Good Christian Voter
I am not a single-issue voter.
I believe that poverty - caring for the poor and vulnerable - is a religious issue. Do the candidates' budget and tax policies reward the rich or show compassion for poor families? Do their foreign policies include fair trade and debt cancellation for the poorest countries? (Matthew 25:35-40, Isaiah 10:1-2)
I believe that the environment - caring for God's earth - is a religious issue. Do the candidates' policies protect the creation or serve corporate interests that damage it? (Genesis 2:15, Psalm 24:1)
I believe that war - and our call to be peacemakers - is a religious issue. Do the candidates' policies pursue "wars of choice" or respect international law and cooperation in responding to real global threats? (Matthew 5:9)
I believe that truth-telling is a religious issue. Do the candidates tell the truth in justifying war and in other foreign and domestic policies? (John 8:32)
I believe that human rights - respecting the image of God in every person - is a religious issue. How do the candidates propose to change the attitudes and policies that led to the abuse and torture of Iraqi prisoners? (Genesis 1:27)
I believe that our response to terrorism is a religious issue. Do the candidates adopt the dangerous language of righteous empire in the war on terrorism and confuse the roles of God, church, and nation? Do the candidates see evil only in our enemies but never in our own policies? (Matthew 6:33, Proverbs 8:12-13 )
I believe that a consistent ethic of human life is a religious issue. Do the candidates' positions on abortion, capital punishment, euthanasia, weapons of mass destruction, HIV/AIDS-and other pandemics-and genocide around the world obey the biblical injunction to choose life? (Deuteronomy 30:19)
http://go.sojo.net/campaign/takebackourfaith
posted by Kate @ 8:28 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
Great points, Kate. I feel like such a loser for posting about my new Eminem CD. :) Katy
I learned a fact about food stamps from your emnem post, so thanks!
Glad my white-trashy upbringing can help educate others. :)
Katy
Right on. There are a couple of obscure references, with arguable translation issues about homosexuality in the Bible. However, the message about caring for the poor is the consistent repeated thing all the way through. It beats you over the head. Yet that is not considered a religious issue in this country.
On another note, Kate, how are you feeling about the abortion thing being lumped in with weapons of mass destruction, death penalty, etc.?
Carmen
I had a knee jerk reaction to it, then I got over it. I think it is REALLY hard to learn to listen to your inner voice on abortion because of all the loud mouths issuing the "right" opinion about it. I know in my heart it is the end of life, and that it causes suffering. But the point I got from this list is that we need to look at everything that matters to us as people of faith and see where the candidates stand on those points. Not get stuck on one or two issue because that is stupid and dangerous.
True. I think that is the point of the whole list. And I do also think abortion is not a happy thing. But I still don't like it when it gets lumped in with things that I think are wrong and unrelated, like the death penalty and killing the earth. Completely different issues, in my book, but I know not in others'.
Carmen
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