Well, i've not been very active on this blog, but it's not like i haven't been doing anything.  I felt vindicated by the election results, to say the least, but that afterglow was brief indeed.

For the past several days, i've been caught up in a largely futile debate with a group of people calling themselves Christian Democrats.  That was one i left out of my Oxymoron posting! :)

I stumbled across these folks by doing a Google search on Christian Democrats, thinking that i would hit on some historical links to European political parties of the same name in the hope of seeing a cogent political philosophy that combines evangelical Christianity with principles of democracy.  While there are a few obscure entries in Wikipedia (i particularly liked the history of Christianity in the politics of New Zealand), most of the hits i came up with were various pre- and post-election laments about the co-opting of religion by the Republican Party and what a sham it all is.

Then I stumbled across this blog named Call And Response, posted by some hip chick who smokes clove cigarettes and is caught up in the Unitarian Universalist movement.  These guys can't even get accepted by the National Council of Churches, so that tells you how far out they are.  Despite all that, i found myself reading one of her posts 'On Being A Christian Democrat' and the replies of dozens of different people from all over the place embracing the outrageous concept that the Democrat Party is where one finds the philosophy most compatible with Christianity.  You heard me right.  There are actually people who call themselves Christians who believe that the Party of abortion, gay marriage and the ACLU is a better fit with their faith in Jesus Christ.

Of course, i just couldn't let that go, so i embarked on a crusade to bring them to their senses.  I am sorry to report that my mission was not much of a success.

What got lost in that debate, however, was what brought me to be doing a Google Search on Christian Democrats in the first place.  While totally gratified by the results of the election and thankful that the outcome was certain, i soon became troubled by the prospect that evangelicals had given the White House back to Bush with no strategy of accountability.  And as i read post after post of these social liberals, i realized that we who voted 'our conscience' needed to face some hard questions from our brothers who seem to think that the New Testament begins and ends with the Sermon on the Mount.  Why is the war in Iraq just based on the abuses of Saddam, but genocide continues unabated in the Sudan?  Is this President who we elected so influenced by Dispensationalism that the objective of his foreign policy decisions in the Middle East could be Armageddon?  How does the 'compassionate' conservative address the real decline in the quality of life among the working poor?  Or even the lower middle class in certain regions? 

Those are the things i intend to contemplate here over the next days, weeks, months.  What i hope to accomplish is a moderating of the simplistic thinking represented by a guy in my church who told a story about a tour group who saw our President in the Oval Office on his knees in prayer.  It's just not enough, people, to believe the image.  We need to be paying attention to what is being done.  "By their fruits you shall know them."  I pray, too, but i make some disasterous blunders despite that.  Because when it's all said and done, after you get up off those knees, you still have to make choices.

And it's up to us to keep an eye on them.

Anyway, i welcome any of my liberal brothers who want to comment of these thoughts.  Hey, Jimmy Carter is about the biggest whack job going, but he created Habitat for Humanity.  Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while!

- posted by The Drake @ 1:03 PM