ChristianPolitics

Jesus said if we only had the faith of a mustard seed we could move a mountain. At times I struggle with having enough faith in God. I like many other people should know better because God has always been there for me, but yet I still doubt in times of trouble. Faith in God can be difficult at times and that is with A God who loves me and has come through for me time and time again and in fact every time when it comes down to what I really need and what’s best for me.

So it really amazes me that so many put faith in government. Our government is not perfect. Our particular government and the republic that it is, is much better than many other types of governments and maybe the best we have. But it is continuing to get worse though. Why it’s getting worse I’ll save for another time, as that’s not the focus of what I’m writing about. So even though I am strongly behind our country let me be frank. Our government has many many times failed and made bad decisions, and will continue to do so, this includes Republican, Democrats and other administrations. Our government has flaws and is run by imperfect people. Even at it’s best, and with the leaders really wanting to make the right decisions, they some times make the wrong decisions or take too long to make a decision. So why do so many people have faith that the government will save them in one way or another?  Our founding fathers knew that a sinful humanity would be the most serious threat to eroding our government from what they hoped it would be, which was a government for the people by the people with limited scope so that all of it’s citizens would live free from tyranny.

But today many people have faith that the government will save the poor or that the government will take care of the financial crisis that we face or that government will provide them with a job. But our government was not designed to do these things and even if it was, it would still very likely be extremely inefficient at doing so. As individuals we need to take responsibility for our personal needs and decisions. The government cannot save anyone, so no matter who you vote for this election don’t vote for someone who you think will save you, because I can almost guarantee you that they will fail at that job.

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9) Conservatives or Christians or Republicans are so hateful

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Speaking the truth or what you believe is the truth in a respectful way is not hateful. Saying that you think somebody is wrong does not mean you hate him or her. Even if at worst, the message that the person is giving is wrong, sharing the message is not hateful if they believe it is the truth and they are sharing it in a spirit of love and honesty. That’s not to say that there aren’t those who share even what they believe is truth out of hate. What is hateful is people who protest at soldiers funerals, that is putting aside any regard for the family for political or whatever other reasons.

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10) Republicans are out only to help big business.

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 Because republicans want to help spur the economy by helping businesses does not mean they are out only to help business. In order to help create jobs you need to do things that will make it financially feasible for businesses to create more jobs and give them incentives to want to create those jobs. Any good business decision maker isn’t going to start a new business or hire more people just to be nice. It needs to make sense to create new jobs so the business can make more money, otherwise they may go out of business and more jobs will be lost. And if you look carefully many politicians democrats included help out business people and businesses that give them support.

I guess I need to adjust a little here and say these aren’t actually always liberals try to act conservative; some are just plain untruths that liberals tell. Also now is a good time to point out, those who disagree with my particular point of view like to pick out bits and pieces of what I write and try to make what I write say something else. I’m ok with this because I know the truth and so do they but it’s the best they can do because they can’t really argue the merits of what I’m saying. The other thing that lets me know they really can’t argue with the merits of what I’m saying is when they try to tell me what “my religion” or Christianity is really all about. I’m all for being shown the truth when I’m in error but when confronted over the truth the whole Bible should be a guide, not one passage or part of one passage that those who don’t know the context love to quote, such as “judge not”.  It’s even funnier when those who don’t even claim to be the same religion as I am try to tell me what my beliefs really are.

Enough of that though, back to the list.

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7) I’m x religion and I have family values but those values and my religion shouldn’t have any role in government (separation of church and state).

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 That’s a weird one because every politician and must who quote the old separation of Church and state nonsense are usually smart enough to know that such a phrase is found no where in the constitution but they figure the average American doesn’t know that, However when they argue with someone who knows better they just sound silly, unfortunately there are enough people in power who take this unconstitutional phrase and make it constitutional law to suit their own agenda. What really gets me though is when politicians say their religion will play no role in their judgement making when in office. This is ridiculous because if your religion means anything to you it should play a role in all of your thought processes and it should help you make good choices in office. This comment might make sense if we were a strict democracy and all the laws were passed by majority rules polls and the politicians were just their to execute those decisions. After all that is what a true democracy is. However, we have a republic as our type of government which means we send representatives to make informed choices for us. If your faith, which should be the most important thing in your life has no effect on the most important things you are doing for the people you represent than it seems your faith is hollow.

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Gay marriage/ gay issues/ hate crimes is about equal rights or civil rights.

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People who call themselves gay have the exact same tights everyone else has. Anyone has the right to marry someone of the opposite sex. In addition marriage is not a government granted right. Marriage is first a part of God’s plan for men and women to be married one to another of the opposite sex. Governments and companies have given married couples certain privileges because they see the benefits that married couples and families bring to society and the workplace. Part of that is because family is the building block of any society and you must have families to continue and thrive. However that does not devalue single people as they are also very important and bring different benefits. Also in our society married couples pay more in taxes so it is not all one sided in being beneficial. I’m not for civil unions but if it was really just about equal rights many activists would only push for civil union type deals where they get the exact same benefits. However many want it to be called marriage because they went to be considered acceptable to everyone in society including those who disagree with them.

5)  War is murder

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Murder is murder. There is death in war but it is not murder.  War is awful but it is necessary at times to stop many more people from dying. However the death of soldiers and even civilians in conflicts is not the same as murder. The point of war is much larger than one individual.  Wars can be started for awful purposes and wars can be used to murder people but war does not automatically equal murder. So you can’t equate war with murder and especially not to justify abortion or any other murder.

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6) Rich people don’t pay taxes and “those” tax cuts are only for the rich.

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 The truth is, the rich pay a higher percentage of taxes then the rest of the population. While some rich people use lawyers and loopholes to get around paying some taxes the majority of wealthy people pay so much taxes that if it wasn’t for the taxes that the so called rich pay the taxes on the rest of society would have to be tripled. And usually when there are tax cuts they usually give a break to everybody and the rich benefit the most because they pay the most.

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3) If we lowered taxes and stopped government run charity, most people wouldn’t donate their extra money to help the needy so therefore the government must do it to help the poor.

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That’s just assuming the worst, and I can almost understand this because human nature is pretty selfish sometimes. But billions of dollars have been given for the Tsunami relief in 2004, Hurricane Katrina and 9/11 victims. If Americans have given this much already why would we assume given more money that Americans would suddenly become stingy. The fact is private citizens and private charities are far more efficient with their money than any government agency. While some individuals would be selfish the poor and needy would be far better served by private charities than by the government

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4) Shouldn’t we just compromise and all get along?

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Just going along and getting along sounds good but people should think and meditate on what politicians tell them and promise them. The truth is important. We could simply bury our heads in the sand for the sake of getting along, but who would that really serve? In the short term there would be less arguments, but then no one would question whether something was really good or not. Neville Chamberlain wanted to get along, so he helped give Hitler part of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia. He thought he could appease Hitler. It didn’t work and Hitler’s promise of peace was a lie. If people would have listened to Winston Churchill who said that Chamberlain and other politicians were wrong to appease Hitler, maybe World War II could have been avoided.

I’ll do two every day this week.

Let me point one thing out right away. Although I’m pointing out ten basic things that are lies the people that tell them don’t always believe these are lies because they often are lying to themselves out of ignorance or stubbornness.

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1) I’m against abortion personally but I could never tell anyone else what to do.

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There are several problems with this line. First they don’t have a problem telling others what to do when it comes to other things such as telling them they should pay more taxes. Second, it’s like saying personally I think murder is wrong but I can’t tell someone else that they shouldn’t murder. You absolutely should tell someone else if they are doing something very wrong, you owe it to them. That’s what laws are for, telling society not to do things that are wrong. By having a society we are imposing a select set of rules on the whole population.

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2)  I’m against abortion except in cases of rape or incest or for the health of the mother.

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If murder is murder it doesn’t matter how someone got pregnant. My former pastor who is the pastor of a very large multicultural church, his grandmother was raped and got pregnant with his father. If his father had been killed in the womb he wouldn’t be here. His father was loved no less because of how he was conceived. Rape doesn’t make murder ok and the same goes for incest. As for the health of the mother, a lot of times that comes down to a supposed mental health reason which is bogus. Yes pregnancy is stressful, so is life. Any real health conditions may be difficult but I (like any good parent) would willingly sacrifice some or all of my good health to save my kids. If you see your kid about to get hit by a car would you try to rescue them or say, no I might get hurt.

A while back or for all I know they still do, the Sojourners had a campaign stating that God was not a Republican or a Democrat. However there’s a reason that a lot of Christians are Republican. The Democrats have a standard platform for being pro abortion. The Sojourners said that political choices couldn’t be made on just one issue. However, that is one of the dumbest things I have ever heard. If any one issue is important enough you should by all means vote just on that. I really don’t need to elaborate on this idea. Beyond that, the Republican party also tends to be more conservative, especially with issues such as gay marriage. The Democrats seem to want to do everything they can to promote a special rights gay agenda that does everything from making (homo)sexuality a protected class to reciting Biblical passages that condemn homosexuality a crime.

There are Christians who are Democrats because they like the idea that the Democrats say they are the party for the little guy and helping the poor and such. The problem is, at best all the Democrats do is create a welfare state that makes people dependant on the government and doesn’t really help them. At worst, the Democrats really do everything not to help the average person. They do give a lot of lip service about helping the ”middle” class. Both parties should really be interested in helping everyone of every class. However, both parties have their flaws and while it is true that God is not a person and part of a political party, it’s an unfair statement that makes it seam like both sides have a good and equal number of issues of equal or semi equal value. Some issues are more important than others and that’s what decision making is all about, knowing what’s more important.

Because Hillary Clinton wouldn’t come to the anti Iran rally they have now disinvited Governor Palin. This is disgusting. First, Hillary Clinton won’t come because a republican is there, this alone is disgusting. If you really believe in a cause it doesn’t matter who also believes in it. If my enemy helps my friend than my friend is no friend, this is backwards logic if I ever heard it. Now the Jewish group holding the rally disinvites Palin because they want balanced support? This is ridiculous, if you really want support on an issue you don’t care who comes to your side, you don’t push some away because those who support you aren’t a balanced political mix. This is nonsense. Will Hillary Clinton come back now to the event? This child like behavior from Clinton and this group should really make you question the motives of those involved

Joe Biden has said it is patriotic to pay higher taxes. However my brother in law told me that someone had once said to him that it was our Christian duty to pay as little taxes as we possibly can get away with legally. I was a little skeptical at first, but he made a good point. We are called to be good stewards of the money God has given us. We know that the American government is not even close to being good stewards of the money they take from the taxpayers. So first of all we should give what we are required to give but we should not give a penny more, and not encourage the government to take any more. Any individual can and should and likely will make much better use of their money and do a better job distributing it to the needy. Not only will we do a better job giving money to the needy we won’t encourage the breakup of families in the process. Some people will not do a very good job with their money but that is their individual responsibility and they will have to deal with the consequences.  For anybody who thinks this will cause a great loss in charity to the needy, just look at how many successful charities were started and run well without the government’s involvement and then look at how many well run charities their are that the government created. I don’t think there is one on the government’s side that is really run well and for the ones that aren’t run well, not only is it money wasted but the Constitution doesn’t call for or allow for federally created charity.

Today the Foreign Minister of Israel Tzipi Livni won her party’s primary and will have 45 days to create a unity government if she is to become the next Prime Minister of Israel. If she does not form a majority coalition the current Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert will be in charge of a caretaker government until general elections can be held in early 2009. There have been rumors that other parties in the government are plotting to keep her from forming a coalition so that they can win in early elections. Whether this is true or not remains to be seen. For now though Israel is dangerously lacking a strong leader until things get settled at the very least. This situation may bring any number of possibilities, so pay attention.