I am not recommending a Democratic Party solution to the problems the nation is facing.  The Democrats, when in power, have mainly shown only differences in style in regards to the way they conduct foreign policy.  They have also foregone the spiritual side to politics to the extent that they have in effect ceded the field to the Republicans.  What bothers me is that, like African-Americans have long been seen to be "reliably" Democratic, evangelical Christians are assumed to be in the hip pocket of the Republican Party so securely that it is just a given to the Republican leaders that these Christians are just going to go along with everything they do.  A strong, independent Christian community committed to holding all politicians accountable for their policies as well as their actions in the name of our first love, Jesus Christ, would be truly a powerful force for change.  
          How do we become politically independent? How do you really know if you are or you aren't already an independent political thinker? Well, for starters, you can answer a couple of questions.  When you see or hear a piece of news or information on Fox News or on the Rush Limbaugh radio show, do you apply the same criteria as to whether the information is valid, (i.e., where did they get their data, who are the sources, etc.) as you would from anyone else? Or, do you just assume that they must be correct? When you heard George W. Bush speak, did you judge the truthfulness of his words in the same way that you did Bill Clinton? When you read the things that I have written, are you naturally suspicious of the data or the sources? If so, why? How do you know what you know? This comes back to the issue of how we've learned our history, and what bits of it we've retained.
          The journal Sojourners, a faith-based publication, led a petition and an ad campaign entitled "God Is Not A Republican. Or A Democrat" during the 2004 election season.  Among the many excellent beliefs espoused in this petition, this one really stood out to me:

          "We will measure candidates by whether they enhance human life, human dignity, and human rights; whether they strengthen family life and protect children; whether they promote racial reconciliation and support gender equality; whether they serve peace and social justice; and whether they advance the common good rather than only individual, national and special interests."

          A lot of people grow up in families whose parents are so vocal about their political leanings that by kindergarten little Alex or little Sarah will say they're a Republican or Democrat without knowing the first thing about it.  My wife grew up in a house of Roosevelt Democrats and as far back as she can remember "we were Democrats; Republicans lived in big houses and didn't care about the poor and basically were some kind of unknown evil." I grew up in a conservative Republican household and at least until I was ten or eleven, I remember hearing my father and grandfathers talk about Democrats like they were all big-city thieves; you always had to keep one hand on your wallet when you were around a Democrat.
          The Vietnam War made things confusing because there was a Democratic president in Lyndon Johnson who was being hounded out of office mainly by young people who certainly weren't Republicans, and for the first time it may have entered the back of my brain that one might call oneself a member of a certain political party without necessarily being in favor of everything that party's leaders stood for.  Democrats have always seemed more likely to fight about things within their own party than Republicans. Republicans, at least in the last twenty-five years, have been more adept at closing ranks and presenting a united front, which is a large part of their recent success.
          At some of the evangelical churches that I have attended, the political education must start early. I wonder if you polled kindergarteners, 1st graders, and 2nd graders at evangelical churches, how many of them would say they were Republicans? Why is this? If you were to have polled Southern kindergarteners, 1st graders, and 2nd graders before the 1960s, how many of them would say they didn't like the Coloreds? Why was that?

All right, now you've really gone too far. First it was Nazis, now it's racists. You're making a HUGE generalization and a slanderous comparison.

I'm just trying to make a point.  Little Soviet kids grew up as atheists and communists.   Little German kids grew up learning to hate Jews before they ever knew any.  Little Southern kids learned to hate black kids before they knew any of them.  Little Arab kids learn to hate Jews and Christians, and little Jewish kids learn to hate Arabs.  Where did these children, by and large, learn these things? There's nothing in the Bible that I can find that urges us to train our children up to be Republicans.  I would like evangelical Christians who call themselves conservative Republicans to question themselves as to why they think politically the way they do.  Are you operating under long-held assumptions that square with the facts? Do they square with Jesus's words?
          I heard a guy on the radio, Walter Williams, a conservative columnist who was subbing for Rush Limbaugh.   I'm paraphrasing here, but anyone could probably look this up on Rush's website in June of 2005:
Williams (to caller): "There's two kinds of theft–illegal theft, and legal theft.  Let's say I walk out of this building and stumble over an old person lying in a doorway.  If I then go up to my friend and point a gun at him and say "give me $200" and then I turn around and give it to the old person in the doorway, is that legal or illegal?"
Caller: "That's illegal"
Williams: "That's right, that's illegal theft.  Don't matter what I did with it, it's still illegal.  Now let's say I have $200 in my pocket that I've worked hard to enjoy, and I'm planning with this $200 to buy a couple of bottles of Lafitte Rothschild Cabernet, and the Congress, by way of its agent, the IRS, says 'no, no, no, Mr. Williams, you have to give that money to us, and we're gonna give it to the old person lying in the doorway,' what is that? I'll tell you what it is–it's legal theft.  Don't matter if it's legal or not–it's not morally right.  Keep in mind, what the Nazis did to the Jews, and what Stalin did to his people was considered legal in those countries.  They have no more moral right to take that money from me and give it to another person than I did in holding up my friend for $200 and giving it to another person.  I've been around for awhile, sixty-nine years, and I've never been able to find the moral reason for someone to take what is mine and give it to someone else."

           First of all, I'm no apologist for the IRS.  I would never cast the first stone concerning anything to do with collecting taxes, paying taxes, paying taxes on time, or trying to do all those little things one tries to do to pay less taxes.  But this is just wrong on so many levels.  First of all, nobody likes paying taxes, but how else is the government going to get the revenue it needs to build schools, fix roads and bridges, and feed the homeless and hungry...in Iraq? Secondly, geez, call me a sloppy sentimentalist, but if there's anything that would make me feel a little better about shelling out money for Uncle Sam, it would be knowing that my $200 went to some old person lying in a doorway, instead of paying for a screw on yet another 500-pound bomb destined to land on some foreign hut.
          Mr. Williams, I wish everyone was as generous and philanthropic as you seem to be, but I'm afraid that they're not.  I know those two $100 bottles of wine would go to good use as you enjoy the "fruits" of your labor with that unfortunate person in the doorway (you were planning to share, weren't you Mr. Williams?).  I know that you know better how to use your money than some bureaucrat in Washington, Mr. Williams.  After all, how many dying old people in doorways get to sample a Lafitte Rothschild Cabernet? Not many, if my data is right.  That's really putting the "compassionate" in the "conservative," Mr. Williams.  What's that? Oh, you're not planning to share the Lafitte Rothschild Cabernet with the old person in the doorway? My mistake, Mr. Williams, but I can see where you've really staked out the high moral ground, sir.  You are a true Mother Theresa, Mr. Williams.           Conservatives believe that helping one's fellow man is an individual discipline; that charity begins in the home and continues through faith-based or private giving.  A government that takes money out of your pocket and gives it to others less fortunate is engaging in "Robin Hood-ism," or "legal theft." Oh, would that it were so. It is not all that different, if you think about it, than starry-eyed liberals imagining a world where everyone would just put down their guns and join in a big world hug.  
          Unfortunately, human nature being what it is, for every person who gives generously of what they have, whether it be time or money, to those who by accident of birth weren't as fortunately endowed, there are far more people who can't be bothered.  It would be great if the top 10% wealthiest helped to pull the bottom 10% poorest out of their misery on their own, but it never seems to happen.  Good, smart people have been grappling with wealth and poverty issues for hundreds of years without a lasting solution.  I do believe, though, that this is one more area that Christians can be out in the forefront, both in the public sector as well as the private.  

This item is from the "Agape Press":

COURT SIDES WITH STUDENT ON RIGHT TO WEAR SCRIPTURE-BEARING SHIRT

I'm thinking, "Right on, that's pretty cool, freedom of speech, etc."

A federal judge has told an Ohio school district it can no longer bar a middle school student from wearing a t-shirt with a Christian message.

I gotta say I'm with him here. I mean, kids can wear some of the most explicit, filthy things, or hear them on the radio, but the one thing you can't say is Jesus. Way to go, judge.

Judge George Smith has ruled that Sheridan Middle School in Thornville, Ohio, violated the constitutional rights of student (name withheld) by prohibiting him from wearing a t-shirt bearing a quote from the Bible verse John 14:6. The front of the shirt reads, "Jesus said, 'I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.'"

Up until here, they totally have me. C'mon, PC crowd, don't you think you're taking this a little too far? However, the next line reads:

The back of the shirt contains the statements: "Homosexuality is sin. Islam is a lie. Abortion is murder."

Whoooaaaa, Nelly! Wha...

Although no complaints were filed over the t-shirt a few school officials–described by the boy's attorney as "overzealous"- deemed its message may be "offensive" to some individuals and "potentially disruptive," and thus could not be displayed.

I'll say! Why doesn't he just put "Kill the Niggas" on there, too, and "Send the Greasers back to Mexico" while he's at it.

The attorney for the boy, James Nelson of the Orlando-based American Liberties Institute, says the decision has "broad, sweeping significance," especially for students in the southern district of Ohio, many of whom he says were watching for the outcome. "Other students and parents had been waiting for this decision to know whether their own children and students may now wear their shirts," Nelson shares.

There it is, Christian on the front, bigot on the back. I suppose the good folks at the American Liberties Institute will no doubt defend the right of a Muslim child to wear a shirt saying "Christianity is a lie," or "Christians are Murderers" to their middle school, and the wonderful Christian parents in that middle-American town of Thornville, Ohio will back the child's right to do so as well.
          This is exactly the kind of situation in which we have to put our independent-minded hats on. There are free-speech issues here, as well as common sense and decency issues as well. As a Christian first, we look to Jesus for advice: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." The boy has the right to wear the t-shirt, but as an apparent Christian, he, as well as his parents, especially his parents, for gosh sakes, are going against Jesus's Golden Rule and should have the common sense not to.