Christians and Political Partisanship

There are several issues that have a lot in common with each other. The Global Slave Trade, the heavy debts of African, Latin American, and South East Asian nations, Immigration, the Iraq War, and the 2008 presidential elections. The one thing that each of these issues have in common is the value we place on the quality of life for every single person.

When I say "we" I refer to Christians (those who truly are followers of Christ, and those who associate themselves with the label, or pretend, and therefore deceive others, leading them astray). If you follow logical thinking and believe Jesus Christ was a loving, peace seeking man you will be convinced of the truth of his teachings. But only until you understand the significance of what he did as the divine Son of God - sacrificing himself as a blameless atonement for the sins of the world will you see through the rhetoric of partisanship, Democratic and Republican politics.

I am always amazed by Christians who praise God for saving them from hell and judgement on Sunday and on Monday seek blood in Iraq. Now, I do not mean to say we should pull out or stay in, or whatever. But when a man says that the Iraq War is an unjust war, that Christians are supposed to be peace seekers and only willing to commit to the Augustinian guidelines for a just war after all other options to prevent war have been exhausted... when Christians scoff and boo and the idea of such an "unpatriotic" idea I seriously question their commitment to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I question how they can honestly call themselves evangelical, or even fundamental Christians (when you look up the definition of those words you strip off the connotations which have been attached to them).

When true Christians truly concern themsleves with being Salt and Light in this world and seek the righteousness of justice for all people they will immediately cast off what it means to be a Democrat or a Republican, finding that neither party comes close to the truth, and neither can be seen as the savior of the Christian voting block.

Would Christ not condemn a President or Congress for their strong arm tactics which keep billions of people impoverished around the world because of a fiscal foreign policy which emboldens the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to force Third World governments to accept unfair economic policies? I have heard people say that Africans do not know how to govern themselves, and jungle wars will be the future of this continent. Latin Americans are always loyal to radical communist dictators and military generals - they refuse to choose democracy and capitalism, in fact some are hotile to free enterprise and human rights. The only answer is to help these people by trying to govern them as much as possible from Washington.

Terrorists have emerged over the last 30 years and are now bent on destroying the United States, the most noble, peace loving, human rights oriented nation on earth. They hate us because we are free! I ask you, in all of history what nation has ever been attacked ONLY because they lived as free people? I can think of none. Do not deceive yourself into thinking the United States is an innocent nation, nor that Congress and the President are above corruption.

I don't mean to say all this to slander my country. I love this country. I love our Constitution and honest hard working and good hearted people I know in this country. However, I don't allow myself to think the good deeds and hard work of myself and my community are replicated in the Federal Government. I mean sure, a few good people are in government, but if they were all good people we wouldn't have scandal after scandal.

What I want my fellow Christians to realize is that if they are serious about their faith in Jesus Christ and his redemption, peace, and restorative work on this planet we have got to overcome the falsehoods, deceptions, brainwashing, and lies we have allowed oursleves to beleive and act upon.

Why do millions of people migrate and immigrate to and from countries every year? Basically its because they can't live a quality life in their home country. All people want the same basics of a quality life: employment, food, rest, medical care, education and a future for their children. People will sell their possessions and even themselves for even a glimmer of hope for social mobility. Unfortunately 27 million people have been trapped in slavery in our modern world. Extreem poverty has caused parents to sell their children, young single mothers to trust strangers to take them hundreds of miles in hopes of a job, only to be fooled and sold into slavery. Whole families have sold their life's possessions at a chance of stowing away in shipping containers and trucks comeing into the Unites States, hoping for a better life here in our country. Thousands have died when their "guides" abandoned them in port or a trucking depot when the authorities got too hot on the trail. Nearly 250,000 people are currently enslved int he U.S. because their "guides" turned out to be slave drivers, telling them they must work to pay off the cost of getting them into the country.

I'm not asking you to change your opinion about what is right when it comes to debts that are owed to the U.S. by the governments of other countries, or that illegal immigration should not be considered illegal. I am asking you to expand your mind to see why people want to come here, and how those nations incurred those debts in the first place. Did the United States strong arm its way into the internal politics of nations during the Cold War? Did we not overthrow the democratic government of Iran and install the Shah? How many military dictators has the U.S. supported in Latin America? Why did the U.S. support aparthied in South Africa? Billions of dollars went to these nations and to the dictators we put in power, when these nations defaulted on theor loans and failed to pay us back they accumulated monstrous fees and interest rates, plunging them further into debt, and subject to our will so long as we continued to offer minimal debt relief as long as they did our bidding. And we listen to religious leaders who call for the assasination of world leaders who try and throw the United States out of their country, or heaven forbid try and get American companies to pay taxes for being in their country. Leaders are threatened with economic sanctions when they dare to presume to treat the U.S. as an equal in trade negotiations and treaties.

If Christians in the U.S. were truely interested in the quality of life for all people, we would make sure our government, our financial institutions like the World Bank and IMF all dealt fairly with other nations. Trade agreements that force nations to do what we want and/or make it easy or manditory that American jobs be sent over seas are neither fair, free, nor trade.

I encourage you to learn more about these issues, and write actual snail mail letters to your Congressmen.

Find your Representative by entering your zip code in the top left corner, click here.

Find your Senator in the top right corner, click here.

How to write a letter to your Congressman, click here.

Learn more about debt cancellation for the Thrid World.

Learn more about modern day slavery.