Why do we want our nation to be a nation of God but not want the government to do the work of God?
One of the main arguments of many conservative Christian political people is that we should not build a big government that has the government in control of too much. They talk about the fact that it is fiscally irresponsible (this is code for "don't take anymore of my money"). These same people have said to me that it is not the government's job to feed the hungry or build homes for the homeless, that would be the church's job. I don't understand why people of faith at this point would want to have anything to do with politics?!? Either you push your conservative Christian agenda all the way or don't push it at all.
My point is this, too many people want the government to do away with abortion, bring prayer back into school, fight gay marriage, and make sure the ten commandments is what is up on our walls of justice. What these same people in the next breath say is that the government should not be a part of feeding the hungry, clothing children, or giving shelter to the homeless, that's "the churches job".
Why can't we have a system where either the government is of God, or leave the government to do it's job, and the church to do theirs?
Granted I'm not suggesting that the government stay out of it all, here is my perfect candidate:
1. Works to overturn Roe vs. Wade.
2. Works on constitutional amendment to ban same sex marriages.
3. Builds programs to bring people out of poverty through jobs, training and education.
4. Gets a flat tax passed. Doing away with all income tax. A flat tax plan increases sales tax so that everyone pays taxes on those things that they purchase and what they purchase only.
5. Fixes health care with a plan that actually reduces health care and prescription costs. Health Care prices are not going lower until something gets fixed. FIX IT!
6. Privitizes Social Security. It is important that, unless it's the flat tax, we don't take peoples money out of their pockets and they invest for the future.
And that is what I'll do if you elect me your President of the United States!
Okay, Pink, I'm one of those people that doesn't believe that it's the government's job to provide all those benefits to it's people. The government's job is to, well, govern. However, I don't agree with the opposite argument that it's the churches' responsibility to provide everything else for the needy. Part of governing is protecting the citizenry. That could extend to protection from hunger, assault, invasion, etc. My beef is with entitlement programs and social security. Too many people abuse "welfare" and anyone who works needs to plan for their retirement, not rely on a government-created system to ensure that money's there. Actually, why retire? How many other countries around the globe have such a thing as "retirement?" Very few. We are spoiled and, yes, blessed, but that has made too many lazy and fat. I like the idea of a flat tax, but it'll never pass because it effects the wealthy the most the they're the one's who control Congress and the legislation that's introduced and passed. Enough rambling from me for now. I'd vote for you! :} PEACE
I'm not an expert, but I'd vote for you!
There are several reasons why minimizing the governments interaction with the finances of the common man is best, but the most important one for me is freedom. I have heard people say that though they disagree with a party’s “social” ideas, they vote for them because of the “economic” issues. This strikes me as being very dangerous. Once people figure out that they can vote themselves bread from the public treasury, they will tend to do so despite the long term consequences to society of any accompanying public policies. This is true for lots of types of people. People in unions, people on welfare, corporations begging for tax breaks and bailouts. I'd guess that the majority of people in the country, no matter what their social class, race, religion, or any other kind category you can put people in to think that abortion is wrong. Or at least we did when the courts first made abortion legal. Yet the country can not amass the political will to make this practice illegal because people are voting on how they think the government will affect their pocket books and not on their conscience. If you rely on a party or government for any sort of financial help or support, you have made yourself a slave. Unfortunately, the desperate poor are most vulnerable. Granted, the values and platforms of a particular political party will never perfectly match our individual values, but money is something that impacts everyone's life. Therefore, politicians can provide beneficial economic policies to certain voting blocks (ensuring their election) and also bring with them all sorts of unsavory social policies which ultimately have more severe and far reaching long-term effects on our society than having to tighten our belts and work hard for our own livings. It would be great if we had a Godly government administered by Godly people who could complete God's work. But history shows us time and time again that politicians can't handle the responsibility. They don't use tax money efficiently, they waste it through corruption, and they often don't target it very well to the people that actually need it. The solution provided by our founders was to miminize government power, and maximize individual freedom and responsibility. I'll take freedom.
Sorry, I have to keep going on this...
I believe the statement that Christians “should push their agenda all the way or not push it at all” is simply unrealistic. The political choices we make are a reflection of our values. We all make judgments about the relative importance of our values. There are multiple issues, and the values of no one party or candidate will perfectly match our own. Therefore, politics is a matter of choosing the lesser of evils, or the greater of goods. The primary political parties in our country have not aligned their values in such a way as to present the ideal candidate. Should we therefore abandon all attempts to work to influence the government of our country to create Godly laws and frameworks for society?
When a Conservative Christian attempts to elect conservative politicians, they are making a value judgment about which politicians best represents their particular mix of values.
Since 1973, almost 48,590,000 children have been legally cut into pieces, sucked out, poisoned, burned with saline solution, or hormonally booted from their mother's womb (http://www.nrlc.org/ABORTION/facts/abortionstats.html). Our government allows and in some cases even funds the sacrifice of children to the gods of convenience, sexual pleasure, and reproductive "rights". Results notwithstanding, conservatives have consistently opposed and attempted to restrict this practice, while liberals have consistently defended and advanced it. In my mind, abortion is a far greater evil (both in quality and quantity) than the evil of the government not doing God’s work to help the poor. Combine this with skepticism about both the effectiveness and social effects of government aid to the poor, and I’ll be voting for the conservative candidate every time.
Nevertheless, I suspect that were the social agendas of the liberal and conservative political philosophies in our country flip-flopped, there would be many more "Christian Liberals" proposing greater interaction of the government in helping the poor.