God Wants You to Vote Repbulican

What a story.

Pastors Challenge Law, Endorse Candidates From Pulpit

I know the sentiment that God is a Republican creeps in the minds of many in my church, but I believe that you can be a Democrat and a Christian too. For those "God is a Republican" people, let me ask whether God loves military invasions, oil companies profiting, not talking to our enemies, and definitely not turning the other cheek.

From the "jr. highish" Derek Webb song I quoted the other day:

there are two great lies that i’ve heard:
“the day you eat of the fruit of that tree, you will not surely die”
and that Jesus Christ was a white, middle-class republican
and if you wanna be saved you have to learn to be like Him

That second lie will be repeated an awful lot this election season. Let us prepare ourselves to interact intelligently with it (which this post is barely even a meager start of).

This election should be challenging to the church as a whole in that the Republicans no longer have a pro-life candidate. It was easy for us to say that we are pro-life and we will vote Republican. It was always my hope that we would have a pro-life Democrat rather than a pro-choice Republican to challenge the church's partisan thinking, but the cards have been dealt differently.

If we are really issue voters rather than Republicans, this election should cause us to evaluate all the options and issues a little more closely. What are the issues besides abortion that Jesus would be concerned about? I find myself leaning towards voting Obama this election because of the answers I have to that question. I will definitely not vote for McCain since he does not stand for any of the issues I care about. A third party candidate could receive my vote. (You can read about those issues in a post I made on January 13 - I am still waiting for a Presidential Candidate - Trying to shape a Christian political view My thoughts are just a work in progress, but the progress has me leaning left this year.

I know this is not a political blog, but it is nice to be reminded that Christians need to be issue voters, not aligned with any party, and free to vote for the candidate that they feel best represents the cause of Christ. Don't guilt us into thinking we should vote Republican. Let our own conscience, that has been molded through fellowship and the Scriptures, decide. Jesus is not a Republican, nor is he a Democrat.