In the dark days after the \u201904 election, I\u00a0was struck by how many liberal Democrats were asking how Christians\u00a0could possibly turn out in such large numbers to vote for a Republican\u00a0party that stands in such stark opposition to so many clearly Christian\u00a0principles like feeding and housing the poor, protecting God\u2019s\u00a0creation, and choosing peace over violence.<\/p>\n
Some\u00a0Democrats answer that question by writing off those who voted for Bush\u00a0as \u201chateful, close-minded bigots\u201d beyond hope of ever being won over to\u00a0the Democratic side. There may be some of those types out there, but I\u00a0believe most faith voters (yes, even \u201cevangelicals\u201d) are open to a
\nDemocratic message. Our issues aren\u2019t the problem. Rather, the reason\u00a0Dems have had such problems winning over swing Christian voters is that\u00a0we have failed to understand Two Great Commandments.<\/p>\n
To\u00a0put that diagnosis into context, in the gospel of Matthew, Jesus is\u00a0asked what is the greatest of the commandments. He answers by quoting\u00a0Torah and says that the first and most important commandment is to\u00a0\u201cLove the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. And the\u00a0second is like it, to love your neighbor as yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is no question that Democrats are the Party of the Second\u00a0Great Commandment. Our support for welfare, social security, universal\u00a0health care, public education, affordable housing, and the like\u00a0embodies what this commandment is all about. The reason we lose the Christian vote, however, is because we often seem to ignore the importance of the<\/strong> first<\/em> and primary great commandment: to love God. \u00a0<\/strong>Without the first, the second fails as a basis for an appeal to many moderate and conservative Christians.<\/p>\n Without question, on most issues the Democrats champion positions\u00a0much more in line with the teachings of the Bible, and in particular\u00a0the teachings of Jesus and the prophets, than do the Republicans. But\u00a0as Luther taught us, works without faith are meaningless. And we have\u00a0to realize that Dems will need to be able to at least pass a sniff test\u00a0on the first great commandment and not be seen as against God before\u00a0faith voters will give us credit for our many accomplishments on the\u00a0second.<\/p>\n So where does that leave us as a Party? Should we scrap our\u00a0traditional policy positions and begin madly searching for new public\u00a0places that the Republicans haven\u2019t thought of yet where we can stick\u00a0the Ten Commandments? As St. Paul would say, \u201cLet it not be so!\u201d\u00a0 As a Party, we will need to\u00a0make some changes to what we do and what we say.\u00a0 But there are a\u00a0number of ways for us to get credit on the \u201cFirst Great Commandment\u201d\u00a0without alienating our more secular brethren and while remaining true\u00a0to (and one might even say, returning to) the core of what it means to\u00a0be a Democrat. That is what this blog is all about, and I for\u00a0one am looking forward to the discussion over the next few months\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the dark days after the \u201904 election, I\u00a0was struck by how many liberal Democrats were asking how Christians\u00a0could possibly turn out in such large numbers to vote for a Republican\u00a0party that stands in such stark opposition to so many clearly Christian\u00a0principles like feeding and housing the poor, protecting God\u2019s\u00a0creation, and choosing peace over violence. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1176,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-c20-campaign-blog"],"yoast_head":"\n