Single Issue no More

After thinking about it for a long time and arguing with myself non stop, I have decided to give my support to Barack Obama. I feel that it is time for the republican party to take a few big steps back and examine their political beliefs. If you were to ask any of my friends they will tell you that I am more or less a libertarian in terms of my politics. Recently however I have been spending time learning and growing in my faith. As a result, my views on almost everything have been changing for the past year or so. The blame has to rest on my new church. They actually preach the bible and spend their time loving all of God's children and reaching out to them with his love.

If you were to ask me why I was voting for George W. bush, I would have said because he is a christian and he was pro-life and against gay marriage. Those two issues were the most important thing to me at the time. I thought that if abortion were to remain legal and it gay persons were given the right to marry then america as we know it would cease to exist. In other words my patriotism and my faith were one in the same. I equatted christianity with america. I felt that good christians would only vote republican. I am ashamed that I even thought that way. I ignored so many other issues. Poverty, the war in iraq, the environment, corruption in every branch of government. I started reading my bible and then examining myself. What I saw was depressing.

I am still 100% pro-life. I believe that a human being is created at the very moment of conception. Why do I believe this? The answer is the incarnation. As a christian I believe that God became man through the the Blessed Virgin Mary. That means that when Jesus was a group of cells in the womb of the Blessed Mother, he was God. If God could humble himself to be in that form then all people are to be respected no matter what stage of life. I mean ALL people. To often those of us on the pro-life side worry about saving the child from the abortion clinic but forget them after they are born. We also seem to forget those children who are already born. Many of them are hungry at this very moment. Some have parents who don't care about them. They are ignored by politicians, neighbors, and worst of all the church (the church is not any one denomination but all people who profess faith in the risen Christ). We as christians have failed them. I have come to the conclusion that even if Roe v. Wade were to be overturned, abortion would still take place. The way to end abortion is not through legilstion, but through education and providing for the countless number of women who have nothing, not even hope. Can we really blame them. As republicans we want to take away their welfare, because so many of us feel that it is not the taxpayers job to pay for thos who can't get a job. We demand that the poor pull themeselves up by their boot straps and do like so many others have done. I'm just glad that the God that I serve does share this same belief. I can't pull my self out of sin. God had to pull me out.

Pro-life has to mean more then just anti-abortion. Poverty kills, war kills, the death penalty kills, pollution kills, ignoring those who suffer kills. We have to stop all of these to be truly pro-life.

The scriptures are quite clear about another issue. Homosexuality is a sin. However, pre-marrital sex is also a sin, and we do not out law that. God gives us the freedom to sin. He doesn't want us to, but we do any way. If two consenting men or women want to have the same legal rights of a man and women then they should. Simple as that. Again christians have failed to do the one thing that we are commanded to do. We have not loved as Christ loved us. As soon as we see someone who is gay we immediately condemn them to hell and do nothing to show the love that God has for them as his children. Other christians have gone to far however. Many have begun to wrongly teach that homosexuality is not a sin, and should be accepted by the church. This too is very wrong. Many times after Jesus healed some one he would tell them "Go and sin no more." We do not have to be perfect to approach the cross, but we must be willing to confess our sins.

It looks as though the republican choice for president is going to be John McCain. After researching him I can't vote for him. He is not pro-life the same way I am. He supports the war in Iraq which has killed nearly 4000 U.S. troops, and over 300,000 Iraqi civilians. He ignores global warming, and the poor. He not pro-life.

Senator Obama admits to being pro-choice, but he is against the war, wants to end global warming and wants to fight poverty. In my opinion he is more pro-life then Senator McCain. I am voting for Barack Obama.