God and Politics

One thing which always sets Liberals off against Conservatives, is the assumption they make that we are claiming God is on our side. To compensate for this feeling of inadequate holy ordination of their policies therefore, many Liberal politicians and candidates can be seen attending churches, albeit very often only so they can speak from the pulpit in defense of their own politics, something almost every Conservative eschews, but I digress.

It has long been understood that Conservatives and Liberals are held to different standards. An obvious example is Congressman Murtha’s slander of Vice-President Cheney, claiming that his deferment earlier in life makes him unfit to give orders or establish policy for the military, which makes one wonder why Congressman Murtha never had a problem with Bill Clinton. And more than a few Guardsmen have taken issue with the Democrats’ blunder in suggesting that Bush’s National Guard service was less than honorable, since the claim assumes either that the Guard excused Bush’s supposedly poor peformance, or that the Guard standard was rather low. It should also be noted that Trent Lott was essentially hounded into leaving a leadership position because of an ambiguous statement that some claimed suggested he was a racist, but former KKK Kleagle Robert Byrd was not only allowed to hold a leadership postion in the Senate, but has been often held up by the Democrats as a moral leader.Go figure.

But there is a deeper divide between Conservatives and Liberals on the question of God and faith. While both Conservatives and Liberals vocally support the First Amendment right to practice faith as one believes, there is a significant difference between the two sides on how to protect that right. For Conservatives, religion is personal as well as cultural, and so long as Congress does not pass a law which attempts to establish a state religion or demonstrate a specific religious preference, religious demonstrations and displays should not be denied or suppressed. Liberals have long pursued a course which essentially demands an atheist America, as exemplified by the ACLU and People for the American Way’s attempts to deny basic rights to churches and faith organizations, such as the Boy Scouts or the Roman Catholic Church. The dichotomy of professing the rights of the indivdual, but denying people the right to publicly express faith or use their faith in key decisions, is an hypocrisy the Left simply chooses to ignore.

The expression of faith goes deeper. Liberals and Conservatives alike had no offense at Jimmy Carter saying he was a devout Christian in 1976, but Liberals scorned President Bush’s statements of faith, as though the Jesus Christ worshipped and followed by Carter was now off-limits to Conservatives. That is brazenly dishonest, yet common to the point of ubiquity. And here in the days of Michael Newdow, religion is taken as a sign of evil intent, as evidenced by comments from many Liberals about Samuel Alito’s intentions, as though the man coordinated his own nomination, and doubtless will be brainwashing his SCOTUS colleagues if he is confirmed to the High Court. Otherwise, one would be forced to consider that the anti-faith bias of so many on the Left, is more indicative of pathogenic disorder than reasonable discernment.

One last thing, a clarification of sorts. Conservatives do not generally claim that God is on our side. It is, however, worth noting that God has made His priorities and commandments rather plain, and from what I can see, while God is sovereign, it appears that Conservatives are more on His side than Liberals. And that distinction is paramount in this category of debate.