I recently posted on a blog and noticed that I was completely misunderstood. I do have to admittedly state that I am mostly responsible for that. For the sake of trying to repeat myself and getting myself misunderstood again, I'll simply post what I wrote:
"I once flipped the question, “What would Jesus do?” on it’s head by asking, “What did Jesus do?” and interestingly enough Jesus turned out to be liberal. He gave plenty to the poor (welfare), was against fighting the Romans (anti-war), forgave prostitutes, and didn’t want to kill anyone (not pro-death penalty). As much as I would like to continue believing that Jesus is a democrat and argue for that, I have found more times than not that whenever religion gets its hands on something other than religion it turns nasty. When Christianity has its hands on Science we get heated and angered on both sides. When Christianity had its hands on politics, people died (crusades and inquisitions). Politics is a moral dilemma and so I can see why religion and faith would get involved in this realm, versus science where religion isn’t obviously related. But politics and faith are different in the matter of what is best for our country and what is best when it comes to ourselves and in treating others. Government is about governing and regulating and maintaining laws for its citizens. I feel as though religion should be viewed as governing our own actions and how we treat others rather than controlling or manipulating how others should believe. Maybe it is true that we really can’t control what we believe, but for the most part we can control where we live."
The only thing that I would change about this entry would be that instead of "not pro-death penalty", write anti-death penalty. It just has a better ring to it. I didn't want to put another reply on that blog because I wanted the author of the blog to have a book-end to it, and that I sincerely believe that it would have spun the whole argument out of control again.
In the entry above, I never state that Jesus was or is a liberal. I state simply that Jesus was liberal. This could mean that he was liberal minded, acted in liberal ways, had liberal tendencies, but it does not mean that he was a liberal or a democrat. I also state that as much as I would like to argue Jesus as a democrat, I don't. I've gotten over that phase in my life. Repliers on that blog did not understand that I was trying to differentiate between individual responsibilities and governmental responsibilities. I would even go out on a limb and suggest that I push that beyond the envelope. My focus and my point was to seperate religion and politics more so. Religion is about individual responsibilities, because when it goes big business (or just beyond the realms of religion and faith) everything goes screwy, and fast.
What the whole response to the blog happened to turn into was a talk about abortion and homosexuality. I instinctively choose not to write about such hot topics because I knew it would get all blown out of proportion and was I right. Please, this is what I truly would like to happen and maybe a test for those who can't get past their strong opinions on abortion. Put your personal beliefs and faith at the door. This may sound like the separation of faith and science, but this isn't what I'm trying to get at. I'm trying to separate politics and faith, because honestly they shouldn't get confused. Your personal beliefs, faith, and salvation do not interlink with government and regulations. Government is to govern people, not believers, that's what the church is for. If you want to do your whole election and bickering over candidates, do it within your own churches, not out on the public scene, please. When politics come along, forget religion and focus on what positions you are on and why you are on them, let alone what God is personally telling you to conservatively believe. When the election rolls around, vote based on your citizenship, not your Christianity. I truly believe that is what the founders of this country were absolutely and adamantly against when they decided to separate church and state. They noticed the crusades for what they were, and they saw what happens when church is in power. Let's just say that when the church and power mix, they don't make for a good track record.
