I am a Christian. My faith is the most important thing in my life, and I don’t know how I’d cope without it. My God is an awesome God and I love Him with all of my heart and I want to please Him and do His will. There. Now everybody knows what page I’m on and there can be no doubts. Right?
Wrong. Because I am also a Democrat and apparently, those two things are mutually exclusive. I have never voted Republican and I probably never will. I say probably because the person is more important than the party to me, but since most Republican’s don’t seem to hold the same values as I do, I fear it would be hard to find one I agreed enough with to vote for.
I don’t know why Christianity has become known as such a Republican thing. I know plenty of liberal democrats who are also Christians, and I’m sick of being treated as if we are the red-headed step-children of mainstream Christianity. That we are somehow not REAL Christians, or not Christians that you can take seriously. That we are somehow Christian lite.
I am a Democrat. I am a liberal. I love Jesus. I am a feminist. I love my country and I don’t hate men and I love the flag AND I love Jesus and I read the Bible. I am for gay rights. I am green. I am for equality and equal pay for equal work and I go to church on Sundays and I sing in the choir and I am voting for Obama. Oh, and, I love Jesus and believe He was the son of God who died on the cross and rose again three days later to save us from our sins. And I am a Democrat.
And I am proud.
…Can you tell that non-stop election coverage is really starting to get to me? He he he he he…(crazy, tired laughter)
Goodnight.
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November 3, 2008 at 9:15 am
Leslie Helwig
I don’t honestly know how that happened, how Christianity became so Republican. I do not consider myself a Christian anymore because of personal reasons but I do love God and believe along the same lines as you plus I am militantly pro-life, not for religion but for the reason of human rights and that every person has the right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. No one has the right to decide who lives and who dies. I despise it when they try to turn the argument into religious or feminist politics because it has absolutely nothing to do with either. IT IS NOT YOUR BODY THEREFORE NOT YOUR CHOICE!!!! If it has about a tattoo, hair coloring, or amputation, then yes, it is your body, what you were born with, is yours to do with. But that baby is a separate entity, a person all his or her own and therefore not a part of your body. you are merely a vessel, a house for that baby to grow in. Can a house kick out its occupants when it does not want them? Any ultrasound test will show that a living being is alive inside you. This is the only issue you will never sway me on and if I had magical powers I would put a hex on every abortion doctor so that he or she could never accomplish their mission and that every thing they tried to do in life that they would fail and that they would always know the reason why. Future civilizations will vomit when they discover the truth about our most barbaric form of child abuse. Sorry about the soap box, but I got a fax at the office the other day about Obama and I do not know if it is true, but if it is I despise him now.
And about today’s blog, I do not think God holds any party affiliation either.
November 3, 2008 at 11:24 am
Karen's sister Lisa
Karen, I agree with you that somehow the Republican party became affiliated with Christianity, and it is a very strange thing indeed. To me, the Democratic party embodies the values of Christ and what our mission is as Christians. Help others. Don’t put ourselves first. It is not about having money. Treat all people with kindness. Work hard.
Abortion is a tough issue. I used to be prolife. Now I am pro choice, but I think choosing life is the best choice. But it is a choice. I have known many people who have had an abortion, and it was devastating to them. I have also known someone who volunteered for years escorting women into an abortion clinic. People scream such hateful, terrible things to these women, people who claim to be Christians and are trying to spread Christianity. Except there is nothing Christlike in screaming hate. My friend told me about this one man who was harassing a family. The woman went into the clinic, and her husband stayed outside with their kids. This so-called Christian started telling the children that their mommy was inside killing their baby brother or sister right now, and that their mommy was going to burn in hell for this, and they were lucky their mommy didn’t decide to kill them too. What is wrong with people.
I understand the arguement for being pro-life. I don’t agree with Leslie. If I had magic powers I would fly and maybe have super human strength, red boots like Wonder Woman, but I would not put a hex on abortion doctors. These are just doctors who happen to provide abortions, and if it becomes illegal again, then there will be the same problems we faced in the past: women having unsafe abortions, killing themselves, or women having babies they don’t want and cannot take care of and abuse. Women have been having abortions in some form or another for thousands of years, and it is an act of desperation. Future civilizations will be dealing with the same issue.
The other thing I don’t understand is the gay marriage issue. Being biracial, I see gay marriage as the same as interacial marriages were in the past. My grandparents had to go to a different state to get married. My own parents (I just found this out recently) would not have been able to get married in the state they married in if it had been just one year earlier. I am not advocating that churches have to marry a same sex couple, that is up the doctrine the church upholds. I am saying that as a country, we don’t have the right to say that people who are two consenting adults cannot marry. I would like Christians to have the same kind of uproar about the state of heterosexual marriages now. The Ten Commandments do not mention gay relationships, but it does mention adultery. And there is a whole lot of people who claim to be Christians who cheat on their spouses, including (or so it seems) both the people who are running as the number one and two slots of the Republican ticket.
Obama to me is about helping others, giving people hope, reaching out to all Americans regardless of their ideologies. That is where my vote is going.
November 3, 2008 at 11:37 am
Josh McDonald
Amen! Funny thing; I was raised in a very Catholic, very Democratic household and have generally attended fairly liberal parishes. So “Christian Democrat” has always seemed natural to me — not an oxymoron in the least. For me, the conservative Christian movement has always seemed paradoxical and something I can’t really get my head around.
November 3, 2008 at 11:49 am
Libertarian
There are so many issues that are important to people–people’s final choice of candidate usually has more to do with the one or two issues that are most important to them, rather than their particular religious beliefs. There are atheists who will vote for McCain, conservative Christians who will vote for Obama, quirky people like me who will vote for neither. But it’s easier for the media to make rash generalizations than to delve into the complicated reasons that make a person choose the candidate that they do.
[quote]And I am proud[/quote]
People, even Christians, throw around this word and often don’t think about what it means. Many times Christians say proud, when they really mean thankful. Being proud is not a trait Christians should emulate. Whatever you are proud of, the Christian response should be thankfullness. Where ever we find outselves in life, whatever knowledge we have, it comes from God, so as Christians we should be thankful, not proud.
Proverbs 16:5
The LORD detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished.
Proverbs 18:12
Before his downfall a man’s heart is proud, but humility comes before honor.
November 3, 2008 at 12:39 pm
jaz
Me too, Karen, me too. Christian and Democrat. Not sure how your post sparked a Pro-life statement, or bible verses, but I’m in complete agreement with your original post. – jaz
November 3, 2008 at 1:19 pm
samcarter14
As Leslie pointed out, I think one of the sticking points for many Christians who vote Republican is the abortion issue. I honestly do not see how anybody who purports to be a Christian can support a candidate who has a record of consistently being anti-life. He has pledged to eradicate parental notification for minors who seek abortions. That means that if your 13 year old daughter wants an abortion–a major medical procedure–the law will not require you to be notified. Imagine that world, for a moment. It terrifies me.
November 3, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Ted Seeber
I hate the fact that pro-life people are excluded from the Democratic party merely because some people seem to think that murder should be a human right.
Having said that, I don’t get why abortion is a choice- or called murder. To be correct, it should be a matter of triage- not a choice of the woman, but a choice of the doctor, in care of TWO patients, choosing the one most likely to survive.
The OTHER form of abortion, the one that isn’t purely an emergency medical procedure to save the life of the mother, is caused primarily by free market economics, and it should be the shame of every capitalist country that any man who fathers a child, regardless of current skillset, is not able to get a living wage job to support that child. Teen pregnancy to me is not a shame of the teen parents, and shouldn’t be a stigma against them, it should be a stigma against us all for being so selfish that we can’t provide the new parents with a living wage job.
I can no longer trust either the Republicans or the Democrats to create an economy that will do this.
Oh, and for all of those out there who think sex is for recreation- stop lying to your kids, please. There should be *NO* reason for any child to reach adolescence thinking that sex is 30 seconds of pleasure instead of, when done correctly, 24-30 years of sacrifice so that the species can continue.
If we did that, gay marriage wouldn’t be an issue either. Nor anything else the Republicans have claimed repeatedly that they will do something about to grab the Christian vote, but they never seem to get past giving bonus money to billionaires.
November 3, 2008 at 3:49 pm
Ted Seeber
P.S.- just one question. How can one be a feminist *AND* be for the patriachial monarchy that most of Christianity outside of the United States has spent the last 2000 years wishing for, that is, the return of our Once and Future King Jesus Christ, and the destruction of secular government in favor of a divine Theocracy, of which our once king has left a vicar patriarch in charge of (I’ll admit that among that core billion-and-a-half Christians, there seems to be some disagreement which patriarch was left: Rome, Moscow, Constantinople, Antioch. But they all agree that our King left, will return one day, and left a servant behind to guide us).
I just can’t see how feminism can be reconciled with that. Mother Mary notwithstanding, our dulcia may be with the feminine but our latria has been reserved for the masculine.
November 3, 2008 at 4:28 pm
Karen's sister Lisa
I’m not sure I understood everything Ted said there. BUT, I happen to think that when we die, we are spirits. And spirits are neither female nor male. But when Jesus came to earth in His earthly form, He was a man. And God manifests himself as the heavenly father. But the Holy Spirit is neither male nor female, but is spirit. Now if society had been a matriarchial (spelling?) society at the time, would Jesus have been born a woman? I do not know this. I think much of the Bible needs to be read through the filter of the time period that these events took place in.
But to me, feminism means that women are equals to men. Why should a man be paid more money for the same work? Why wouldn’t I be able to vote? Why are my thoughts and ideas less important? The fact that the Pope has to be a male does not have anything to do with equal rights for women.
Now I am singing “Anything you can do, I can do better…” a la Ethel Murman (again, spelling?). Yes I can Yes I can Yes I can!
November 3, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Ted Seeber
You probably would need some Latin to understand it- as well as a full understanding of the current Catechism on the Communion of Saints (and why that does NOT make Catholics into a bunch of polytheists).
It’s more that as parents, we’re called to different roles in the family. Yes we can mix up those roles somewhat; but we do so at our peril and at the peril of our children.
Having said that, back when I was more egalitarian and before I could vote, I was very much for the Equal Rights Amendment- especially for what it would do to the draft!
And even now, I think we’d end a lot of problems if we’d just value, say, motherhood economically above a CEO.
Still, though, in the end, what we pray for as Christians and members of the orthodoxy is indeed, in the end, the rulership of one immortal man- NOT a democracy, NOT equality between the sexes, NOT gay rights, NOT rights for humankind at all beyond that which Christ and God choose to give.
And that, in the end, means man as hunter, woman as gatherer, man as life giver, woman as life carer. Even matriarchial societies such as the Kwakwala were organized thus, and I think, for good reason based on evolution.
By far, who makes the decisions will always be the minority. And personally, I think that, in the end, is why worship and sacrifice is seen as being to God Father and Son, where women share in honor, even the hyperdevotion as is given to saints such as Mother Mary.
Tried to translate latria and dulcia there and I think I failed……some concepts just don’t translate.
November 3, 2008 at 6:17 pm
clearbluewatercomic
Leslie, I used to be hard core pro-life. Then I went away to college and fell away from God a bit, and became hard core pro-choice. The reason was never because I was pro abortion, but because I became pro- woman’s rights, and it sickens me how in an unplanned pregnancy, it’s the woman who gets left holding the baby.
At this time, I can see both sides of the situation and I find I’m no longer on either extreme of this issue, but instead I’m more moderate. On the one hand, it’s baby killing and it’s a terrible thing, and it’s not a choice I could ever make for myself. But on the other hand, I feel like a woman must retain the rights to her own body and I don’t like the idea of the government telling a woman what she must be forced to endure for either 9 months or 18 plus years. Especially if the man in this scenerio gets off scott free and no one is willing to help fund the child that results. And not every child born can or will get adopted. Look at the thousands of children who are already growing up in foster care. There are no easy answers.
It just seems to me that this issue is WAY more complex than either side is willing to acknowledge, with much more gray area. It’s definitely not black and white. At least, not to me. But I can appreciate a good soapbox moment, so feel free to climb back on. Oh, but I do think you need to research whether the fax you got about Obama was true or not rather than despising him before you find out for sure.
Lisa, my original post hit a lot of the points in your post, but then I erased it and wrote this instead. I support the rights of gay people to get married, and I don’t honestly understand why people are so up in arms about the issue. If my neighbor who is straight gets married, it has nothing to do with me, and if my neighbor who is gay gets married it also has nothing to do with me. How is it even my business? How does it impact me at all? I just don’t understand the hatred, and I don’t think I ever will.
Josh, that sounds lovely. You are lucky to have grown up in such a balanced way.
Libertarian, Well, you are right, of course, but I never said I was perfect. But you’ve given me something to think about, so thanks.
jaz, well I’m glad someone agrees with me! Thanks!
samcarter, I don’t purport to be a Christian, I AM one, and I’m voting for Obama because I believe he’s the best candidate by far for a plethora of reasons. Abortion is just one of many important issues, and I don’t agree with you about his abortion record anyway.
Ted, your example of triage where the DOCTOR gets to decide whether to take the mother’s life or the baby’s was chilling. I really hope we NEVER get to that place as a country. And I’m not sure I understand the rest of your points about sex, but, whatever.
Being a feminist means that I am all for women’s rights and womans issues, not that I think God was female or any such nonsense. Yes, you can be a Christian and be a feminist. I am, and so are many people I know. Feminism is not just one thing, and I refuse to put it in a box.
November 3, 2008 at 9:22 pm
Ted Seeber
“Ted, your example of triage where the DOCTOR gets to decide whether to take the mother’s life or the baby’s was chilling.”
And yet, it’s the one clear cut case where even the Roman Catholic Church claims that abortion is a necessary evil. The specific case, btw, is an unplanned ectopic pregnancy- if allowed to come anyplace close to term, the baby will kill itself and the mother. And if it’s unplanned, there is a *very* slight chance that *any* emergency room doctor will, in the course of a 30 year career, once or twice will be given that choice with less than 5 minutes to decide.
Slightly more common, and a lot less clear cut, is the case of uterine cancer in combination with a pregnancy, there’s a very famous Canadian Catholic Saint from the 1950s whose 5 children, including the one for whom she died in childbirth, got to see Pope John Paul II canonize their mother. She could have had her cancer treated- it would have caused an abortion, but she could have taken the chance and had another kid later and it would have been theologically acceptable as a Catholic- but she took the hard way instead.
Thus, despite being pro-life, I have to argue that medically necessary abortion must remain legal. I don’t have to like it, but one cannot accept that God is in charge of life and death without also accepting medically necessary abortion.
Oh, yes, libertarian- I’ve been told many times in the confessional that pride is one of the seven deadly sins.
Incest, rape, teen pregnancy, deadbeat fathers, the lack of living wage jobs; those are social ills we can work on to reduce abortions. But as long as our medical science is imperfect, extreme triage, including medically necessary abortions, must remain legal.
November 3, 2008 at 9:52 pm
Leslie Helwig
I wonder if our vote really matters. Could it just be a way to placate the masses? I have to apologize for my soap box. I keep getting these horrible faxes at work, I am a church secretary and of course we get slammed with tons of propaganda daily and some things i have been getting have been giving me nightmares. I should not get so mad at the doctors, if i had powers I would use them for good. I kipped reading the comments because I just can’t bear it, I know no one agrees with me any way and people think I go too far, but I can’t help it. I got pregnant in high school just like Juno. I know what it is like to be a side show, not able to fit in a desk, to have people turn their backs on you, especially Christians, and the dangers of abstinence only training. I was ignorant and trusted someone I should not have. It would have been so easy to erase her. But nine months of annoyance is far better than a lifetime of regret. She is now a happy thriving 7 year old with a wonderful family. I hope someday she and Kaidis might meet. When she is old enough I will tell her about Emily and make sure she is prepared for the reality of this world. Please parents, abstinence is the best but ignorance is far more dangerous so empower our kids with all the knowledge and preparations they need so nothing will happen.
Oh dear, i just realized that i have no idea what district I am in. Even if my vote really does not matter, I want to exercise my right. I better make some calls!!!
November 4, 2008 at 4:42 am
Mem
simple – as others have mentioned, the issue of abortion is huge. and i will always, always vote prolife. god is the ultimate in prolife, if you ask me..
November 4, 2008 at 5:02 am
Jenni Kuivala
I didn’t read through all the comments but my first response to this post was a big fat AMEN! I hope it’s ok but I posted a link to this on my blog. So many people assume that simply because I’m a Christian I’m against gay rights (which is not the case), or that I’m pro-life (I’m actually anti-abortion but pro-choice), etc.
I get so tired of feeling like I have to defend my faith just because I believe in this stuff. So thank you for saying what I could never find the words to say myself.
November 4, 2008 at 9:51 am
Libertarian
[quote]She could have had her cancer treated- it would have caused an abortion, but she could have taken the chance and had another kid later and it would have been theologically acceptable as a Catholic- but she took the hard way instead.[/qoute]
I’m not, and never have been Catholic, so I might be misunderstanding this. I took an ethics class in college and the teacher taught that accordign to Catholic ethics, treatments that would save the mother’s life, even if they had the forseen consequence of killing the fetus were considered acceptable. IE, treating uterine cancer or an ectopic pregnancy by removing the uterus or fallopian tube was acceptable, because the treatment itself was necessary to save the woman, even though the treatment would kill the fetus. Aborting a fetus because the mother had kidney or liver problems that the fetus was causing a straing on would not be acceptable, because the treatment itself didn’t directly treat the problem, only indirectly.
About Republicans & the pro-life issue. Elected Republican officials have no intention of making abortion illegal (in spite of what they say.) Twice Ron Paul introduced the Sanctity of Human Life act in congress, and even with a Republican majority his bill went nowhere. Republicans do seem more willing to put restrictions on abortion (parental notification, etc.), but they are just fishing for votes when they say they will make it totally illegal.
November 4, 2008 at 3:13 pm
Ted Seeber
Libertarian: It’s called the principle of double effect. The point is that abortion is *always* an intrinsic evil, just that some evils are worse (like letting the mother die when you could have done something).
And yes, I agree. After 35 years, I see *NO* movement in the Republican party to making abortion either illegal or rare. In fact, their economics seems to suggest the opposite- that they’re for the same form of Eugenics as Planned Parenthood is for, killing off the poor.