I am: White, Male, Mid 40’s, Christian, fiscally conservative. I believe in a smaller government and that religious freedom is important and that you cannot have a thriving government rule without operating from a set of values that is based on an absolute truth. I believe that capitalism in conjunction with democracy holds the potential for the most effect use of time, talent and resources for the betterment of all. I am pro-life.
I should be a Republican. But there is nothing attractive for me there. All I see is a group of people who are so focused on their own rights and protection that they have ensured that evil will not only thrive, but that they will help them ascend. Claims of freedom and liberty and prosperity are sincere, but not for all people, just the ones that can make it to the top.
Democrats are a hot mess. But the bend towards service and the rights of the powerless is attractive to me. In the end, I won’t be either a conservative or a liberal. I will be both. It is my firm conservative convictions that create a tender heart and a security to give up myself for others. It is my assured acceptance by Christ that allows me to release my own desires for security.
My Savior, Jesus Christ, is all powerful, yet gave up everything. And both through the written word and the conviction of my own heart and experience he has repeatedly declared that: you are not your own, you are built to serve, you have no rights if you are to be obedient to me. Feed my sheep he says. Who are Christ’s sheep? The powerless, the poor, the wounded, the orphan and the widow. He never asks us to attack or defend, instead he calls us to serve the people and proclaim his name. Many fight tooth and nail for the right to serve Christ: pro-life, religious liberty, etc. yet they never actually do it. They demand the space for something to be built, but they never build it, they simply focus on the space.
I will err, that is the only thing I am certain of, but I will err on the side of the sloppy mess that is compassion and love versus the protectionism, isolation and power loving legalism. There is much to loathe in all directions, so I must surrender each interaction and decision and believe to Christ and let him determine my course.
As the sign in your Grandma’s Kitchen reads: God Bless this Mess (Our great country and our own hearts)
