Christian, Conservative, Republican

To describe my religious and political orientation I use these three words, in order of their importance: Christian, Conservative, and registered Republican. Since all of these terms are neither distinct in themselves nor in combination, I will elaborate on what they mean to me.

First, I am a Christian. To me, this means that I believe in Jesus and I seriously attempt to follow Him. And what I believe about Jesus is pretty traditional, biblical stuff - that He was the Son of God and Son of Man, that He lived a perfect life, and that on the Cross He paid the penalty for those – like me –
who have not lived a perfect life. I believe that Jesus will return to earth someday to do two things: First, He will come for all of us who are genuine followers to take us to heaven. Second, He will come to seriously kick butt and take names. The rebellion that started with Satan will end with and by the Lord Jesus! You may argue with everything I believe about Jesus; they are admittedly arguable. But I will tell you that believing that I was the lost sheep and He my Good Shepherd has brought me innumerable blessings already. Following Jesus has not been easy, but incredibly rewarding. And regarding rewards, I don’t think I have seen anything yet. So, I shall continue to be a devoted follower of Jesus.

I identify myself as a “conservative” both religiously and politically. That simply means that I am cautious about change, especially those that depart from old traditional ways and understandings. I am therefore more concerned with how the Apostles of Christ led the church than what some new church-growth guru thinks about leading the Body of Christ today. The early church was not concerned with the size of the crowds they could attract, but how well they could present Christ to their culture. In the area of politics, it means that I am more concerned about how the founders of our nation organized it than what some new educators, politicians and judges think the nation should be. Our founders, for instance, did not establish a federal government that was supposed to take care of everyone’s problems and force the individual states to march to the beat of its drum on all matters. I cannot imagine that even one member of the original supreme court would have thought that schools should be religion-free zones, that American children should not be exposed to creationist views in their public education, that abortion should be a legitimate birth control option for women, or that marriage between same-sex partners should be sanctioned by the state.

Finally, I am a registered Republican. I have affiliated with the Republican Party because their conservative platform, both fiscally and socially, has fit me. I do not have an “until death do us part” relationship with this party, however. And, I have not been happy with it in recent years. I love George Bush as a man and as a leader with great integrity. But I learned over his eight years as president that his “compassionate conservatism” meant a lot of big government spending. Where were the vetoes on pork-laden spending bills? It also meant a lack of concern regarding the stream of illegal immigrants crossing our southern border. Republicans are known for advocating lower taxes, but boast that lower tax rates mean higher government revenues – which means more for politicians (Democrat and Republican) to spend. I think our government does too much and spends too much. And I know that I am in the minority right now. Still, I have hope – at least a little – that Americans might wake up, stop thinking that government is supposed to take care of everything for them, and assume personal responsibility. Then, maybe one day at the ballot box we will throw off the repression of our government and insist not only on lower taxes but on lower government spending.