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Labels cause divisions and is the enemy's stratagem. The collective grouping of concepts into a label. For instance the conservative Christian fundamentalist is a "Bible-believing/living" person, but somehow the News associates it with guns so they add this in as well to the collective label. Maybe they'll add "terrorists" in the future. No individuality allowed. one must align their beliefs with the collective political herd mentality group. It's Satan's work, and has worked very well in destroying the Church. Because I'm a Christian I have to like "Glen Beck" for instance because he talks about the Bible on Fox News and claims to be God fearing. If you're against Glen your against God baloney ... Rubbish.
I am a Christian who has voted Republican in the past. I was not always a follower of Jesus Christ, but have been for a while. I vote Republican becasue they represent more of the things that matter to me, although I support some of the things on the Democratic side like protecting the environment.
I am disabled, as I have a condition which severely limits my vision and causes seere pain. I collect Social Security Disability and work the limited hours my doctor allows.
Republicans are determined to cut or modify the programs, although you hear mostly about retirement benefits. I have nothing against modifying things, but I just don't think you can just abruptly cut something like that.
I guess my question is this: Is it anti-Christian to collect my disability benefits?
Politics has everything to do with controlling others and nothing to do with God. God is ONLY interested in what we VOLUNTARILY do, period. There is no way to please God by forcing human behavior through laws or social sanctions. Those are strictly for the maintenance of order over chaos in our societies . . . NOT pleasing God. There is no place for God in politics or our laws . . . politics and laws are for control and maintenance of an orderly society . . . NOT for forcing people to do what God wants us to voluntarily do.
Politics has everything to do with controlling others and nothing to do with God.
Bingo That is why our Founding Fathers advocated for a limited government. They knew power is abused when government gets big...and it is, by both parties.
I kind of despise both parties but usually end up voting Republican for fiscal reasons. Even thre, they are only somewhat better than Democrats. So Republicans for me are the lesser evil...but unfortunately, still evil.
Here's my summary of the hot button issues:
Abortion: I don't know if it's always killing a human being, but I think it definitely is some of the time. However, I hate both parties on this issue. I think abortion should be safe, legal, and RARE. The pro-choice folks don't really care that abortion is so common. The pro-life folks think outlawing abortion will make it rare, although it won't necessarily. I would favor an "abstinence plus" type sex ed curriculum in schools. I think it would go over not only birth control, but the reality that birth control will probably fail at some point in a person's reproductive lifetime. It would also go over the emotional consequences of sex...which I think are generally not well understood and are ignored. The problem is...you can't really trust the public schools to do a good job with anything, let alone sex education.
Spending: Republicans are the lesser evil. But they still support bloated government. (EG, Bush's prescription drug plan for Mediare when we know we can't handle the escalation in Medicare costs as it is).
Taxes: Mostly I like them low. The bottom 45% pays no Federal Income tax. I used to think the poor/middle class shouldn't have to pay most of the taxes...but that gives them every incentive to vote for more and more programs that they benefit from but don't pay for. A formula for disaster. The rich pay most of the taxes in this country. I am definitely not rich but I don't think soaking rich people for more is the solution.
I will say that if I thought our tax money was well spent, I might be more of an advocate for the high tax/high spending welfare state. I think the Scandinavian countries do a great job with their welfare states. They manage to have high taxes, great social benefits, and run budget surpluses or only small deficits. If the US government was a lot less corrupt, I could support more of a welfare state. But the reality is the US government is very corrupt and much more diverse than a country like Sweden. So even if we were a low corruption country, carrying out a Sweden style welfare state would be much more difficult to execute because of our sheer size and diversity.
Medical Care: I don't like either party on this. The US wastes more money on health care than any other country in the world. We spend the most but are far from the healthiest country. We're the most obese country in the world, yet we think we can fix what ails us with more pills and surgeries (and more money for more pills and surgeries). When will the insanity end? REAL health care reform involves food reform. See: www.forksoverknives.com for more.
The ideal medical system would be what we had before World War 2...That means you paid the doctor directly. No insurance companies. No employer sponsored plans. No government guarantees. No 3rd party middlemen of any kind. All these programs/middlemen have done is add layers of cost and made the market for medical care completely blind to costs. Both consumers and providers of medical care don't care about the costs because "the government" or "the insurance company" will pay for it. Then everyone acts shocked when their premiums go up 10% every year.
Poverty: The government does a horrible job as a charity. Real charity attaches strings to the money/aid given out. Most poor people in America are poor because they make terrible choices in life. The main one being they have kids out of wedlock. Giving people money to continue to make more poor choices is classic enabling behavior.
Gay Rights: I'm gay, so you might be able to guess where I stand on this one. In my ideal world, the state wouldn't be involved in anyone's marriage. The reality is the state and Federal governments have their hands in marriage and that isn't going to go away unless the government collapses. Therefore, I'm in favor of same sex marriage...although I do think there should be some exceptions made for adoptions, etc. EG. Adoption agencies should not be forced to adopt to gay couples if they object on religious grounds.
Guns: I don't own a gun and don't get the whole gun culture. But I think people should be able to have them if they want. The real agenda for gun control is they want to take away peoples' right to bear arms so that they'll have less trouble/resistance when (yes, I believe it's a "when" not an "if") martial law is declared.
Wars: I don't know what the heck to think about these wars. We're definitely not being told the whole story by the right or the left. It's interesting to note how much hasn't changed in this regard since Obama was elected.
In general, I think politics is used to manipulate people emotionally, so they can be divided and ruled by an elite. Fear is the weapon that is used to divide us. Liberals and conservatives have different fears, and liberal and conservative politicians pander to those fears. Each side seems to notice the fears of "the other guy" without noticing their own. All the while our freedoms are taken away from both conservatives and liberals, but we don't notice because we're too busy fighting and bickering with each other.
Bingo That is why our Founding Fathers advocated for a limited government. They knew power is abused when government gets big...and it is, by both parties.
I kind of despise both parties but usually end up voting Republican for fiscal reasons. Even thre, they are only somewhat better than Democrats. So Republicans for me are the lesser evil...but unfortunately, still evil.
Here's my summary of the hot button issues:
Abortion: I don't know if it's always killing a human being, but I think it definitely is some of the time. However, I hate both parties on this issue. I think abortion should be safe, legal, and RARE. The pro-choice folks don't really care that abortion is so common. The pro-life folks think outlawing abortion will make it rare, although it won't necessarily. I would favor an "abstinence plus" type sex ed curriculum in schools. I think it would go over not only birth control, but the reality that birth control will probably fail at some point in a person's reproductive lifetime. It would also go over the emotional consequences of sex...which I think are generally not well understood and are ignored. The problem is...you can't really trust the public schools to do a good job with anything, let alone sex education.
Spending: Republicans are the lesser evil. But they still support bloated government. (EG, Bush's prescription drug plan for Mediare when we know we can't handle the escalation in Medicare costs as it is).
Taxes: Mostly I like them low. The bottom 45% pays no Federal Income tax. I used to think the poor/middle class shouldn't have to pay most of the taxes...but that gives them every incentive to vote for more and more programs that they benefit from but don't pay for. A formula for disaster. The rich pay most of the taxes in this country. I am definitely not rich but I don't think soaking rich people for more is the solution.
I will say that if I thought our tax money was well spent, I might be more of an advocate for the high tax/high spending welfare state. I think the Scandinavian countries do a great job with their welfare states. They manage to have high taxes, great social benefits, and run budget surpluses or only small deficits. If the US government was a lot less corrupt, I could support more of a welfare state. But the reality is the US government is very corrupt and much more diverse than a country like Sweden. So even if we were a low corruption country, carrying out a Sweden style welfare state would be much more difficult to execute because of our sheer size and diversity.
Medical Care: I don't like either party on this. The US wastes more money on health care than any other country in the world. We spend the most but are far from the healthiest country. We're the most obese country in the world, yet we think we can fix what ails us with more pills and surgeries (and more money for more pills and surgeries). When will the insanity end? REAL health care reform involves food reform. See: www.forksoverknives.com for more.
The ideal medical system would be what we had before World War 2...That means you paid the doctor directly. No insurance companies. No employer sponsored plans. No government guarantees. No 3rd party middlemen of any kind. All these programs/middlemen have done is add layers of cost and made the market for medical care completely blind to costs. Both consumers and providers of medical care don't care about the costs because "the government" or "the insurance company" will pay for it. Then everyone acts shocked when their premiums go up 10% every year.
Poverty: The government does a horrible job as a charity. Real charity attaches strings to the money/aid given out. Most poor people in America are poor because they make terrible choices in life. The main one being they have kids out of wedlock. Giving people money to continue to make more poor choices is classic enabling behavior.
Gay Rights: I'm gay, so you might be able to guess where I stand on this one. In my ideal world, the state wouldn't be involved in anyone's marriage. The reality is the state and Federal governments have their hands in marriage and that isn't going to go away unless the government collapses. Therefore, I'm in favor of same sex marriage...although I do think there should be some exceptions made for adoptions, etc. EG. Adoption agencies should not be forced to adopt to gay couples if they object on religious grounds.
Guns: I don't own a gun and don't get the whole gun culture. But I think people should be able to have them if they want. The real agenda for gun control is they want to take away peoples' right to bear arms so that they'll have less trouble/resistance when (yes, I believe it's a "when" not an "if") martial law is declared.
Wars: I don't know what the heck to think about these wars. We're definitely not being told the whole story by the right or the left. It's interesting to note how much hasn't changed in this regard since Obama was elected.
In general, I think politics is used to manipulate people emotionally, so they can be divided and ruled by an elite. Fear is the weapon that is used to divide us. Liberals and conservatives have different fears, and liberal and conservative politicians pander to those fears. Each side seems to notice the fears of "the other guy" without noticing their own. All the while our freedoms are taken away from both conservatives and liberals, but we don't notice because we're too busy fighting and bickering with each other.
Voting GOP (or Dem) is just giving them approval, they have no idea the areas you disagree with them on. The best way to send them both a message is to vote Libertarian.
Most christians vote Republican because of the abortion issue. Some that I know would otherwise vote Democrat, but they vote Republican because of that one issue (which is where the lesser of two evils comes in) I understand that, except that the Republicans don't actually care about family values, and they just use it to get our votes every four years. If they didn't whip us up into a frenzy of fear and anger every election they'd get fewer votes. And we make up a critical block of Republican votes.
Thankfully I woke up to this two years ago and haven't voted Republican on a national level since. My pastor (a VERY conservative guy) confessed that he couldn't vote either candidate this year because of his christian beliefs about how we should treat the poor and unborn. He also realizes that it's to the GOP's advantage to keep abortion legal, because then we'd keep voting for them. Whereas if they actually succeeded in getting rid of it, many would go back to being Democrats or third party.
As a matter of principle, I can't vote for Democrats because of abortion, but I can't vote for Republicans for other, equally abhorrent reasons. Voting for one party or another doesn't make us better christians really.
I think most Christians are starting to realize this too. A good friend of mine also went down this same path after the 2008 election.
MSNBC is not the same as Fox News. MSNBC is liberal commentary, and it presents itself as liberal commentary. It's not news and it doesn't pretend to be. Fox "News" is right-wing propaganda masquerading as a "fair and balanced" "news" source. That's why it's so dangerous.
agree agree agree
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That is why our Founding Fathers advocated for a limited government. They knew power is abused when government gets big...and it is, by both parties. 