Empathy Mining
I’m sick and tired of being guilted by conservative Christians for having empathy and compassion. I’m just over it. Every day, I’m confronted with political memes from right wing Christians implying that if I vote for a Democrat, I’m on the fast train to hell. Every damn day.
This particular meme has been popping up a lot on my social media feed lately…
It addresses the usual topics that right wing Christians hide behind as an excuse to show that they really have no choice in voting for Republicans and, make no mistake, these memes are aimed right at progressive Christians as an attempt to shame us into changing our ways. The whole thing is sickening to me.
I decided I’d just use this meme as my outline, and I’ll take it on point-by-point and explain in detail how it only serves to reinforce my own views on voting.
“I will vote for the most pro-life candidate, because God hates the shedding of innocent blood”
Ah, the tried and true argument of the single-issue voter. The same people who steadfastly refuse to bend on common sense gun control measures because “criminals won’t obey those laws anyway” seem to think that making abortion illegal will stop abortions. Please! Actually, most Republican politicians are scared to death to outlaw abortion because doing so would remove the one issue that guarantees them the right wing Christian vote year after year no matter what else they stand for.
Hear this and hear it well, right wing Christian, it is very possible to be anti-abortion and pro-choice. If you think abortion is a sin, that’s fine. I have a lot of friends who are far more to the left than me and I don’t know anyone of them who likes abortion. It’s just that we understand that a woman’s intensely personal right to choose what happens to her body is not our business. I’ve never voted for a candidate because they are pro-choice. It’s just a non-issue for me as a voter because it deals with individual rights that have already been settled. I understand the Constitution and I understand that it wasn’t written for Christians, it was written for everyone.
“I will vote for the most pro-debt reduction candidate because the borrower is servant to the lender”
This one is a head scratcher for me. The only thing I can think of that would make a right wing Christian vote for a Republican based upon this criterion is total ignorance of recent history. It is an easily verifiable fact that for at least the past six decades, the most faithful stewards of the national purse strings have been the administrations of Democrat presidents while the national debt explodes under Republican presidents. This has never been more true than the record debt amassed under our current POTUS. You totally lost me on this one, right wing Christians.
“I will vote for the most pro-work candidate because God says if a man won’t work let him not eat”
First of all, Paul said that, not God. I’m much more interested in what Jesus would say about feeding the hungry and looking after the poor.
“Come all you who are blessed by my Father, take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed m, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me. Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you? The king will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”
“I will vote for the most pro-marriage candidate because God says marriage is between a man and a woman.”
Right wing Christian, it’s your right to believe what you want about what is a sin and what is not. But it isn’t your right to single out one thing you think is sin and use it to discriminate against others. I say again, the Constitution of the United States wasn’t written for Christians it was written for everyone. If you don’t like gay marriage, don’t marry someone of the same sex. It’s an easy decision. Specifically and intentionally voting for a candidate because they favor discriminating against millions of American citizens based upon the interpretation of a very questionable scripture, to my way of thinking, could be reasonably assumed to be sinful in itself. Taking ancient Old Testament scripture and stripping it of historical context to further a discriminatory political agenda certainly doesn’t feel very Christ-like to me.
“I will vote for the candidate who most closely believes government’s purpose is to reward good and punish evil”
The purpose of our Government is laid out in our Constitution’s preamble:
We the people, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty.
It says nothing about rewarding good and punishing evil. It does say establish justice, so there is an element of law and order there, for sure, but look at the rest of it…
Insure domestic tranquility—I’m pretty sure discriminating against the rights of people who don’t line up with your beliefs isn’t going to accomplish that at all.
Promote the general welfare—general welfare means everyone’s common good, but when Democrats address this vitally important part of our Constitution, right wing Christians scream socialism.
Secure the blessings of liberty—me thinks some of you right wing Christians are all about liberty as long as it is YOUR liberty. When it comes to people who see things differently, you aren’t in favor of liberty at all.
“I will vote based as close as I can on God’s Word”
I submit that far too many of you vote on your interpretation of certain parts of God’s Word that line up with your political agenda and that often means looking for fine points of old law that Jesus came to replace.
I reckon that’s all I have to say about that.
God bless America.
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