Syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker says in her November 19, 2008 column Giving Up on God, “…religion is killing the Republican Party.” The “one-issue” religious conservatives have done their party of choice no favors.
Even worse, in my opinion, is what this same group of of people have done to unintentionally damage the image of Christianity in our country. Because of intentional engagement of others with different beliefs and moral standards as political adversaries, Christians have developed a reputation as judgmental, unloving, homophobic hypocrites. In their drive to have their right and moral rules become laws, they have become just like the Pharisees that Jesus condemned as whitewashed tombs—shiny on the outside and full of death on the inside.
Both the Republican Party and the Christian Church need to recover their foundations before they become perceived as completely irrelevant.
Agreed. If each self-professed Christian would take the time to measure his own life against the standard Christ set as an upstanding, loving, honest man, our foundation as a Body could easily be revitalized. In this way, politics would cease to be the goal, being subbed out in favor of a collective show of mercy, decency, strength, and patience. Why align ourselves with any party, really? Shouldn’t our own lives be our most powerful political tools? The Goal is salvation for mankind, not a Republican-controlled White House… and the accomplishment of the former, thankfully, is something we may participate in but cannot hope to orchestrate.