Often these days I have noticed a lot of misrepresentation
of Christianity and the role of faith in public discourse, rather through
ignorance or maliciousness these attacks create a very dangerous precedent. As
a Christian who is also a patriot and involved in the political process I would
like to address a few of those misrepresentations. The first falsehood being
bandied about is that political conservatism and Bible Based Christianity are
one and the same. Among protestant Christians there is no papal authority to
determine doctrinal purity or to give authoritative guidance on matters of
public debate. As a result there is in the protestant church a great deal of
diversity of thought. (Unlike Joe Biden’s view of the black community) . The Churches are organized according to
their own designs and are free to interpret the Scripture according to their
own conscience. I would point to two main philosophies in how to properly
interpret the Bible. Accepting the Bible as absolute truth and interpreting the
events of the day against its doctrines, or using the events of the day to
determine how the Bible should be interpreted. . Churches in the latter group
tend to lean more to a progressive view. Christians like me who are in the
former category tend to lean to a politically conservative viewpoint, because
at the heart of that philosophy of governance is a Judeo-Christian worldview. Psalms tells us that God made us in the womb,
the 10 commandments tell us that murder is wrong, Jesus tells us it’s better to be drowned with a
millstone upon our necks than to harm a child, for these reasons we are
passionately prolife. Many in the
conservative right are not Christians, many are not religious though if pressed
on a multiple choice survey they might check “Christian” as opposed to “Muslim”
or “Atheist” but there are conservative atheists, conservative Muslims, gay
conservatives, et.al. Conservatism is bound together by a broad commitment to a
set of ideals not coerced fidelity to a strict but ever changing leftist dogma.
The origin of conservatism is found in the great works of the enlightenment, in
Burke and de Tocqueville, in Thomas Payne and Patrick Henry, expressed in the
Declaration codified in the Constitution. It is a philosophy of the sovereignty
of the individual and the idea of natural law, and natural rights assigned and
assured by “Nature’s God”. Christians are drawn to conservatism because these
ideals reflect the ideals of, in fact are directly descended from, our own
reformation. Conservatism allows for the differences of the individual but
maintains the core truth that there are moral absolutes undergirding the
civilization. That brings me to the second misconception: that Christians seek to enforce their beliefs
through the power of the court or legislature.
To be
honest Christians learned the hard way that forced compliance is
counterproductive in spreading the Gospel. Through the inquisition and
religious wars of the Middle Ages the Church largely abandoned the Great
Commission and instead used the name of Christ to further their own ambitions
of political power. While shamefully Muslims Jews and Pagans were targeted the
primary victims of this age’s abuses were Christians. The one common thread of all these miscreant
regimes was to keep the scriptures out of the hands of the people. Protestant
and Catholic alike these pseudo religious tyrants knew that if God’s word was
given to the congregation and they could disseminate it for themselves that the
lies of the elite would be exposed. Our desire as a group is the preservation
of the 1st amendment of the US constitution “Congress shall make no
law regarding the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise
thereof.” This is the reason for Christian Patriotism and it is very rare in
the annuls of human history, that a people have been guaranteed by law to
worship as they choose. Christians are zealous on this matter, we want no group
to establish a particular denomination as a state church and we insist that the
second half of that amendment be enforced. There is a rub here for us, as both
Christians and conservatives do recognize the existence of natural law, we
believe in morality, in the nuclear family, in private property rights, in the
value of work, in honesty and integrity, and in self-reliance. For the Christian to be self-reliant is to
trust God in our day to day life. There is generally a libertarian view when it
comes to how to relate to others, as a rule we do not seek to outlaw behavior
we find immoral, unless it is also dangerous, we prefer to offer love and truth
and lead sinners to salvation through word and deed, but we will not be
compelled to accept behavior that violates our conscience.
Finally
there is the misconception that Christians do not want to help poor people,
starving children etc. because we oppose socialism or out of control government
welfare programs. This is not really a misconception it is an intentional
misrepresentation dating back to the Great Society. The center of the community
in the US, for social interaction, for Faith and learning and for help in the
times of need has always been the religious institutions. In some communities
that may be mosque or synagogue but in most of the country it is the
church. The equation of Christian
charity with government welfare has been part of an insidious undermining of
the American culture and the influence of faith and sadly many Christians have
been duped. Let us judge these works by their fruit, where government programs
have been most marshalled in the “war on poverty” has the poverty rate gone up
or down? Are families stronger or weaker in those communities? Is crime higher
or lower? Government assistance creates a permanent dependency that could be
called a generational cycle of bondage, and we are lacking in compassion
because we oppose this? Private charity is required to give account of how
their funds are used but government programs including welfare are steeped in
waste fraud and abuse to the point it is expected and accepted. If a private
charity proprietor should embezzle a thousand dollars to buy his kid a birthday
present he would face prosecution and jail. Government bureaucracy is somehow
given a pass on the misappropriation of billions of dollars annually, yet we
are told it is wise to entrust the helping of the needy to government. Every church that I know of has a benevolence
fund, and or a food bank. Many have clothing closets where clothes are either
given away or sold for pennies. If I give my pastor a hundred dollars to
anonymously help a struggling family in our church that family gets $100 of
assistance. Add to this the Rescue Missions the Salvation Army, foreign
missionaries many of whom are also health care workers, prison ministries,
ministries to the children of prisoners, support for oppressed people and the
persecuted church worldwide and the strong effort to make sure that persecution
doesn’t come to our shores. Organizations like Samaritan’s Purse dedicated to
easing poverty everywhere. These groups seldom make headlines but they make a
difference, all without confiscatory taxation that stifles economic progress
and suppresses the incentive of the citizen to work and achieve.
I will
never be ashamed of being a Christian, I will always be proud to stand for the
flag and our founding principles as a conservative. The two are not the same
thing but one clearly informs the other. God Bless.
