In response to an article posted by a friend on Facebook here.

Basically every argument comes down to abandoning our personal responsibility to follow God's commands, saying the government should do it so we don't have to. I think that's unbiblical. God is foremost concerned with how you live. Nationalizing or socializing every personal command from God and every principle of the Christian life just reveals what I think is a very ignorant understanding of the Bible.

1. "The environment is an important cause for me."
   
   In this election the Republicans are more environmentally friendly, wanting to try every possible option on how to protect the environment. Of course the Democrats have been spending years trying to make you afraid and tell you only they can cure the guilt and fear they've built up on you.
   
   
2. "The care of the poor is important to me too. Not because of my politics but because of the Bible. Caring for the poor is not an option for anyone who takes a serious reading of the Bible—it is a demand and even a test of whether I am really a Christian."
   
   Republican job creation helps the poor much more than the Democrat welfare-state.
   
   
3. "As for health care I believe deeply in some sort of a nationalized system that considers justice and compassion over the medical cartel’s profits. When a nation finds people beaten and bleeding by the road I think they can’t respond with, “Take responsibility for your own problems” or “Too bad—doesn’t your employer have insurance.” A real Good Samaritan pays the bill. So would a “Christian nation.” "
   
   It's the law in the United States that any ER or doctors office has to accept a needy patient. I've had individual health coverage that was cheaper than my employer paid insurance. We also have Medicare for the elderly and Medicaid for the old.
   
   "I find even many Democrats wrong on this issue too and hope we will bring a system something like that of Canada to this country.. I know all Americans say Canadians and Europeans hate their system but it simply isn’t true. I’ve met plenty who praise it..."
   
   Sure, the healthy ones. As a Canadian immigrant, I'm convinced my grandparents would have lived longer if they had the free market health care system. "I've met some Canadians who have never had serious medical needs and they like their health care" is not a valid argument. When Canadians are in serious medical condition, they come to the United States for treatment if they can afford it. A few years back the Canadian government experimented with a way to lower their cost of medical treatment for the homeless who got injured while hung-over... could the government save money by just keeping the homeless drunk until they died? The socialized health care puts a price tag on everyone's head. If your productivity to the economy does not outweigh the cost of your chemotherapy, it's just worthwhile to let you die. That's no "Christian" healthcare.
   
   
4. "I’m with the Democrats on feminism too—though most Republicans now pretend they’ve been there all the time. I think women should not be denied their rights because they are women."
   
   Name one Republican in elected office who thinks women should not have their civil rights? their voting rights? their legal rights? their rights to justice if they are being discriminated by their employer?
   
   When Democrats talk about women's rights, they usualy only mean abortion. That's not a virtue.
   
   
5. I’m with the Democrats on minimum wage too...But its not [mostly middle class] college kids I care most about—it is the poor workers that serve my hamburgers. They have no hope of making a living without college.
   
   There are plenty of wealthy Americans without a college education. Mechanics, plumbers, even computer programmers. Here's a fact: If 100% of working Americans had a college degree, someone will be serving hamburgers and will be poor. They'll just be poor with a college degree. We don't live in medieval Europe. Many of the wealthiest Americans are immigrants of the children of immigrants who came here poor and worked their way up through hard work.
   
   You want to adjust minimum wage for inflation, but minimum wage increases are the cause of inflation.
   
   
6. I oppose handguns and think they should be illegal for citizens to tote around. I see no reason why a Christian would want to promote the use of handguns—what possible good is it to let handguns proliferate? ... If God’s “will was done on earth as it is in heaven” there’d be no handguns.
   
   Remember there was a time when Jesus told his disciples it was ok for they to carry swords!
   
   You can be a good Christian and be against gun rights. You just can't be a good American. "what possible good is it to let handguns proliferate?" You're kidding right? Have you ever read the constitution? America with all it's freedoms would have never existed if the corrupt government rule were not overthrown, and that came down to using guns. We are allowed guns by the constitution to protect our inalienable God-given rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit.
   
   
7. I generally favor increased taxation of citizens who are better off I can’t see how one would have any other position and be true to the Bible... I wish people did it personally. It is a nice idea. But, have you seen this happening much?
   
   Yes, but by-and-large only among Republicans your Democrats don't.
   
   If we did away with all taxes would you give your taxes to the poor?
   
   Yes. But again, really only among Republicans.
   
   Really?
   
   Yes. You must only hang out with Democrats who don't give money.
   
   Since churches are not taxed do you see the church giving generously to the poor?
   
   Yes.
   
   Really?
   
   Yes. What kind of church do you go to that doesn't help the poor? On top of the regular partnerships we have with inner city ministries we have special offerings for this, we give food to food banks, we tutor and volunteer in other ways at the inner-city outreaches. You really do none of this? Why? How do you get away with so abandoning the teachings of Christ?
   
   Jesus never taught me about what the government should do, he taught me about what I should do. My responsibility is to live as a follower of Christ, not to force other people to live as if their followers of Christ, forcing them to give my government their money so I can do with it as I see fit.
   
   
8. I do not believe the government should write school prayers—students should say their own prayers.
   
   Who argues that the government should write school prayers? The Democrats and their pals in the ACLU are trying to take away students rights to pray at all, even silently!
   
   
9. I think excessive nationalistic military spending is sinful for any nation...But war-making is sin—even if we have to do it...
   
   "Excessive" is completely relative, so it's hard to see any meaning in what you wrote.
   
   If war is necessary, how can it be sinful? You really believe that sometimes it's necessary to sin, to go against God's will? Was it sin to stop Hitler? Was it a sin for us to help the poor and oppressed who were being slaughtered?
   
   
10. I believe national self-interest is selfishness and thus sinful
    
    The Republican Bush has increased financial humanitarian aid to Africa with little or no national self-interest, and Democrats argue against it because of this.
    
    How can you say the Democrats are less self-interested? They never came close to the humanitarian aid that Bush has done, they don't care about the employment of the poor in other countries, they want to punish companies for giving jobs to the poor overseas. (Those would be the minimum wage jobs that you said don't help anyone in America.)
    
    
11. I believe that God wants capital punishment banished from the earth...I’d still be against it as a Biblical value even if we were killing all rich white men.
    
    I'm not sure why you think killing all the rich, or all the whites, or all men seems to be preferable to killing criminals.
    
    God himself instituted capital punishment in Genesis 9 as a law for all human descendants of the only survivors of the flood. If you're a human, this applies. (No, this wasn't a law just for the Israelites leaving Egypt. This was a law for all humans well before Abraham.)
    
    
12. Democrats often like centralized governments and weaker “states rights.” So do I. I can’t pin this one on my theology or the Bible
    
    Then it's completely irrelevant as to how a Christian could vote Democrat. You wrote that a constitutional argument was no good for arguing for the right to bear arms because it wasn't a Biblical argument, then you go on to make a series of non-Biblical arguments starting here.
    
    
13. On the size of government I reject the argument, “that the government which governs best governs least” ... But I can’t say this is due to my theology or the Bible either.
    
    Then it's completely irrelevant as to how a Christian could vote Democrat.
    
    
14. I believe the tobacco and alcohol industries should pay restitution for their evils... Since I can’t make them illegal in this country I’d like to regulate them out of existence.
    
    You believe the role the government is to punish behavior that you see as "evil" even if you can't argue that it should be illegal? I don't think the role of the government is to be moral police. If something is truly evil, it should be illegal. I think it's an abuse of power to tell someone that something is legal, then when they do it to punish them "out of existence."
    
    
15. I believe corporations who have paid less and less of the tax burden over the last three decades should pay far more until they are paying their fair share. Yes, I know that merely “raises the price of the product” to the consumers. But buying their product is my choice so I don’t need to buy it if I don’t want to...
    
    Logically, if you increase taxes on all corporations, the prices of all goods will go up. How can you have a choice to not buy if you "don't want to" - most of us aren't in a place where we can go without buying anything if that's our choice.
    
    
16. I think we ought to have more strict emissions standards because we should be stewards of the air God has given us.
    
    I think the Republican candidate agrees with you on this.
    
    
17. I think we need strong OSHA rules because the rich are bound by God to care for their workers.
    
    This is a really minor issue I'm not sure it's worth addressing. I haven't heard anyone arguing to get rid of OSHA, least of all among the candidates up for election right now. If your employer doesn't provide a safe environment, they'll lose employees and will have to fix the situation to stay in business.
    
    
18. "I think we need massive initiatives in education because the Bible calls us to bring up the next generation. I’d even be satisfied if we’d put 10% of the money we’ve been squandering in Iraq...into grants for college students. And, another 10% into public elementary and secondary education. Where’d we get the idea that a Christian should be for low taxes and against education?"
    
    I've never heard anyone arguing against education. Ever. (With the exception of Pink Floyd.) The debate is about government monopolized education, where only the rich like Obama can afford private schooling. It's a matter of social justice to allow everyone right to choice in education, and the Democrats are opposed to equal rights for education.
    
    We're squandering money in Iraq, but we're not squandering money on education? The United States spends more per student on public school education than any other country in the world, yet our test scores are not improving (per CNN here). This isn't a matter of funding. It's a matter of poorly run schools.
    

So... how could a Christian vote Democrat?

By not understanding the Bible, and not thinking critically.

Due to the length of the quotes, I've moved them to the end of the posting. To sum up...

Augustine writes about Scipio, a Roman, who advised against conquering a wealthy enemy, and against installing seats in theatres, because security and wealth lead to avarice and moral pestilence.

av·a·rice (ăv'ə-rĭs) - reprehensible acquisitiveness; insatiable desire for wealth (personified as one of the deadly sins)

pes·ti·lence (pĕs'tə-ləns) - an epidemic disease with a high death rate



We live in luxury in the West, like Rome but more so. Reading this made me wonder. Scipio, that Agustine is admiring, challenged having seats in the theatres of Rome. The parallel today would be having seats in movie theatres.

He called it an enervating and emasculating influence to have theatre seats!

Can you imagine having to stand in movie theatres?

Our lives are so full of luxury we can't even see it. Yet, he calls luxury an affront to manliness, a threat to good citizenship. Augustine points out that having the feeling of security along with wealth lead to avarice and moral pestilence.

Pagan Roman citizens had gotten so bogged down in this that even after Rome had fallen, and there was neither security nor wealth, they could not pull their lives together for they kept running after money and pleasure rather than piecing their lives and regions back together.

The west's two most remarkable characteristics are avarice and moral pestilence.

We as Western Christians have gotten so bogged down in this that our leaders teach that God wants us to ruthlessly seek more money to enlarge our territory or have our "best" life now by seeking wealth. For us is modeled moral pestilence.

How did we come to embrace into our faith one of the "seven deadly sins"?

Pagan Rome was beyond redemption - even being conquered did not get them to pull their act together. Is the west beyond redemption in this?

Did the great depression halt the influence of avarice and moral pestilence? May the depression have added on 50 years to the lifespan of western civilization because of this?

Should I get rid of lots of my luxuries - things as "basic" as seating in the Roman theatres?

Augustine writes to the survivors of the fall of the Roman Empire:

For certainly your desire for peace, and prosperity, and plenty is not prompted by any purpose of using these blessings honestly, that is to say, with moderation, sobriety, temperance, and piety; for your purpose rather is to run riot in an endless variety of sottish pleasures, and thus to generate from your prosperity a moral pestilence which will prove a thousandfold more disastrous than the fiercest enemies. It was such a calamity as this that Scipio, your chief pontiff, your best man in the judgment of the whole senate, feared when he refused to agree to the destruction of Carthage, Rome’s rival and opposed Cato, who advised its destruction. He feared security, that enemy of weak minds, and he perceived that a wholesome fear would be a fit guardian for the citizens. And he was not mistaken;

And again:

For similar reasons, and animated by the same considerate patriotism, that same chief pontiff of yours—I still refer to him who was adjudged Rome’s best man without one dissentient voice—threw cold water on the proposal of the senate to build a circle of seats round the theatre, and in a very weighty speech warned them against allowing the luxurious manners of Greece to sap the Roman manliness, and persuaded them not to yield to the enervating and emasculating influence of foreign licentiousness. So authoritative and forcible were his words, that the senate was moved to prohibit the use even of those benches which hitherto had been customarily brought to the theatre for the temporary use of the citizens. (you can read the text here, the whole book is online)

This is in response to Don Miller's blog post and the comments it has received today here, in which he asserts that the 'culture war' our parents scared us about doesn't really exist, it's just a fabrication of the media. 'Culture war', Miller says, goes back to the basic meaning of 'war' - to kill.

It's deceptively simplistic to try to boil this all down to a straight metaphor of 'war' - killing, peace negotiations, the analogy doesn't fit. 'War' is used in all kinds of ways that don't fit with Don's definition of killing (until complete annihilation or surrender) like the 'war on drugs' and the 'war on crime' and the 'war on poverty' - no one is suggesting (I hope) that we kill all the poor people until the problem is solved.

In this discussion of 'culture wars', we've left culture undefined. This all seems to be an attempt to say "there can't be a culture war because there is no mass killing going on."

"Culture" does not mean politics, nor political parties, nor sets of laws.

A culture is like an ogre - or an onion. It has layers. Three of the most important from inside out are 1) shared beliefs that lead to 2) shared values that lead to 3) common behavior. We (as a group) behave in certain ways because of what we (as a group) value, which flows out of what we (as a group) believe. We often get so caught up in behavior we never ask what values are behind the behavior, and what our values reveal about our even deeper beliefs. For example:

An example (click on my name for my full example):

1) Belief: That people have a Creator (see footnote).
2) Value: Human rights not endowed by a government, but by God, superior to any government
3) Behavior: We fight for human rights (often even outside our own borders)

or

1) Belief: God created perfect humanity in a man and a woman and blessed their union.
2) Value: Marriage (and the subsequent family) is important and foundational to society.
3) Behavior: We have a special term (marriage), a ceremony, official recognition, and even rewards and incentives for marriage.

Under attack? All of the above.

There are many in significant positions of power and influence (the leaders of political parties, university professors, politicians) who are trying to rid the American culture of all of the above shared beliefs, values, and behaviors. Once they aren't shared anymore, the culture has changed, and only fringe groups share these beliefs.

True, Jesus didn't get involved in politics. He wasn't here be to a community organizer or a senator or a governor. He was here to die.

Paul, on the other hand, went to Rome to appeal to Ceaser to make Christianity a politically acceptable alternative religion. Judaism was legal, but now that non-Jews were becoming Christians, they were breaking the law, and Paul set out to change that on a political level.

Early Christians by their lives changed culture by saving lives of babies born alive and left outside city gates to die, and adopting them. Christianity has always brought about changes in culture, where some shared beliefs and values and behaviors die and others take their place. That's why cultures influenced most heavily by Christianity have some shared cultural values, even if the religious beliefs aren't there - values on human rights, and helping the sick and poor and orphans. Because of Christianity's influence, despite saying that we believe that we're all just random lumps of chaotic chance - the belief that humans are unique and valuable is still (for now) deeper and stronger (see the same footnote).

I think those of us who deny the existence of a war over the culture, while sounding cool and progressive, don't understand what 'culture' means, or we choose to ignore what 'culture' means and talk about political bickering instead.

Other short thoughts:

- When we change from one thing to another, whether political perspectives, religious affiliations, etc., we tend to become extremely critical of where we came from and very uncritical of where we are now.

- No media has ever been without bias, nor should we expect them to. We should use our brains and the discernment that God gave us and think critically. It's foolish to think you get unbiased news. They can only keep doing what they're doing if they keep their viewership/readership, so they make everything extreme, from vilifying the current president to only covering Iraq when it's bloody, to highlighting the stupid things that current candidates say. This holds true for tv, radio, and yes - even blogs.


Oooh, that footnote:
At some point we'll change our values and behavior because we no longer hold to the belief that God created humans unique. At that point human rights will suffer, and it won't just be those on the fringe of our culture who believe that two chickens are more valuable than one human.

Per CS Lewis, and a college prof I had, I've been reading Augustine's City of God.

I once read advice by CS Lewis to read one ancient book after reading a contemporary book. We wonder how people in the past thought the sun circled earth, or how they thought the world was flat.

There are, Lewis states, always mass mis-understandings, sometimes bridging cultures so it seems that everyone in a certain period of time thought a certain way. Our entire culture, or the entire known world seems to miss the obvious in some significant way. If this is true, then we have our own gaps in knowledge and wisdom today.

How do you find out what parts of your world view are baseless assumptions?

As part of your personal permanent presuppositions, you won't notice them on your own. As part of a contemporary cultural or global problem, no one speaking or writing or blogging today will be able to show them to you.

Thus, C.S. very strongly admonishes his readers to read ancient literature. If there are problems that we cannot see within our time or culture, they can only be spotted by someone outside of our time and culture. We have a way of viewing and interacting with the world view of someone else. You'll see it's flaws where we have strengths, but you will also find areas where they were right all along and your world view is challenged in ways it has never been challenged by anyone you've talked to or whose writings you've read.

I've been challenged over the last few days by Augustine. I'll post more details soon. Even if he's right on this, it will sound crazy if it indeed points to errors in our world view assumptions.

We're on the road right now out to Washington state for a friend's wedding. God was all over our drive last night.

It was 12:30 (just after midnight) and we had 1 or two hours left for the night's drive to get to our hotel in Utah, just north of Salt Lake City. We were driving through the mountains in Utah, and there are no streetlights on the 75mph highway. We drove for a long time in the dark last night.

K said, "Can you open the sunroof for a minute and let some cold air in? I just want to make sure we're awake." I did, and put my fingers up into the cold air above the car one hand at a time. After a minute we closed the sunroof feeling revitalized and alert from the shock of cold air.

10 to 30 seconds later, K gasped loudly as we met this guy:




This is what it would have looked like in bright daylight. All of a sudden out of nowhere in the dark there was this deer standing in the middle of the highway, with it's rear half in our lane, right in front of me! I slammed on the breaks and though - "Deer in the headlights! Deer in the headlights? Deer freeze in headlights! Should I turn off my headlights? Should I stop honking?" Of course, I didn't have much time to do any of this as I was already reacting and we were only a few yards away from a rear-ending a dear - I think it was a doe. I know the dear looked at me, but noticing whether there were antlers or not wasn't my highest priority.

I slammed on the breaks, leaned on the horn, and started turning the wheel back and forth, trying to remember what to do while fishtailing. The 8 seconds after seeing the deer happened almost as follows (see disclaimer at end):

1:
K: "AAAAaaah"
J: Leaning on horn, slamming on breaks

2:
K: "AAAAaaah," bracing self
J: Leaning on horn, turning to the right.

3:
K: "AAAAaaah," eyes getting really wide
J: Still breaking, turning to the left, to correct fish-tailing

4:
K: "AAAAaaah"
J: Braking, turned right to correct fish-tailing again.


5:
K: "AAAAaaah"
J: Left again

6:
K: "Jesus, Jesus!"
J: Trying to figure out which way to turn - it's 12:30! Did I just turn left or right, which way to I turn to correct. I'm confused!

8:
Car stopped half on the shoulder, half on the median/ditch, surrounded by the smell of burnt rubber.

Ok, K didn't scream the whole time, she really just gasped loudly during second #1, but it was fun to write it this way :) So far, likely the most exiting 8 seconds of our trip. I'll let you know if we out-do that!

If K hadn't felt tired we wouldn't have opened the sunroof.

If we hadn't opened the sunroof, we wouldn't have be revitalized and more alert, and may not have handled the situation as well.

If there had been any other traffic, there could have been an accident.

God is good. Happy Thanksgiving.