I get emails all the time from Democrats who jump all over me, telling me that they are life-long Christians and saying 'how dare I suggest that being a Christian and being a Democrat are mutually exclusive?' Did I say that? (I believe it, but I don't remember saying so. No matter. I am saying so now.)
I suppose it is possible to be a Christian AND a Democrat, but I don't believe it is possible for anyone to be sincere about either and make a credible claim to be both.
How can one be a sincere Christian and support the ACLU's efforts to ban God from public schools, for example. How can one support the appointment of judicial candidates based solely on the criteria that they have a philosophical agreement with Roe v. Wade while still claiming to be a Christian? It doesn't make any sense to me.
It is incomprehensible to me that the Democrats can oppose a candidate based on his personal philosophy and then deny that is the criteria they are using, at the same time SAYING that is the criteria they are basing their opposition on?
The Democrats oppose virtually every single major teaching of Christianity, but take great offense at any suggestion that they are not just as devout in their Christianity as 'the other guys.'
One of the first arguments offered is that Republicans 'aren't any better.' To prove it, they trot out endless examples of poor Christian witness among Republicans. I am not sure how that is relevant, but it does fit into the overall worldview of the US Democratic party.
If you can't defend yourself, attack the other guy. They don't actually see it themselves, but all they are really doing when they do that is presenting themselves as the lesser of two evils.
I can understand their doing that politically, but when they attempt to establish themselves as good Christians by arguing they are less evil than bad Christians, it makes me wonder if they can tell the difference.
USAToday published a story about a new Democratic initiative to capture votes in the next election by using Jesus Christ as a campaign spokesman.
"The Democratic Party, saddled with a secular image that has hurt it in elections, is getting religion. Some Democrats have been mentioning God more often since the party lost the 2004 presidential election. To encourage that trend, former Democratic National Committee (DNC) chairman David Wilhelm, an Ohio investment banker and churchgoing Methodist, is launching a website today that is aimed at persuading more devout Christians to vote Democratic."
Call me a cynic, but I am cynical. Evidently, so is the author of the USAToday column.
Notes Martin Kasindorf, "Howard Dean was asked in January, 2004, to name his favorite book in the New Testament. "The Book of Job," he answered. It's in the Old Testament."
The article continues. . . "John Green, a University of Akron professor who studies religion's role in politics, said Democrats "wouldn't have had to move very many religious people to have won the (2004) election. There is a sense that an opportunity was missed, that many of their leaders just didn't get it, and that the time has come to educate them. . . [David] Wilhelm says: "In the next presidential election, a winning Democratic nominee is going to have to prove that he can navigate the shoals of the faith issue. That doesn't mean you have to go around spouting biblical verses. You should have the ability to speak from your heart on those values that come from religious traditions."
Ahem. Which values that come from religious traditions? Gay marriage? Abortion rights? Criminalizing school prayer? Removing crosses from public lands?
In a poll released Aug. 24, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life and the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press says, "The Democratic Party continues to face a serious 'God problem.' "
The nationwide survey showed 47% perceived the Republican Party as friendly to religion, but only 26% saw Democrats that way. (That 26% must be the ones that write to me.)
Frankly, I don't see the Democrats as unfriendly to 'religion'. I see them as unfriendly to Christianity. 'Religion' is man's way of making HIMSELF acceptable to God. Christianity is God's way of making man acceptable unto Himself.
There is both a distinction and a difference.
Under the title, "To Believe that Jesus Rode a Donkey", Democrat Jesse Lava writes in the Huffington Post;
"The truth is millions of us Christians are Democrats not in spite of our faith, but precisely because of it -- and millions more would be open to the Democratic Party if it engaged them on their level, presenting political ideas in the context of religious values."
Note that Lava switched horses in mid-stream, jumping from Christianity to 'religious values' as if they are one and the same.
The 'Jesus Rode a Donkey' title implies that, 'Jesus is a Democrat.' Meanwhile, Islam claims that Jesus is a Muslim. Does it strike you as odd, as it does me, that the only ones in America who are NOT allowed to claim Jesus are Christians?
(Try telling somebody about salvation through Jesus Christ alone while standing on federal property. Let me know what happens.)
The point I am making is not 'Republicans good, Democrats bad.' If you think it is, you must be a Democrat. Let me sort it out for you.
The point I am making is 'Democrats bad'. Clear enough?
To co-opt Jesus Christ as a political spokesman while opposing everything the Bible teaches is not just bad. It is disgusting.
Jesus is a Democrat? The same Jesus Who inspired the Bible? The same Jesus John 1:1 calls "the Word"? What sayeth the Word?
The Bible teaches the sanctity of life -- from the womb.
"I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother's belly." (Psalm 22:10)
"Did not He that made me in the womb make him? and did not One fashion us in the womb?" (Job 31:15)
"Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is His reward." (Psalms 127:3)
"Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." (Jeremiah 1:5)
"For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy." (Luke 1:44)
The Bible teaches about gay marriage:
"So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created He them."
"And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. . . Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. " (Genesis 2:22,24)
"And He answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that He which made them at the beginning made them male and female . . " Matthew 19:4)
"But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female." (Mark 10:6)
"If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them." (Leviticus 20:13)
"And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet." (Romans 1:27)
The Bible teaches of the Great Commission: "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:" (Matthew 28:19)
How does that square with the Democratic principle that forbids little children to pray in public schools?
Am I bashing Democrats? Only if what I am saying is not true. But telling the truth, if the truth is unflattering, is considered 'bashing' -- just as quoting the Koran is considered 'anti-Muslim' -- unless those quotes selected paint Islam in a favorable light.
I challenge my next group of critics; before you write to call me names, address the issues that I raise here.
Don't email me to tell me some Republicans are no better.
Declaring yourselves to be the lesser of two evils is incompatible with the argument that one can be a good Christian and a good Democrat. It isn't about Republicans. It is about Jesus Christ.
Correct me on the issues. Am I misunderstanding the Democratic platform on abortion, gay rights, judicial appointments, the ACLU and separation of church and state issues?
Am I misunderstanding the teachings of Scripture on those issues? Am I wrong in my distinction between religion and Christianity? If I am wrong, I really want to know.
What I don't want to know is that you are right because the other guy isn't any better.
I am not a partisan. I am a Christian. I am not defending the Republican party. I am opposing the co-opting of my Lord and Savior as a cheap partisan symbol and a political spokesman for an anti-Christian agenda dressed up as a form of Christianity but rooted in a sliding scale of principles.
It is possible to be a saved Christian and be a Democrat. Being a Christian means trusting in the Shed Blood of Christ for one's personal salvation. But it is NOT possible to be a good Democrat without opposing the central teachings of Christianity.
If you are going to claim Him, claim Him as your personal Savior. Don't try to claim Him as your political savior. It cheapens Him -- and it cheapens you.
God promises; "If My people, which are called by My Name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." (2nd Chronicles 7:14)
God uses the conditional; 'if'. That means there is an opposite promise as well. If 'His people' don't, then He won't, either.
Since I live here, that makes it personal.
Jack Kinsella - Omega Letter Editor - 09.21.2006
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