I feel strange that this is the first post I am making on here. I have two others I half-typed a month or so ago that I meant to post but forgot. The Senatorial election coming up really inspired me to post this though.
As a general rule, the Republican party is a more right-leaning, conservative political party while the Democratic party is more left-leaning and liberal. Since the 1970s, Evangelical Christians seem to have largely
championed the Republican party. The current Texas Senate election has led me
to ask the question, why? Why is this the case when the Bible clearly states
that we should love refugees (Leviticus 19:9-34, Deuteronomy 10:18-19), provide
for the poor around us (Acts 2:42-47, Psalm 82:3), and to preserve justice
(Micah 6:8)? One need only turn to the news to see evidence of Republicans in
the federal government purposing to close borders and remove social safety
nets. As a self-identifying political conservative this realization troubled me.
But then I realized, these are NOT conservative ideals. I
would like to make the case that conservative political ideals in alignment
with education and participation of ordinary citizens in politics (See Plato) –
at the federal, state AND local levels – IS something that I can support as an
evangelical Christian. What are conservative values?
A conservative view of politics, dating back to the Founding
Fathers’ purpose for the Constitution, is that the federal government would be
limited so that the state and local governments would be available to provide
for the needs of their people in the best way.
Many issues are best resolved by the people that are
closest to them: the locals. No doubt that unemployment, poverty, homelessness,
etc. are issues in many areas of our country. As a conservative and as a
Christian I DO believe that something must be done about this! However, I DO
NOT believe that the federal government has, or even should have, the authority
to address it at many levels that it currently does.
One big reason we are having to close our borders more and
more in the modern era, is because when the United States was looked to by
foreigners as the land of opportunity for all – a place where any person could
come and start a new life with hopes of rising to the top – it did not have
nearly as many social safety nets as it does now. As more and more social
safety nets fell in to place at the federal level, the US’ ability to welcome
in every foreigner decreased more and more rapidly.
Now, your question for me will probably go something like
this, “You JUST SAID the Bible says we need to take care of these people!
Refugees should be able to reap the harvest out of the corners of your fields!
How can we possibly be morally/religiously justified in removing these social
safety nets?”
This is a question that I was wrestling with the last couple
of weeks, and an issue I feel particularly convicted by today.
My response to this issue, as a conservative and as an
evangelical Christian, is multifaceted. It boils down to the idea that we need
to be even MORE involved at the local and state level of government than we are
at the federal level. I am ashamed to confess that I have no idea who is on my
school board and I know basically nothing about my mayor. I have never voted in
a local election or really ever considered them worthwhile. Congressional
elections, Gubernatorial elections, and Presidential elections are as much as I
have mobilized to vote. This is the opposite of what the founders had in mind.
At the time of the framing of the Constitution, people had more pride in their
state than they did in their country, and they looked to their state and local community
to meet the needs that they saw around them.
There were no legally enforced rules to feed refugees and
orphans for the Jews in the Old Testament that I am aware of (see Scripture
cited in first paragraph), but there was a moral understanding, established by
Scripture, that INDIVIDUALS should take care of those who have less than they
have. The refugees, widows, and orphans looked to individuals in their
community to help them (See the story of Ruth and Boaz in the Bible). In Acts 2,
the Christians lived together in community meeting the needs of the others in
their community as needs arose. In the early church, individuals risked their
own lives to serve the sick (Christian and non-Christian alike) in their
community. These are the ideals I am inspired by today!
My dad always told me, “No one cares about your stuff as
much as you do.”
I think you could probably also say, “No one knows how to
take care of your stuff as well as you do.”
In college, I started really loving cooking. I had a cast
iron skillet that I LOVED to cook with. One day, my roommate at the time used
it and filled it up with water to let it soak in the sink. I am not sure if you
are an avid cast iron user or not, but this is really damaging to the skillet! Soaking
cast iron in water creates a ring of rust around the edge of the skillet that
is really difficult to resolve. However, other skillets, like non-stick
skillets, benefit from being soaked. It loosens up the stuck-on food so that it
can be cleaned more easily.
If two skillets can be so different and need such different
care, why do we assume that a one-size-fits-all federal band aid is what we
need to solve our countries issues of poverty and underemployment?
This is why I believe that when the conservative party calls
for smaller federal government, they are NOT calling for ending the aid being
given to the people in need in our country. Rather, they are intending to free local communities
to find solutions to the problems they experience in a way that is
best suited for themselves. I believe this concept is crucially important to understanding the
conservative platform!
I am not naïve. I recognize that many of the issues that I raised above are multifaceted and have many more complicated factors than I present here. The purpose of this post is not to rally support for any one
political party, candidate, or cause, but simply to promote awareness of
conservative values. I do not agree with many policies and ideals of our
current administration, but for the purposes of this post I feel that
acknowledgement is sufficient.
These are all issues that I am continuing to wrestle with, and that I intend to get more involved with. I am open to friendly dialogue about anything anyone who happens to read this may feel up to discussing! At the end of the day, I hope to move my understanding closer to truth.
