Politics and Christianity

It's a common perception that Republicans are more religious than Democrats. Certainly they make a bigger deal about injecting religion into politics. It turns out that the evidence supports this perception; more Republicans go to church regularly than Democrats, and more Democrats are not religious at all. And Christians, whether Catholic or Protestant, are more likely to vote Republican than Democrat. Other religions (though not Mormons), and voters who are not religious, clearly favor Democrats.

So fair enough, Republicans are the more "Christian" party in that they appeal to Christian voters more than the Democratic Party does.

Well I have a problem with that. You see, I'm not a Christian, but I have read large portions of the Bible, and I went to church regularly while I was growing up and was raised based on the Christian values of my parents. I am familiar with Christianity, and if I could choose one word to describe the message of Christianity, that word is "compassion."

Well, does anyone believe that the Republican Party is the party of compassion? I wonder how some of the less fortunate people in this country, people who might benefit from some degree of caring from their fellow citizens, would see it. Do homeless people in America see the Republican Party as more compassionate? Do the unemployed? How about gays and lesbians, minorities, immigrants, people who have traditionally been discriminated against? How about people on death row, or in prison for non-violent drug offenses? Or a woman with an unwanted pregnancy? What about workers in minimum wage jobs?

Is it compassionate to be more inclined to go to war, to send our troops to kill and be killed? Is it Christian to carry a concealed firearm? Does it demonstrate caring for your fellow man if you only want to pay more taxes for a bigger military and less for anything that helps your fellow citizens? How about not caring about the environment, denying science so that you can leave the planet in worse shape for the next generation? Is that the decent thing to do?

The truth is, people who call themselves Christian in this country are more likely to support the political party that least represents Christianity.

I suppose there are various reasons for that, but I bet a big one is that a lot of Christians don't see Christianity as being largely about compassion. I suspect many of them would pick a different word to describe it if they could, maybe salvation. Maybe it's about saving my sorry ass and condemning everyone else. Sorry, but you don't know what the hell you are talking about. I have read the book. You got it wrong.

So they call themselves Christian, but they haven't learned the first lesson from their faith. I can't say that impresses me much. I guess I would say to them, OK, you're a Christian, but so what? Does that have any meaning? You call yourself a Christian, but you act like an Un-Christian jerk. Which of those two things do you think is most important?