Republican and Christianity

[EarlyCall]

I'm not to sure if a political question is allowed in this forum but i would really like an answer to my question. So if it's not okay just delete it.

I hope there are some Christians from the USA in this forum who can answer my question.

How come that the Republican party is known as the pro Christian party when so many policies directly contradict a lot of the teachings of Jesus Christ?

I really don't want to offend anybody with my question, it's just something i can't find the answer on my own.

The democratic party is pro gay agenda everything and pro abortion everything. They are also for keeping people enslaved to the government by keeping them dependent on the government.

The republican party does actually care about people and therefore does not want them to be dependent on the government. No on, not one single person ever escaped poverty by being dependent on the government. However, the republican party believes in capitalism which is the promotion of free enterprise by which more jobs are created and more people then can work and then the standard of living rises for everyone, As well, the revenues coming into the government increase because more taxes are being paid, not by raising them but because more people are working and paying taxes. It is really quite simple when you tell the truth about it.

Most Christians vote republican because they will not sacrifice their morals and principles and vote for those that promote, support and seek to further the gay agenda and abortion.

So what policies exactly do you think the republican party has that are against the teachings of Christ? I can think of none, and I've read the teachings of Christ more times than I can remember. Is this merely something you've heard and been told and therefore bought into it without actually knowing? You really ought to know the truth before believing something.

[Boo]

Is there scripture on this? How can we find "God's will" ?

There is a lot in scripture about judgement day when all our acts will be on record that have not been "forgotten." I fully expect each thing I do, each policiy I support, each actions I take to be on record. I just assumed that everyone is already aware of this.

God's will is to be gleaned from scripture and those things not from scripture come from the response of the Holy Spirit to our prayers. However, most issues we face today are already explained in scripture.

We know that homosexuality is an abomination - and I cannot support the normalizing of an abomination. I will not help create a new Sodom and Gomorrah.

We know that the killing of innocents is a sin, so I cannot support abortion.

I know that theft is a sin, so the promotion of theft to support those who will not work and who have litters of fatherless children to be unsupportable. (We are told too give to support the poor from our hearts, not from a law that say we have to.) When asked for my vote, my vote will reflect the things I believe from scripture. Stealing from those who work for their wages to support someone else's commercial enterprise when it is failing is also wrong.

I feel that I am doing wrong if I do otherwise - and one day I will hear about it. If I ever vote the wrong way and then find myself asking to be forgiven for my vote, I did wrong to start with. That makes it an intentional sin.

[tango]

You might want to consider how God blesses or witholds blessings from nations who go against His will. While the law may not affect you personally - at first glance - tolerating a law that goes against God's will may one day cause you great discomfort as you suffer along with all the rest when God meets out punishment. Failure to take a stand for Him is an action on your part. You will be known for your actions one day.

Our votes are also counted in Heaven - in your record book.

I can take a stand for God without expecting my stand to be imposed upon another with the full force of the law. If I expect people to be legally mandated to live a Godly life I would also have to expect the government to make all sorts of things illegal when enforcing such laws would be all but impossible.

Where issues of marriage are concerned people expect the hand of government to reach into peoples' lives and dictate to them. But it is legal for me to covet my neighbour's wife, it is legal for me to hate my brother, it is legal for me to work on the Sabbath (and I'm talking about working purely for selfish monetary gain rather than the examples Jesus gave to counter the Pharisees), it is legal for me to neglect the poor, it is legal for me to have gods before God, and so on.

Where is the sense when we so vocally insist that only one of those must be covered by legislation?

You are right, my entire life will be counted in heaven, and I'd much rather have my record showing attempts to change people from the inside out than attempting to change people against their will by imposing laws upon them that they had no desire to obey.

[Boo]

I can take a stand for God without expecting my stand to be imposed upon another with the full force of the law. If I expect people to be legally mandated to live a Godly life I would also have to expect the government to make all sorts of things illegal when enforcing such laws would be all but impossible.

Where issues of marriage are concerned people expect the hand of government to reach into peoples' lives and dictate to them. But it is legal for me to covet my neighbour's wife, it is legal for me to hate my brother, it is legal for me to work on the Sabbath (and I'm talking about working purely for selfish monetary gain rather than the examples Jesus gave to counter the Pharisees), it is legal for me to neglect the poor, it is legal for me to have gods before God, and so on.

Where is the sense when we so vocally insist that only one of those must be covered by legislation?

You are right, my entire life will be counted in heaven, and I'd much rather have my record showing attempts to change people from the inside out than attempting to change people against their will by imposing laws upon them that they had no desire to obey.

You may do well to let your personal record of voting be your testament to God. You, by yourself, do not impose any laws on anyone. It is not a matter of which laws are imposed; it is a matter of how you voted. God gave us the government we have. He established our ability to speak up in support of His judgements and instructions. We must be sure that we do not oppose His laws. Voting to legalize sin in our country is in opposition to His laws. You want to go on record saying that it is OK with you?

I will not. We are to be good stewards of what God gives us. He gave us a government where we have a vote - don't waste it by voting against what God teaches.

Maybe these verses can illustrate my point: Revelation 2:

¹⁸“And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: ‘The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze.

¹⁹“‘I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first.

²⁰But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants^£ to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.

²¹I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality.

²²Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works,

²³and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you as your works deserve.

²⁴But to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden.

²⁵Only hold fast what you have until I come.

[A Seeker]

You may do well to let your personal record of voting be your testament to God.

This disturbs me. Vote republican, or God will make you answer for it? Bit chilling.

Politics is more complex than those two issues. Other things affect just as many lives. To simplify it into the "God party" and the "not God" party is to do both an injustice IMO.

[Vhayes]

This disturbs me. Vote republican, or God will make you answer for it? Bit chilling.

Politics is more complex than those two issues. Other things affect just as many lives. To simplify it into the "God party" and the "not God" party is to do both an injustice IMO.

You think it disturbs you? Try being a citizen of the U.S. and a Christian. It scares the living daylights outta me.

[tango]

You may do well to let your personal record of voting be your testament to God. You, by yourself, do not impose any laws on anyone. It is not a matter of which laws are imposed; it is a matter of how you voted. God gave us the government we have. He established our ability to speak up in support of His judgements and instructions. We must be sure that we do not oppose His laws. Voting to legalize sin in our country is in opposition to His laws. You want to go on record saying that it is OK with you?

Yep, 100% OK with me.

God gave us free will to bless him or curse him. Jesus came so that we could have life, not so that we would be forced to have life. Love is worthless unless the option to not love is present.

I sincerely hope that when I stand before God to be judged I'll be able to say something more than "well, er, I obeyed all the laws". The fact the law says I may covet my neighbour's wife doesn't mean that I must, it merely gives me the option. God tells me that I must not so, even if the law of the land permits it, if I want to live a Godly life I must refrain from coveting her.

I can feed the hungry even if the law of the land does not explicitly require me to do so. I can love my neighbour even if the secular law permits me to despise him, to hate him, to want him to die a horrible death.

I will not. We are to be good stewards of what God gives us. He gave us a government where we have a vote - don't waste it by voting against what God teaches.

Why should I feel any concern about not voting for a government that will, at best, create what Jesus called whitewashed tombs? When the inside is rotten it makes little difference what people do on the outside. We might use the force of law to change people on the outside but there isn't a single secular law that will make an iota of change on the inside. So why not spend time living a life that goes way over and above what the secular law commands, to show by example that there is an alternative to the ways of the world?

I'd rather my record showed me feeding the hungry and clothing the naked, than showed me ticking the right box once every few years and doing nothing but that.

Maybe these verses can illustrate my point: Revelation 2:

¹⁸“And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: ‘The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze.

¹⁹“‘I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first.

²⁰But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants^£ to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.

²¹I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality.

²²Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works,

²³and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you as your works deserve.

²⁴But to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden.

²⁵Only hold fast what you have until I come.

I think you're completely missing the point here. We can expect a certain standard of behaviour from those within the church (this letter was, after all, written to a church). We cannot expect the same standard of behaviour from those who do not know Jesus.

It is one thing to warn a church that they have adopted practises which are anathema to God and that they will be destroyed unless they repent of their sins. It is another thing entirely to attempt to impose our Christian values upon another using the force of the law. Didn't Jesus show a lot more mercy than the legalists of the day expected when faced with the woman caught in adultery?

[BrianW]

You think it disturbs you? Try being a citizen of the U.S. and a Christian. It scares the living daylights outta me.

As long as we do as we are convicted and make sure we are serving God as best we can it doesn't really matter what other Christians say. God is the one that matters not the rest of us.

But you know that I know that you already knew this right?

[Free Indeed]

Not too sure about this. As much as the R's have seemingly moved right, the D's, to me, have gone quite a bit left.

They wouldn't even pass a public health insurance plan when they held a supermajority. The Dems in the United States are to the *right* of most conservatives in other countries.

[Reynolds357]

Sure, why not? How does it affect my marriage, my covenant with my wife made before God, if other people decide to form a union with more than one person? I mean seriously, we already allow serial monogamy and divorce pretty much on demand so what difference would it make to let people have two husbands or two wives at once?

God told us to live a certain way but gave us the freedom to choose whether we actually lived that way or not. Jesus told the woman caught in adultery to "go and sin no more". He didn't force her to wear a chastity belt to make sure she didn't sin again.

I actually do not have a problem with polygamy being legal. I am asking why these "champions" of the queer cause are not also defending other groups of "oppressed" people who only want their "freedom."

[oscarkipling]

I actually do not have a problem with polygamy being legal. I am asking why these "champions" of the queer cause are not also defending other groups of "oppressed" people who only want their "freedom."

man, this is super weird...your criticism is that the GLBT community should take on fights for every conceivable oppressed group....nope you couldn't be saying that because that's blatant nonsense. Perhaps you are wondering why the GLBT community doesn't combine forces with other groups of people who are oppressed for their particular sexualities...But on that end, I think the GLBT community pretty much does try to cover that ground. I mean it seems like they have a reasonable scope based on some pretty logical and obvious similarities homosexuals, bisexuals, and transgendered people. Seems you want them to become a more general group...idk like the ACLU, but that exists already, and I'm sure it has its share of GLBT people who champion more general causes within that organizations scope. I think fundamentally you are complaining that a group has a focus, One could ask why aren't policemen also firefighters and paramedics, they all deal with public safety and there is definite overlap....sometimes it just makes sense to focus on something, otherwise you're a jack of all trades and a master of none right? anyway this isn't really your problem with them is it?

[BrianW]

Homosexuals aren't being oppressed. Homosexuals are demanding that we (As a society) acknowledge and accept an aberration and we are saying, by our votes in states who put it to a vote, no. They aren't being denied rights they are demanding rights that they have never had.

Congresses passed laws to deny those folks in Utah many wives (And from grabbing all of the land in the state but that's a whole other issue) and the courts upheld that as constitutional based on the fact that --society--demanded it. I see no difference except for the fact that God Himself has declared homosexuality a sin and an abomination and the fact that before congress passed laws against it people could have more than one wife.

If homosexuals and the people who support them don't like it? That's not our problem or concern. This is our America too you know.

[tango]

I actually do not have a problem with polygamy being legal. I am asking why these "champions" of the queer cause are not also defending other groups of "oppressed" people who only want their "freedom."

What I see, in the issue of gay marriage at least, is an awful lot of what seems like little more than semantic nitpicking.

In the UK we have a civil partnership option for gay couples which, as far as I can tell (I haven't researched in any detail as it's not relevant to my life), offers the same secular benefits as marriage but still there's the push for a gay couple to be called "married". As far as I can tell those in favour are arguing over terminology insofar as they have all the benefits except the use of a specific word, and those against are arguing over terminology on the basis the relationship is legally going to be much the same even if it is called a "marriage".

I wouldn't expect the gay community to fight the fights of others, they have their own battles. In terms of other "oppressed" people I'd just come back (as always) to the issue of informed consent. Usually what comes up at times like this are paedophiles and the like, in which case there is a definite issue on the basis that a child cannot give informed consent. For good measure that one comes with legal tangles relating to the legal age of consent, which in turn feeds back into the question relating to the age at which an individual can be deemed to make an informed decision for themselves.

[tango]

Homosexuals aren't being oppressed. Homosexuals are demanding that we (As a society) acknowledge and accept an aberration and we are saying, by our votes in states who put it to a vote, no. They aren't being denied rights they are demanding rights that they have never had.

Congresses passed laws to deny those folks in Utah many wives (And from grabbing all of the land in the state but that's a whole other issue) and the courts upheld that as constitutional based on the fact that --society--demanded it. I see difference except for the fact that God Himself has declared homosexuality a sin and an abomination and the fact that before congress passed laws against it people could have more than one wife.

If homosexuals and the people who support them don't like it? That's not our problem or concern. This is our America too you know.

Be a little careful using the argument about "society demanded it", unless you're willing to stand by the same argument if worshipping God becomes illegal on the basis that "society demands it".

I don't see people here disputing that God has declared homosexuality to be a sin. God also declared it to be a sin to have other gods before him and yet there is no law preventing people from doing just that. God has declared adultery to be sinful and there is no law against that. Likewise for all sorts of other sins, sexual and otherwise. Yet as soon as one particular sin rears its head again the agitation starts.

[A Seeker]

You think it disturbs you? Try being a citizen of the U.S. and a Christian.

Nah, you're fine