This post was written in response to Terry Hull’s post, “They Will Know We Are Christians by Our…Politics?” (01/21/06).
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Terry, as a committed and avowed independent, registered neither as a Republican or a Democrat, it has always amused me to watch Christians attempt to mingle politics with faith. Most Christians would probably be independents unless they were seeking involvement in a party for personal or platform reasons. Our Arab/Islamic counterparts and our Jewish counterparts have grown up with integrated politics as a societal norm and probably we could learn a thing or two from them.
Most Christians are being dragged to the ballot box by one moral issue or another, but have not developed a consistent political theory by which to vote or live. Thus, Christians as a group, are not able to avoid waivering and fluctuating both as to numbers and as to issue commitment. If that were not the case, the Christian majority would have asserted itself long ago and the resulting hegemony would have lasted for many years. But, no point in history seems to have such a consistent block of voters influencing policy for longer than a tiny span of years.
The abortion issue, as a case in point, will show fatigue, if it has not already, for Christians because Republicans seem unwilling or unable to regulate, license, tax, credential, or require net capital from abortionists or their entities, even though the Courts have been quite clear that they will not interfer with legitimate uses of police powers. The reason, of course, is that the Republicans might lose their anti-abortion voting block if the scourge of abortion was merely suppressed, even if abolition was denied them.
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UPDATE (01/19/06): In response to the above post, Terry Hull has written: “Coming Out of the Church House to Join the Conversation.â€
