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Democrats or Republicans?

A common assumption is that Christians are all Republicans and that the Democrats are out-of-step with religious people. However, if Jesus were preaching to day, I think He would have some things to say to both political parties.

Rich Deem

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ORIGINAL: Lapidoth

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Democrats or Republicans?

A common assumption is that Christians are all Republicans and that the Democrats are out-of-step with religious people. However, if Jesus were preaching to day, I think He would have some things to say to both political parties.

Rich Deem

One right and one wrong; or both wrong

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Both parties are out-of-step with The Lord.
The distinction I draw is that Democrats have yet to lay a false claim on devine guidance.

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ORIGINAL: Jhud

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Both parties are out-of-step with The Lord.
The distinction I draw is that Democrats have yet to lay a false claim on devine guidance.

I thought consulting Obama constituted divine guidance in the Democratic party?

Oh, I suppose that is considered a true claim.

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In all seriousness, Focus on the Family & others of their ilk (including Bush) have made this claim.
It's been made (by Republicans) only in jest or ridicule, NOT bu the Obama camp.

There is a distinction between self-proclaimers and labelers.

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ORIGINAL: Jhud

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In all seriousness, Focus on the Family & others of their ilk (including Bush) have made this claim.
It's been made (by Republicans) only in jest or ridicule, NOT by the Obama camp.

There is a distinction between self-proclaimers and labelers.

I would hope every leader of our country would seek divine guidance; why would this be a bad idea?

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I submit only one party's members have publically made the "claim".

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There is a distinction between "seek" & "claim".

I submit only one party's members have publically made the "claim".

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ORIGINAL: Jhud

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There is a distinction between "seek" & "claim".

I submit only one party's members have publically made the "claim".

So you should seek divine guidance, but not expect it?

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ORIGINAL: TaoPoohBear

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ORIGINAL: Jhud

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There is a distinction between "seek" & "claim".

I submit only one party's members have publically made the "claim".

So you should seek divine guidance, but not expect it?

You seem to accept their claim.
How's that worked out so far?
America's just as strong as ever, right?!

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You seem to accept their claim.
How's that worked out so far?
America's just as strong as ever, right?!

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ORIGINAL: Jhud

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You seem to accept their claim.
How's that worked out so far?
America's just as strong as ever, right?!

Nice aside.

I think if 'America' had been willing to be guided by God's truth, our present crisis would in all likelihood not exist at all.

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We can reflect back in another year to see how Obama's muslim faith
has served america.

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ORIGINAL: SonInMe1

I do not believe the basic principles of the democratic party, liberalism, is christian.

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I do believe the basic principles of the republicans, conservatism is.

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To me, a christian, this matters. You have liberal republicans and RINO's so the republican party is not totally christian but I cannot support the party platform of the democratic party.

My politics does not control my relationship with God. My relationship with God controls my politics. How...christians could vote for Obama, is beyond my ability to understand. If anything, this election proved we are not a christian nation.

I believe you can have very poor doctrine and be saved so this isn't a salvation issue, however it is a sanctification issue. In my opinion, and probably not a humble one, to support the democratic party platform as a christian shows immaturity and a lack of biblical knowledge.

I will add, both ideologies, liberalism and conservatism have their faults, spiritually. Liberalism perverts the word. Conservatism can easily embrace legalism. No human ideology is perfect. If it was, we wouldn't need God.

The reason why I err on the conservative side is...legalism can be overcome but when you pervert the truth, there is no place to go but down.

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What a pathetic cheap shot Lapidoth - you should be ashamed of yourself as a Christian for spreading this lie. Remember that "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor" is one of the 10 commandments.

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How could liberalism NOT be Christian?

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I didn’t know a soul when I moved to Chicago. I was 25 years old. I moved there after college. I had been working Wall Street but I wasn’t content. I knew that I wanted to be part of something that was larger than myself. So I went to work as a community organizer with a group of Christian churches who had come together to deal with the devastation of steel plants that had closed on the south side of Chicago and thousands of people had been laid off. Communities had fallen into disrepair.

There were young men hanging out on the streets, buildings were boarded up, people had lost hope. And during these three years as an organizer it wasn’t easy. There were days when we got tired, days when the road ahead seemed too long or too hard to trek. But working with this community, ordinary people, who had discovered they could do extraordinary things when given the opportunity who never stopped believing in the Samaritans sense of justice. Month after month, year after year, we provided: job training for the jobless, hope for the hopeless, after school programs for working families and block by block we help to turn those neighborhoods around.

And this is were I want to give some personal testimony, if you don’t mind. Because I was meeting with lay leaders and lay people of these churches and I was trying to get them organized. We were busy with meetings and we were busy with plans. I recognized myself in them. I could recognize my hopes and my fear and my joys in their lives.

I knew scripture and I knew that many of the values I held that had propelled me in my work were values that they shared. But I think they also noticed that there was a detachment to me. There was a part of me that was an observer when I was in church and slowly I came to realize that something was missing in my life. Because you see I wasn’t raised in a particularly religious household. Some of you know my father was from Kenya in Africa and he was not a religious man. He left when I was two so I didn’t know him. I was raised by my mother and my grandparents. My mother who was from Kansas was a deeply spiritual person but she wasn’t religious in the way most of us use the term. Partly because she had grown up in small town Kansas and she had seen that sometimes people who preach the gospel or went to church didn’t always act very church like. And so she had sensed that you can be in church without being of the church. You can call yourself a Christian but not act the way Jesus Christ would have us act. So she had rejected and rebelled from organized religion.

My mothers parents who had raised me throughout my childhood, they were Methodist and Baptist. But they had kinda fallen away from the church. So I didn’t have a particularly religious household. Partly because of this upbringing I had no real anchor for my beliefs. No commitment to a particular community of faith. And so I’m going around these churches in Chicago, trying to organize these churches, some of these pastors, these pastors are slick, because they’d call me into their office and they’d say well you know Barak we think its wonderful work your doing, this job training work. And we like your ideas in terms of challenging the city to deliver services to communities that had been neglected. We want to help you but its hard getting our folks involved.

If you’re organizing churches, it might be helpful if you were a member of a church. Just a suggestion, no pressure, but it might be helpful if folks saw you in church once in a while. I had to admit they had a point. So one Sunday I woke up at 6 AM and I brushed the lint off the only suit I had. I was getting paid 12,000 dollars a year plus car expenses. I had one suit and it was a little thread bare. And I went over to Trinity on 95th Street on the Southside and I heard a sermon about hope and faith and the love of Jesus Christ.

During the course of the sermon I was introduced to Jesus in a way that I had not been introduced before. And I learned my sins could be redeemed if I placed my trust in him. That he could set me on the path of eternal life. It was because of these newfound understandings that I was finally able to walk down the isle one day and get baptized. I have to say, I didn’t fall out in church, it didn’t come as an epiphany. It was a gradual process, all the questions and the doubts and the pain that I sometimes felt didn’t magically disappear. The skeptical bent of my mind didn’t suddenly vanish. But kneeling beneath the cross I heard Gods spirit beckoning me. I submitted myself to his will and I dedicated myself to discovering His truth and carrying out His works.

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You don't have to agree with his politics or support him to at least show some respect.

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Maybe calling Lapidoth a liar, without empirical evidence as to the facts is not so dissimilar from Lapidoth calling Obama a liar on his proclamation of faith.

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We can reflect back in another year to see how Obama's muslim faith
has served america.

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During the course of the sermon I was introduced to Jesus in a way that I had not been introduced before. And I learned my sins could be redeemed if I placed my trust in him. That he could set me on the path of eternal life. It was because of these newfound understandings that I was finally able to walk down the isle one day and get baptized. I have to say, I didn’t fall out in church, it didn’t come as an epiphany. It was a gradual process, all the questions and the doubts and the pain that I sometimes felt didn’t magically disappear. The skeptical bent of my mind didn’t suddenly vanish. But kneeling beneath the cross I heard Gods spirit beckoning me. I submitted myself to his will and I dedicated myself to discovering His truth and carrying out His works.

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What empirical evidence or facts would you or Lapidoth offer to support the veracity of your assertion (or opinion)?

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ORIGINAL: HighPlainsDrifter

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What empirical evidence or facts would you or Lapidoth offer to support the veracity of your assertion (or opinion)?

His opinion is no less valid than your opinion. You have nothing empirical beyond a man's word.

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ORIGINAL: HighPlainsDrifter

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How could liberalism NOT be Christian?

Ahhh-hahahahahahahaha!!!

Thanks for that.