On the Republican Party
I do not believe that the Democrat Party is the agent of the Evil One; I do not believe that the Republican Party is the agent of God.
I believe that both parties have good points, and that both parties are also full of corrupt money-grubbers.
I am now a moderate who votes for whichever candidate seems closest to being right. I keep hoping and dreaming that Colin Powell will run or that Senator John McCain will run again, because the good presidential candidates never get the nomination these days.
[Update 2/1/15: This is obviously dated, since McCain did run again, in 2008. I finally ran screaming from the Republican Party around 2010 because I no longer see how you can be Christian and Republican. It’s been taken over by the Tea Party and corporate fat cats such as the Koch Brothers. It has turned so extremist that moderates are called “Republicans in Name Only” and pushed out of office. I can’t abide extremism, which is why I consider third parties, such as Libertarians, to be even worse. I am a moderate Democrat now. If the Republican Party ever turns around and becomes more sane like it used to be, then I can consider occasionally voting Republican again.]
A good description of my feelings is in the March 2005 “As I See It” column, written by Ed Scholl, on the Presbyterians Today website: A Too-Thin Slice of “Moral Values”. Quote:
I’m concerned that the name “evangelical Christian” no longer means what it used to, and now seems to be synonymous with church-going, culturally conservative Republicans.
I’m worried that moral values have been reduced to a thin slice of values that are very incomplete. And I’m troubled that evangelical Christians seem to be increasingly accepting the argument that personally held moral values should be legislated and imposed on everyone.
Nevertheless, I’m hopeful that mainstream and moderate evangelicals will recover their prophetic voices. I’m hopeful that the majority of Americans will not forget about, and hold this Administration accountable for, other moral values like protection of the environment, a just foreign policy, support for the homeless, poor and disadvantaged, and promoting peace and development in the world in cooperation with others.
For all his talk that The 700 Club was a fair and balanced news show (unlike the so-called “liberal media”–a conservative myth), back when I used to watch, Pat Robertson presented only the side that supported Republicans and blasted the Democrats.
Thinking this to be an innocent Christian program, not a propaganda machine, I bought into the idea that to be Christian is to be Republican.
When a Christian boyfriend told me he was a Democrat, I wondered how a Christian could be a Democrat.
It wasn’t until 1992 that I began to realize Pat Robertson was not showing the whole truth and that sometimes his conclusions were downright wrong: politics, the Illuminati, religious issues, rock music, Halloween, Dungeons and Dragons.
It took even longer to break free of the idea that you don’t have to be Republican if you’re a Christian. Political parties are just that: political. You can be a pious Christian and be Republican or Democrat or even Libertarian.
Written around 2005/2006
Index to my theology/church opinion pages:
–Tithing
–End Times and Christian Zionism
–God’s Purpose/Supremacy of God Doctrine
–Cat and Dog Theology
–Raising One’s Hands in Worship
–Christian Music
–On the “still, small voice” and Charismatic sign gifts
–On church buildings
–The Message Bible
–The Purpose-Driven Life
–The Relevance Doctrine, i.e. Marketing Churches to Seekers
–Republican Party
–Abortion Protests
–Creation
–The idea that God has someone in mind for you
–Literalism in Biblical interpretation
–Miscellaneous
–Name it and Claim It Doctrine, Prosperity Doctrine, Faith-Formula Theology, Word-Faith Theology, Positive Confession Theology, Health and Wealth Gospel, and whatever else they call it
–More about Pat Robertson
–Dr. Richard Eby and others who claim to have been to Heaven
–Women in Marriage/the Church
–Spiritual Abuse
–Other Resources
–Why do bad things happen?
–Should we criticize our brethren’s artistic or evangelistic attempts? Or, how should we evangelize, then?
–Angels: Is “This Present Darkness” by Frank Peretti a divine revelation or fiction?
–Halloween: Not the Devil’s Holiday!
–Hell and the Nature of God
–Is Christmas/Easter a Pagan Holiday?
–Is everybody going to Hell except Christians?
–How could a loving God who prohibits murder, command the genocide of the Canaanite peoples?
–What about predestination?
–Musings on Sin, Salvation and Discipleship
–An Ancient View which is in the Bible, yet new to the west–Uncreated Energies of God
–Dialogues
–The Didache
–Technical Virginity–i.e., how far should a Christian single go?
–Are Spiritual Marriages “real”? (also in “Life” section, where it’s more likely to be updated)
–Does the Pill cause abortions, or is that just another weird Internet or extremist right-wing rumor?
–What about Missional Churches, Simple Churches, Fluid Churches, Organic Churches, House Churches or Neighborhood Churches?
–Is Wine from the Devil–or a Gift from God?
–What is Worship?
–Evangelistic Trips to Already Christianized Countries
–Fraternities, Sororities, Masonic Lodge
–Was Cassie Bernall a Martyr?
–Some Awesome Things heard in the Lamentations Service (Good Friday evening) during Holy Week