How to vote like God

[scooterbird]

A follow-up: I mentioned a couple of posts ago about the issues guide that I picked up at my church. I decided I'd jot down the highlights of what values they were talking about, together with stances on each and a few Biblical passages in support thereof. I would gather that this would not be what people think of when they think of Christian

Comments

[little_carrot]

My only problem with the list is "dramatically reduce abortion" - and not because I have a problem, per se, with that, but because it offers no discussion of how that might be done. If the reduction comes because women are being offered consistant medical advice re: contraceptives, and because women who get pregnant feel that they can afford to raise the child in a safe and comfortable environment (because they have access to decent, cheap medical care, for instance) - ie, if you reduce abortion by eliminating the demand for it - then I'm good with it. But if you (and here, I don't necessarily mean you, scooterbird, but you in a general sense) want to reduce abortion by reducing the supply, then I can't support that.

Other than that, hell yeah.

[scooterbird]

Actually, it does list that - I only included the headings and subheads for each point. Here's the full text for that one:

Dramatically reduce abortion. Our society should support common ground policies that dramatically reduce the abortion rate by preventing unwanted pregnancies, providing meaningful alternatives and necessary supports for women and children, and reforming adoption laws.

[little_carrot]

Awesome. Then I'm totally behind this platform. All we need now is a candidate to run on it.

[thecanuckguy]

The "Strengthen marriage and families" one also worries me a bit. From a Canadian perspective (and I woudln't be surprised if it's a US one too), the conservatives/Conservatives who oppose gay marriage say that they are doing it to "strengthen [traditional] marriage". I can definitely see an anti-gay marriage politician supporting that point.

(And who is "President Camejo"? The first link that Wikipedia and Google bring up is the Green Party candidate for California Governor (and Nader's running mate) Peter Camejo (whom I've not heard of until today) - I doubt anything in the footnote can be used to describe him.)

As to "How would Jesus Vote?" That's a very tricky question, on one hand yes you're right, it's best not to mix politics and religion (especialy in the USA in this day and age), but, on the other hand, I believe that Christians should always consider how Jesus-based what they do is (something I touched on in your earlier post)

[scooterbird]

Again, from the text:

Strengthen marriage and families. Our society should commit to policies that promote education and action on reducing teen pregnancy, strengthening marriage and family formation, in-home parenting coaching and support, encouraging responsible fatherhood, preventing the abuse and neglect of children, and reducing and preventing domestic violence. Strengthening families must become a personal and national priority without scapegoating gays and lesbians for the breakdown of the family.The emphasis for this pamphlet seems to be reframing the issues, which is something that conservatives have traditionally been good at since the Goldwater days (estate taxes become "death taxes", restricting women's health choices becomes "pro-life", and so on). Turning it around on them is something that should be done as much as possible, and something I try to instruct Green candidates to do. One can be entirely truthful and straightforward about our agenda and still put it in a way that resonates with more conservative voters