AlterNet: Why Are So Many Christians Conservative?

[marmar]

AlterNet / By Mike Lux

Why Are So Many Christians Conservative?
How can people who claim to be followers of Jesus be political conservatives?

May 19, 2010 |


When you are in the political world, you have decisions to make every single day about who you will try to help and who you won't. In spite of the earnest quest of good technocrats everywhere, the simple fact is that there are only a few win-win solutions. Who you tax, who you give a tax break to, what programs you cut or add to, who you tighten regulations on, and who you loosen them on, what kind of contractors are eligible for government work, which school districts and non-profit groups get federal money, etc: these political decisions are generally not win-win. Instead, they mean that one group of people win, and one group of people loses. It is the nature of politics, and you can't take the politics out of politics.

The most fundamental difference between progressives and conservatives is that question of which side you are on. Conservatives believe that the rich and powerful got that way because they deserve to be, that society owes its prosperity to the prosperous, and that government's job when they have to make choices is to side with those businesspeople who are doing well, because all good things trickle down from them. Progressives, on the other hand, believe it is the poor and those who are ill-treated who need the most help from their government, and that prosperity comes from all of us -- the worker as well as the employer, the consumer as well as the seller, the struggling entrepreneur trying to make it as well as the wealthy who already have.

Usually, I might spend my time arguing which of those worldviews gives us better policy outcomes, or which is better politics, but in this post I want to focus on something else: which side the God of the Judeo-Christian Biblical tradition is on.

Between Glenn Beck's conspiracy theories about Christian social justice (Since Communists and Nazis both used the words "social" and "justice," sometimes even together, the phrase must be bad along with other words they used a lot like the, and, one, thank you, please, today, tonight, and tomorrow), Sarah Palin's "spiritual warfare," and my very fun e-mail debates with a much-beloved but sadly misguided conservative Christian relative, I have been thinking a lot about Christians and political ideology of late. As those of you who read me a lot know, I was raised in a church-oriented home, and I write about religion a fair amount. This isn't because I am conventionally religious: I decided about four decades ago that since there was no way for sure about the nature of God or the soul or all that metaphysical stuff, I wasn't going to spend much time thinking, caring, or worrying about it. If that sends one to hell, at least I'll be there with a lot of my favorite people. But I still have the social and moral teaching I learned from my upbringing embedded in me as a core part of my value system, and I still know my Bible pretty well. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/belief/146855/why_are_so_many_christians_conservative/

[secondwind]

1. "Abortion" is the glue that binds them all together.....IMHO

[Lerkfish]

2. Jesus was the ultimate liberal

conservative christians are Paulists. They concentrate on the letters of Paul and ignore the teachings of christ. But Paul's letters were chronistically tied to that era.

[paparush]

9. DING! . . F_CKING DING!!!

[meow2u3]

10. Conservative Christians are not so much Paulists

as they are Calvinists!

[RC]

3. Conservatives are less likely to question what the are told.

No matter how illogical.

[Scuba]

4. I don't believe that they are nearly as conservative as the media...

...likes to make them out to be.

Construct a poll presenting moral and ethical choices regarding how government and business are conducted in the country and I suspect Christians would be much farther left than the MSM portrays them to be.

Add the loud voices of abortion issue activists and it appears Christians are conservative.

But one fundamental of Christianity is (supposed to be) how you care for those less fortunate than yourself. Using this yardstick, the conservatives get a failing grade.

[OnionPatch]

5. This has always struck me as so bizarre

That so-called party of Christians are the stingiest, most hateful, intolerant, warmongering group among us. It just blows my mind. Did they not read the things Jesus taught? I did and the main thing he taught was to help the poor and sick. He didn't care if they were prostitutes, beggars and thieves. (ie., if they were "worthy" of his help.) He said "Turn the other cheek", "Love thy enemy", "If someone steals your coat, give them your cloak as well" (can you imagine a conservative doing that....lol). I just can't imagine how conservatives can possibly square this with their militant, everyone-for-himself attitude. They've gone seriously wrong if they think Jesus was some sort of "warrior". I used to at least respect Christians. Not so much anymore. I try to think of myself as a "follower of Christ" now instead of "Christian" because I don't want to be associated with them.

[Stargazer09]

6. Excellent article

I'm not a biblical scholar by any stretch of the imagination, but not too long ago, I asked my facebook friends why so many Christians were against health care reform. Basically, I pointed out that I thought Jesus preached that we were supposed to help the sick without requiring a copayment.

One of my few conservative friends did point out the quotation that the "poor will always be among us." She seemed to think that we will never eliminate poverty, so she didn't see any point in sacrificing her own hard earned money to try to help.

There's a reason I don't attend church services.

[Festivito]

7. At least someone is asking. Christendom is an untapped resource.

Liberals/Progressives are too quiet. Why speak up. Truth is common knowledge!

Not so.

On the other hand, the rich and their CIA infrastructure have lots of seed money to invest. Beats giving that lobbyist money out.

People can be swayed by being invited to the right parties. Swayed to talk up the talking points. Pretty soon it's all the minister hears, and he knows where his salary, his success arises.

After a few decades, it's a way of life.

[fatbuckel]

8. Because dumb people don`t like to be confused with changes

No matter what they may copy and paste.