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56 days of questions
Harper’s Conservatives, Layton’s New Democrats and Duceppe’s Blocs have toppled Martin’s Liberals, and in 56 days, we, the people of Canada will cast our vote for what will likely be another minority government. I’m ecstatic, how about you?
Like most citizens, whether American or Canadian, you probably don’t get excited about election season; leave that to the political junkies and LLC nerds. Instead of being a time of hope for this country’s future, it is a time of slander campaigns, door-to-door sales pitching, and confusion. How do I know who’s telling the truth? What do I base my vote on? Everyone everywhere will tell you who they think you should vote for, more importantly who you shouldn’t vote for and why. I am not one of those people.
I know you were all hoping I would just hand you the answer on a silver platter, but in all honesty, I will be using these next 56 days to do some soul searching of my own. But, so as not to disappoint, I can give some initial thoughts on this election. The Liberals have been in power too long. No one party should govern as long as they have. The Conservatives need to a build a platform built on what they stand for, not what they stand against and what they’d be better at than the Liberals. The NDP has thrived in the minority government situation and could do well in this next election. I’d like to see a Green Party MP on the Hill just to be given more options, and the Bloc has Quebec, so what more do they need?
Now that I’ve shared my opinion let’s instead talk about how you choose your political party. In the past, Christians have been single-issue driven. They pick one issue, which is ultimately a moral one, and kick and scream so loudly in defense of the issue that people everywhere start associating Christianity with extreme, intolerant radicals. We’ve become known for our passion for single issues and our disinterest in everything that doesn’t offend our morality. Is it possible for us to care about more than just abortion and same-sex marriage? What about taxation, education, international trade, health care and welfare? We cannot afford to let our commitment to life and heterosexual relationships override every other important issue that we face.
When you vote, don’t do so on the basis of one issue. Instead, look at a diversity of issues and learn to ask the right questions. Rather then simply choosing a political party, let the party choose you by supplying you with the answers you seek. Besides, the idea that you can find and support the perfect political party is simply unrealistic. Jesus was perfect; Paul Martin, Steven Harper and the parties they represent are not.
It is natural that everyone will be asking different questions and have concerns about particular issues, but we would be negligent as Christians if we did not search for some of these questions from the Bible. Let us consider for a moment the prominent themes in the Bible. This may shock you, but homosexuality is not one of them. There are perhaps only five verses that speak directly to homosexuality and only a few more that can be used in the argument. What you find instead are thousands upon thousands of verses about the poor and God’s response to injustice. Without a doubt, it is poverty and not homosexuality that is one of the most prominent themes in the Old Testament, second only to idolatry. In fact, one of every sixteen verses in the New Testament is about the poor. If one of the most important questions in the Bible is how we as humans think about poverty and deal with the poor, then we must ask ourselves which political party bests supports those ideals. You do the research and get back to me. I’ll meet you on the web at http://marshillonline.twu.ca.
![[Don’t] keep the faith](http://www.marshillonline.com/wp-content/uploads/et_temp/Christopher_Hitchens-500x332-21535_38x38.jpg){kind=small}
It seems obvious that you are propping up the NDP as the party which would provide the political medium for the most effective expression of the Christian mission.
Which is complete and utter garbage.
1) Government is the least efficient corporate entity on Earth, especially ours. Why would we imagine that we can get -more- accomplished by expanding our horribly inefficient bureaucracy?
2) They would create an atmosphere where ‘social justice’ includes a great deal more than that which Christians were called to provide. This would likely cause future problems as well.
3) They care not the slightest bit for the future or, dare I say, a sustainable -or even endurable- level of government.
4) They’re relativists. Many of their fundamental precepts are based on the post-Christian ‘relative morality.’ Worse, they reconcile the restraint of socialism on society and economics, yet cannot allow for the same in the personal realm. This leads to view of humans whch is unendurable: Anarchy in the personal realm and major clamp-down in the corporate/economic realm… if personal restraint was part of their agenda, things might be different, but that would defeat both their ‘relativist morality’ and the ‘working philosophy’ of programs such as the horribly-abused ‘employment insurance,’ among many others.
5a) They would be perfectly happy to keep our government in its “Pretend Democracy” state. Yay ultra-liberal appointed senate! Yay patronage appointments! Yay Machiavellian pseudo-reforms!
5b) Therefore, since any Government they would form would have no pretense of being Divinely Inspired, it gives no glory to God that an institution “By the People, for the People,” should pretend to be both and in action be neither.
So however offended you are at 1-issue Christians supporting the Conservatives, remember: however incidentally, they’re still right.
You have a lot of comments for some one who believes that government “is the least efficient corporate entity on Earth.” Why bother responding to a political article if you don’t believe in the process??
Yes single issue Christians are right but at the expense of the poor and our systems of welfare and education. We as Christians can be more than advocates of the heterosexual marriage, we can be more than pro-life supporters, we can and dare I say must be involved in all the debates that this country is involved in.
To clarify I am not arguing that the NDP is the ideal Christian Party but rather that social issues, such as poverty need to be acknowledged when Christians vote. You have pointed out what you think are some of the flaws of the NDP party but at least they’re doing something about these issues. If the NDP isn’t the answer, than how are the Conservatives responding to this issue? And if they’re not, shouldn’t that challenge us as Christians to push for more action?
Remember there is no such thing as a perfect political party, I don’t believe that Conservative tax cuts are the answers to the problems of Canadians. Does that mean that I can’t vote for them because I don’t believe in one policy? We have to take the good with the bad when we vote in a political party and at the end of the day I will choose to vote for the party that can do the most good.
First, I would like to apologise to you, Matt. At my most generous, I’d call my comments crass, idiotic, and unendurably arrogant. I was upset at something else entirely at the time, but there really are no excuses. Your kind response puts me to shame.
Second, I’d like to say to ‘CP’ that I believe very strongly in the political process. To clarify: Government bureaucracy is the least efficient artefact of mankind. Add to that the fact that our current government is looking more and more like a kleptocracy, and you’ll agree with me that dishing out more to ‘bloat the pig’ seems like a bad idea.
It therefore seems like “governmental reform” is a rather splendid idea, much in need these fifty years at least. So therefore the primary reason I believe in the Conservatives so strongly is that they are the only party with the potential and willingness to achieve this end. If you’re remotely interested, I’d ask you to read “Think Big” by Preston Manning to see why I believe both this and democratic populism so strongly.
However, I willingly acknowledge that the Conservatism as a whole is heartily imperfect, prone to hardness and materialism, even in the name of increasing self-reliance and enterprise. It’s also fair to acknowledge that none of the parties will halt the murder of a third of our next generation, or even to have much sway in mitigating the other effects of moral decay. So although I feel the social conscience of the NDP to be somewhat defective, I’ll certainly give them a second chance -it is far better to have a faulty heart than an absent one.