The more self-righteous and churchified known sinners get, the more worried I get. The crusades and many many great evils in the world were built on Man's Religion. The last thing we need is a self-proclaimed "righteous" guy with a literal gun in his hand on a "Mission From God."
We need pure religion. And James defines pure religion as this:
James 1:27 - Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, [and] to keep himself unspotted from the world.
These men - these candidates - are probably both spotted with filth from the world. I highly doubt that George W. Bush or John McCain or Barack Obama or any of the other candidates/politicians are saved at all.
So, suddenly, the "religion" question is a moot discussion, and the question becomes one of "moral values."
But, as has been stated: gay people didn’t get married under the Clinton regime. They got married under the Bush regime. Why is that? Why if Bush and the Republican agendas are so upright and anti-gay, have they managed to undo the sanctity of marriage on the Moral Republican watch? Why, if Democrats are so hedonistic and sinful, did they manage to forestall such an abomination as gay marriage?
Why, if Bush and the Republican agenda is so peaceful and God-loving, did our country come to war under the Bush/Republican regime, after having years of peace and global advancement under Clinton ? Is that what God wanted? (This is a rhetorical question I ask myself).
Why, if the Bush and Republican agenda is so upright and right, did every wallet tighten the moment Bush came into office? Why is our dollar flagging, our country in trillions of dollars of debt (and still hemorrhaging money) and our economy shuddering on the brink of collapse? All this in a mere 8 years from Bush's first inauguration - a day when our country stood flush in money - one of the first real times we were in the Black as opposed to the Red in decades. I suppose that money burnt a hole in our pocket.
I admit that there is wisdom in the whole "moral right," and it wouldn’t be fair to discount it. It is good to acknowledge God; it is good to strive to do right (some think it is good to pretend to strive to do right). It is good to openly acknowledge God, and to strive to keep God in our lives as Americans. It is good to vocally combat abortion and gay marriage, and to be seen to "stand against it." It is good to say - [I]"I am not going to become tolerant of sin or the moral decay of American society and/or ideals."[/I] These are good things - and I don’t discount them at all.
I don’t think any Christian discounts these things. We can’t, because we love God. And we love what is right, and God is right.
What we DO discount, though, is hypocrisy. And from what we have seen, often and repeated, the "Moral Right" is just as sinful and wrong as the Left. They just keep it in the closet. Or maybe their sins aren’t as repulsive - say, embezzling thousands of dollars from public companies, or simple adultery rather than horrible homosexuality. I just believe that even Republican women have aborted children.
So, if very generally, Republicans sin and/or are just as bad or as hell bound as Democrats, what difference between the two are we really lauding? The fact that Republicans can fake it better, or ... the fact that they WANT to fake it? (This desire to appear moral, even if you are not, is apparently believed by some to be a good thing.)
It bothers me, because we combat REAL religious hypocrisy every day. When passing tracts or witnessing, we shake our heads at it, we have real concerns. Because we KNOW that religious people are some of the most hardened sinners we will ever meet. Harder than even some of the most rank openly sinful sinners we've come across. The great danger for them is that they believe they are right, because they feel right, because they have the trappings of morality. Yet they sin.
I am reminded of Luke 18:10-13: Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men [are], extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as [his] eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.
To me, the "I'm moral, therefore I'm right," attitude is this exact same attitude of the Pharisee. And at least we know that the Pharisee was actually doing the commandments of the law. We have no such assuredness about all Republicans! In fact, we have the opposite: war abounds; gays marry in our country, etc., etc.
So, regarding the wisdom of the "moral right," this is a scripture that first came to my mind:
James 3:15-18: This wisdom descendeth not from above, but [is] earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife [is], there [is] confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, [and] easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.
But as I began writing, I also thought of this scripture:
Philippians 1:16-18: The one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds: But the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defence of the gospel. What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.
And so, the Moral Right, even it if is led by men who are likely unsaved and hypocritical, is not, in and of itself a bad thing. Because either way, Christ is preached. And in that, we rejoice. THIS is why I am not anti-John McCain, nor am I anti-Republican. In fact, had Hillary Clinton become the Democratic Nominee, I would have voted for McCain on principle alone.
Because when I excise religion from the equation and step back and look at the whole picture of Democrat and Republican; Right and Left - I don’t see Right v. Wrong, or Black v. White - I see a choice of evils.
And as I consider the decline of economic parity among Americans - the widening of the class system (in that fewer people can afford college tuition, etc.) and the destruction of the middle class, the growing unemployed and impoverished, the loss of social security, the lack of social programs and the decline of funding for social programs - the party most concerned about the poor, the downtrodden, the immigrants and the minorities, etc., ad nauseum, I find that I am most inclined to gravitate toward a party that gravitates toward me. That supports me. That fights for me. That has stood for me and my rights, and for things that I care about.
This gravitation, however, has its limits. For me. And, though I do not speak for anyone other than myself, I would venture to say that it has its limits for everyone. Hillary Clinton as President in 2009 was my limit. Not because of race, not initially because she was a woman, but singularly because I found her to be too Pro-Gay.
So. We all have choices to make, and they are not so simply as black and white (pun intended) as the authors of these articles make them. I have the utmost confidence that a Republican has considered that the Republicans in office are not Holy Men or Women of God - that they probably are not even of God at all, and may likely be being used by the Devil. I've considered it for Democrats - I think we all have.
And so, whatever decisions we make, I trust that we will all of us, Democrat or Republican, make them for reasons most paramount to us, after we have weighed the factors that impact us the most, including and beyond religion, and acknowledged God.
Hey, I, too, want to be pure, peaceable, and easy to be intreated - I don’t want to fight about "which side" I'm on, or have my salvation taken away because I stand for/with a party that abolished Jim Crow laws, or that I feel fights for the little man. I've expressed this not to offend or to prolong or to debate, but because I, too, have endured the long, protracted anti-Democratic thoughts that find their way to me with relative silent disagreement.
And if silence is assent, then in some way, Imay have been giving the wrong impression these many days. I wanted to simply say, at least once, that I am saved, I love God - I am a Democrat, and here's why.
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