corporations to cut health benefits to workers so the buck passes back to an ill-organized and underfunded government health program.  The D view is just the opposite.  Spread the wealth around because Gross National Product means nothing if the “gross” is the top 1% of our nation’s people.

Christian value #9:  Pray for and support other Christians.  Why, oh why is it the perogative of the Republican party and thereby of many Evangelicals to support the state of Israel and not the Middle Eastern Christians (who are by virtue of not being Jews, are Palestinian) who have been under violent persecution from the Turks, Jews, and Islamic Fundamentalists for centuries?  In the 20th century, Turks slaughtered Orthodox Christians in much the same way (if not more brutally) than Hitler did the Jews.  How many of us are taught in our churches to pray for Israel, but the little note about the Christians in peril who are being oppressed, tormented, and murdered in silence by the very people we encourage by supporting Israel politically.  When Israel built it’s wall to divide Israel from the rest of Palestine, it cut it’s wall right through the courtyard of the Sts. Mary and Martha Monastery splitting the housing quarters from the Church.  Those monks and nuns will not be able to return to their Church without facing persecution and quite possibly death.  Why?  Because they are Christians.  These are the people we should be supporting, not some political state that happens to be mentioned in biblical prophecy (which may or may not be the state of today). 

So, while that’s just the tip of the iceberg of this debate, I hope this will encourage all of the readers of my meager little blog to think about how their political stance relates to what it means to be a Christian.