Liberty University (founded by Jerry Falwell in 1971) just announced it is shutting down the campus Democratic Party campus club (Wash post story here) as being “against the conservative Christian school’s moral principles”. Clearly this indicates that those of us who thought it feasible to be both a Democratic Party member and a Christian at one and the same time have been mistaken. The right wing loves to push this meme of following their path is the only method to please God or you will most definitely burn in hell as an apostate heathen pagan (there are more adjetives but by this point the foaming around the mouth makes it difficult to understand). Its good to have faith in your convictions but when people are so absolutely positive that they know the will of God that they won’t even consider another interpretation things begin to get a little hairy! How can you learn anything new if you already know it all? The possibility of compromise and working with your political opponents towards a common goal disappeaars as a possibility once you believe you possess an unerring knowledge regarding the will of the allmighty.
I have read the Bible in the past and currently doing a little study and the first thing that becomes obvious to the student is that interpretation and underlying meanings are part of the process. Liberty University stated that problems with the Democratic party range from its “socialism”, support of abortion rights and its GLBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transexual) support. My reading in Acts recently mentioned that the Christian Church at its beginning shared assets commonly and gave them to individuals as needed which seems to run very close to what Marx was talking about in the “Communist Manifesto”. Abortion is a touchy issue but currently more than 2/3 of US citiczens support some form of choice and finding Biblical justification for a right to life view involves interpreting passages that were not expressly addressing this issue. As to the “GLBT agenda” of the Democratic Party, doesn’t the Bible lead us to conclude that all peoples are our brothers and sisters regardless of who they are? And isn’t the Democratic Party trying to just trying to insure that everyone has the same rights so that there is no tyranny of the majority?Just saying.
Over the course of my life I have gone from thinking that I hbave all the answers to realizing that often issues facing us have many more nuances and shadings than can be seen at first glance. One thing that I am certain of is that I feel much better when both sides in a debate start out acknowledging that they just might be wrong.
I have read the Bible in the past and currently doing a little study and the first thing that becomes obvious to the student is that interpretation and underlying meanings are part of the process. Liberty University stated that problems with the Democratic party range from its “socialism”, support of abortion rights and its GLBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transexual) support. My reading in Acts recently mentioned that the Christian Church at its beginning shared assets commonly and gave them to individuals as needed which seems to run very close to what Marx was talking about in the “Communist Manifesto”. Abortion is a touchy issue but currently more than 2/3 of US citiczens support some form of choice and finding Biblical justification for a right to life view involves interpreting passages that were not expressly addressing this issue. As to the “GLBT agenda” of the Democratic Party, doesn’t the Bible lead us to conclude that all peoples are our brothers and sisters regardless of who they are? And isn’t the Democratic Party trying to just trying to insure that everyone has the same rights so that there is no tyranny of the majority?Just saying.
Over the course of my life I have gone from thinking that I hbave all the answers to realizing that often issues facing us have many more nuances and shadings than can be seen at first glance. One thing that I am certain of is that I feel much better when both sides in a debate start out acknowledging that they just might be wrong.
Mike's View 