Using My Religion

I usually try to shy away from religion on She’s Right because the issues I talk about are political, not religious. There are some who mix the two, but I think that the principles of conservatism stand better on their own without a religious justification. In fact, I think it weakens them when religion is thrown into the mix.

That said, there are some on the left who think they can use Christianity to argue for liberal political views, such as government programs for the poor.

Today on Green Mountain Daily, there is a diary about the new blog God’s Politics. I have only read Odum’s GMD post, which I recommend, not the blog it refers to. I started to post a comment about it, but it got so long that I decided to post it here.

The gist of his post is that the Christian political agenda should not be about abortion and gay marriage, but about the causes of abortion, like the lack of support programs for the expectant mother, and the moral issue of fighting poverty.

I think what liberals do not seem to understand is that using the government for forced benevolence is not the only way to take care of the poor. In fact, one could argue quite well that it is the least effective and least efficient way to do so.

I oppose government programs to combat poverty, but that does not mean that I do not do my part to combat poverty. I donate money (even though I am considered “low income”) and I donate my time to help people who are in need. Our long-term financial plan includes a large amount of benevolent giving in the future when we have two incomes. And part of our homeschool objectives this year is to get involved in helping our community.

On the religious side, the liberal Christian argument never resonated with me. If God gave us free will and even He does not force us to do good, why would he want a government of man to force us to do good? It should be our choice.

It also removes the human element. Christians are supposed to let people see our good deeds, so they will praise our Father in Heaven. (Paraphrase of Matt 5:16) It doesn’t say, hide in a voting booth and let the government handle your good deeds for you.

The idea is to show others God’s love. Helping a neighbor in need because God loves them goes a lot further toward that end than voting for a liberal politician who supports government social programs.

Of course the approach that some on the “religious right” take goes a step further in the wrong direction by pushing people further away from God.

On a related note, John Stossel had a good column on Town Hall today about the federal funding of stem cell research. He says the conservatives miss the point when they use a moral, right-to-life justification for opposing federal funding.

The point is that conservatives should have the goal of limiting the government to the powers in the Constitution.

The government itself does not need to judge the moral value of issues that the public is divided on. The bottom line is that the government should not compel people to financially support things that the people might be morally opposed to. If the government left things to the private sector and stuck to the constitutionally enumerated responsibilities, this wouldn’t even be an issue.