What non-Christians think of Christian voters

BRACE YOURSELF.

Whether we’re a Republican Christian or a Democrat Christian, non-Christians who reacted to my “religion & politics” blogs last week are not camping happy with us.

They especially dislike Republican Christians.

I’ll let the “outside the holy club” speak for itself. And I’ll toss in a few comments from Christians; you’ll recognize them as insiders.

The following are responses to several of my blog posts—especially “Why are Christians voting Republican?” and “Would Jesus vote Republican?” The comments below were posted in places such as my blog comment boxes, Facebook, and especially reddit.com.

Bashing Democrats

• I think the better question would be why are liberals voting Democrat?
• I’m an a**hole for calling Christians a cult, since I’m outside the playground of beliefs. But inside that fence Christians can call out Mormons for being a cult? Hypocrite.
• I’ll never understand Christians who vote Democrat. Today’s Democrats are very socialist in their views and actions.

• I do think Jesus’ teachings share a lot in common with the goals of socialism…not having private property, sharing things, providing for the poor. I think there’s a key distinction between people doing this voluntarily (which is, I think, what Jesus advocated), and it being implemented involuntarily by government or by some other powerful entity.

Bashing Republicans

• [Reacting to the Republican’s charge that Democrats are socialists.] Pretty sure the Christian god doesn’t give two s**** about whether something is socialist or not [not to mentioned that “socialism” is a political/economic idea….and why are Republicans so concerned with money when their god doesn’t care about money?]

• There’s no way Jesus would vote Republican. What he taught is practically the polar opposite of [what] the Republican party represents.

• Not ALL christians are! [voting for Republicans]. Many won’t vote for cult members.

• Hey, the Mormon book with outrageous claims, [and] no historical backing is a piece of s*** when compared to the Christian book full of outrageous claims and very little historical backing.

• My sister and several other family members, who are all evangelicals, are voting for Romney. I find this so funny because they don’t like Mormons and think they are cultists. However, they don’t realize their eagerness to elect Romney has given a thousand years of legitimacy to the Mormon religion. It can now be considered mainstream and its membership can be unapologetic in the face of the public eye. Romney, purely by being a viable Presidential candidate, has done for Mormonism what JFK did for Catholicism. He can still lose the race and consider what he has accomplished to be monumental.

• The idea that the Bible is anti-abortion is crazy.

• In case anyone doesn’t know it [abortion] was widely practiced at the time. The use of invasive procedures, while not illegal, was looked down on socially but you could buy any number of herbs or use any number of other techniques to abort a pregnancy.

• I know several Christians who are not voting Republican based on that it’s against Christianity to hate on a group of people and judge them. [I’m thinking that’s a reference to Christians slamming gays.]

• Mccarthyism is so cute in a hilariously depressing way. Today’s Republicans are literally a still-as-of-yet weak version of a Christian Taliban; misguided serf-like worthless savages whose sole purpose is to be facilitators to an economic system that has historically shown not to work.

• Freedom of religion doesn’t give you the right to dictate what others can have covered under their own health insurance. I sure wouldn’t want a Jehovah’s Witness deciding what medical treatments I should be allowed access to easily.

Bashing both parties

• I don’t see why Christians would vote for either party. Both are pro war. Both are for using violence to create social order (which is the antithesis of the method Jesus taught). Yeah Democrats have nicer plans for that violence but it is still violence.

• Jesus would vote for neither of the current candidates, nor for anyone associated with either of the American political parties. Would anyone else agree that Jesus’ teachings resembled that of socialism?

• If all of we Christians in this country actually voted in an attempt to hew to Jesus, we’d all be voting Green Party.

• The dominant view I seem to get is that neither party really reflects Christian values–especially with the attack campaigns and negativity in the dialogue. And I get at least as many people who think that voting Democratic expresses their Christian beliefs, as I do people who feel similarly about voting Republican….I think the allegiance of Christian institutions in America and the Republican party peaked a number of years ago and has been declining significantly for some time.

• Jesus basically told his disciples to leave the political realm alone. Render unto Caesar what is his or something.

Election advice from a dead preacher

Back in 1774, two years before Americans declared their independence, an English minister offered advice to fellow Christians who were about to vote. The minister was John Wesley, father of the Methodist Church. His advice:

• Vote, without fee or reward, for the person you judge most worthy.
• Speak no evil of the person you vote against.
• Take care that your spirits are not sharpened against those who voted on the other side.