Posted by
Isaac McPhee on Monday, April 07, 2008 3:05:08 PM
In my previous post, I discussed the difference between the two forms of charitable giving - liberal charity (help offered by the government from public funds with no say by the taxpayer on who recieves it) and conservative charity (personal giving by the generally religious individual to specific charities which agree with the giver's personal ideology).
To many it will seem readily obvious that the latter form of charity seems more readily in tune with the Biblical form of giving; sacrificial, personal, and meaningful; while the latter suffers from a sort of dispassionate, indirect giving which might serve to satiate the consciences of liberals who refuse to recognize the difference.
But there is far more to the religious disparity between liberals and conservatives than mere giving.
There are also many very important - crucial, even - moral issues that don't seem to make their way through the ethical blinders so often worn by the liberals who like to prop themselves up as the "champion of the little man."
The most obvious example, of course, is abortion. I would be remiss not to mention it, no matter how cliche the arguments may have become over the years. To say that a person can be at once strongly religious and at the same time acknowledge the right of mothers and doctors to take it upon themselves to take the lives of millions of children seems to be nothing more than a logical absurdity.
Can a Christian be pro choice? That's up to God to decide, but it does seem to speak to a very important question of perspective and priority. Where is the priority of a person who is so concerned with protecting "privacy" and preventing an unnecessary "inconvenience" that they feel no remorse at the resulting death?
Are these the same people who refuse to acknowledge the justification behind killing terrorists who readily acknowledge their own crimes against humanity? Are they the same people who claim that the barbarians who strap bombs to women and children in crowded city streets are only "freedom fighters," "defending their country from invaders?"
There is no excuse for abortion, in other words. I recently witnessed a debate between a fervent pro-choice advocate and a fervent pro-life advocate, and was absolutely stunned when the woman who supported abortion rights acknowledged the fact that this was a very difficult issue... by even accepting the fact that it is a difficult issue, aren't you making the pro-life case? If there is in any concievable sense a chance that this "fetus" could be considered a human being then isn't it bordering on moral repugnancy to even consider the wholesale slaughter of said individuals?
I have a hard time deciding whether sadness or anger is more justified at such reasoning.
But that's not the end of the moral divide between liberals and conservatives.
Liberals, so in favor of freedom and so willing to let people make as many mistakes as they want, have a tendency to encourage lifestyles bitterly opposed by most major religions. And no, I'm not only talking about homosexuality here. Perhaps that's the most obvious example, but I would be hesitant to call it the most important.
How about the destruction of the family by way of providing endless access to welfare by fatherless households? How about sex-ed classes demonstrating to children just how "natural" it is to have sex at an early age (especially considering the fact that pregnancy no longer needs to be seen as a "consequence" of such mistakes)? How about the refusal to punish the worst criminals under the argument that they themselves had a difficult childhood?
Call me crazy, but the more I look into the nature of the divide between liberalism and conservatism, the more I can't help but find these reasons revolving directly around religious and philosophical viewpoints. Personal politics cannot possibly be separated from personal ideology, and each of us seems to affiliate ourselves with the political party which best represents our own values...
So, before I end this part... I must ask the question: Where do your values lie?
Part three will focus on the liberal view of the establishment clause.