The election's over and my guy lost. It's ok. you can laugh at me.
here's something i've been catching a somewhat medium amount of flak for: i've come out of the closet with my friends as a Democrat. that's right. here in Niceville, FL right smack on the bottom end of the Bible Belt and next door to the world's largest air force base. Why have i done this stupid, stupid thing you may ask? well i'm about to tell you. It has to do with my faith which seems strange seeing as how every other christian seems to be all for Bush. But i feel as though i have a reasonably flawless reason to believe what i do. Now, be warned. everything i'm about to say comes from a christian standpoint, so if you don't really believe in that stuff, then i'm not going to be convincing you, nor do i really want to. what i'm going to explain here is why i believe what i believe and why i think that democratic ideology is more christian than republican ideology; and how i think it's absurd that most christians are republicans.
for me what it all comes down to is Jesus. who he was and what he did. I mean, that's the basis for christianity right? Christians = followers of Christ? The way i see it is, Jesus was a man who went around making people's lives better. He gave sight to the blind, he healed lepers, he forgave prostitutes of their sins, he made the lame walk. The people he hung out with were considered to be the riff-raff of society: tax collectors, fishermen, criminals, romans, beggars, and prostitutes. He did all these things; he improved lives, he gave new beginnings to people who would always be hated and shunned otherwise. He did it all; not because he felt it was his civic duty or because he wanted to make himself look cool. He did it because he wanted to; because he loved them. I'm not just making all this up. It's in the Gospels. you can go read it now if you want. these are the things jesus did. "A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, 'Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.' Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. 'I am willing,' he said. 'Be clean!' Immediately he was cured of his leprosy." Matt. 8:2-3. He would be eating supper with all his friends, and he would get up in the middle and walk miles just to heal someone. Just because he wanted to.
This leads me to my next point. This helping of the poor and unfortunate and homeless; the emotionaly bruised and weary; the economically devastated people is a distinctly un-Republican viewpoint. Republicans fundamentally do not believe in helping the poor and the sick. Their reason: 'It's their own fault for being where they are. They need to take responsibility for their situation.' To me, that is such crap. People can't just stand up and change where they are. It can happen, but realistically, it doesnt. People don't ask to be poor or sick. People don't want to resort to dealing drugs or being prostitutes. People are born in inner city projects and they never leave those same projects their entire lives. People need help getting started again. My mom had a good story illustrating this:
Before i was born, my mom and dad were living on the farm in arkansas. My mom was a social worker (this was her job before becoming a teacher). So she saw all kinds of bad, messed up lives: homeless people, retarded people, emotionally/mentally messed-up people. Well, there was one in particular. His name was david and he was in high school. He was 15, and his parents were so old they were both in a nursing home and couldn't take care of him or provide for him, therefore, David was a foster child. He didn't do well in foster care. Who would? So he came to my mom and she tried helping him. Actually, i think it was her social work office/place/thing that gave him his foster home. Anyway, he went to his family and out of my mom's life. Then a few years later she got a phone call at home. It was David. He had just gotten out of prison. He had been caught stealing. Now he was out and had no where to go. So my mom and dad offered him a job on the farm helping them in the garden. It was a bull crap job that they made up on the spot so he would have somewhere to go. It payed jack squat. But he came and helped in the garden, and in addition to his money, he got to take home some of the vegetables to eat. He didn't have a car, so he had to walk to work every day. About 5 miles, from the middle of Pine Bluff, Arkansas to the farm which is on the outskirts of town. So whenever my mom or dad was heading to town, they would give David a ride home. They never took him to a house. He always asked to be dropped off in the same general location. One day, my mom took him back to town with a fresh load of vegetables. She dropped him off where he said and she went to go run some errands or go to church or something. Anyway, on her way home, she went down main street. And there on the side of the road holding his bag of vegetables, was David. He had no where to go. He was homeless, making his way on the streets. He hoped that he could offer his vegetables to some of his relatives in hopes that they would let him stay for a while. There he was, walking down the street carrying his bag of vegetables looking lost. He didn't ask to be where he was, he's not responsible for his situation. Do you think he wanted to be on the side of the road carrying vegetables? Of course not, he wanted to be normal, but there was nothing he could do. This story is so sad, it makes me want to cry. People need help getting started. You cant just say, "take some responsibility" it's just not realistic. We need to care for people. We need to love them like Jesus did, and does.
Now back to my main point; if Jesus were alive today, he would want us to be helping our homeless and poor. That is my main reason for being democrat. Because i believe it is our Christian duty to take care of our poor and sick and homeless, because that's what Jesus would have done. I think it is the most important aspect of being a Christian as it relates to politics. Abortion, gay marriage; those things are important, but they are nowhere near as important as taking care of poor people. It was the main theme of the life of Jesus. It's just selfish, i think, that people don't want to help people worse off than them.
Anyway, this is really long. I had more, but i dont want to bore you. Maybe more later