A former Christian Right-Winger comes to her senses!

Over the years, I have been involved in many political campaigns. I was raised in a Baptist home with a minister father, so I have been a conservative Republican for most of my life. While I have changed in some things, like same-sex marriage and other GLBT issues, I have stayed conservative on other issues. One of the views I’ve not changed on is smaller government.

This year’s election cycle is historic for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that we are engaged in a battle where one party is completely falling apart at the seams while the other party is so excited to have not one, but two really good viable candidates that they can’t see straight!

I am fascinated by this turn of events. I have to admit that I was really freaked out by something that happened within my own family yesterday and it put me on a course of self-examination when it comes to my political involvement. My mother called me last night and told me that she and my dad had driven down to Richmond, Virginia to see Mike Huckabee preach at a church there. I listened as she told me what the sermon was about and assured me that he wasn’t campaigning…he was just preaching. The conversation made me think about the state of politics and religion in our country.

I used to believe in what Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority stood for. I used to think that separation of church and state was something that liberals made up to try and stamp out religion from the public square. I now realize how foolish that way of thinking is.

There is a fine line between not allowing evil to take over government, like Germany did with Hitler, and becoming another Hitler! Some may think that statement too strong, but I don’t think so. Mike Huckabee scares the you-know-what out of me. This is a man who unashamedly called for the segregation of AIDS patients from society at large. He has also been linked to a religious group who advocated stoning homosexuals!

Not only has Huckabee made statements against homosexuals, but he said, "[Some of my opponents] do not want to change the Constitution, but I believe it's a lot easier to change the constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God, and that's what we need to do is to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards rather than try to change God's standards," , referring to the need for a constitutional human life amendment and an amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman. Huckabee often refers to the need to amend the constitution on these grounds, but he has never so specifically called for the Constitution to be brought within "God's standards". I’m obviously all for God’s standards being modeled for those who are lost and in need of Jesus, but to say that we should change the Constitution of the United States so that it reflects so-called "God’s standards" is to discount what Jesus himself did and said.

Jesus never wanted political power. In fact, He criticized the rulers of His day for being so concerned about religious practices being observed by the masses that they would rather someone go without being healed than be healed on a holy day. Jesus was a teacher, healer, prophet, and friend. He was, and is, God. However, nowhere in the Bible does it talk about how Jesus was elected to an office. Nowhere does it say He tried to overthrow the Roman government. In contrast, He told His disciples to render to Caeser what was Caeser’s and to God what was God’s. In that particular incident, He seemed to be talking specifically about money, but I think there was a larger principle at work. I think that Jesus taught us by example that we should know what is going on in our country and should fight injustice and tyranny at every turn. However, I also think that He taught us that the Kingdom of God is not of this world. God is not going to take over this country’s government and He doesn’t expect us to do that either.

The other thing that seems to escape Huckabee and those who want him to be our president is that our country is made up of just about every religion, race, creed, sexuality, culture and nuance you can imagine. How in the world do they expect to run a country on Christian principles when a lot of the country is anything but Christian? If you try to do that, then we become a dictatorship, not a democratic society.

All this craziness just seems to be a way to distract people from what’s really important…electing a president who will be sensible about spending and taxes. A president who will keep us as safe as possible without spending billions of dollars on a war that isn’t really ours to fight. A president who will work to provide affordable healthcare for every American. A president who will treat all committed relationships as equal in the eyes of the law. A president who will do whatever you, personally, think is important for our country to help us be a stable, strong, great country again.

I am hopeful that we will end up electing someone who will do at least half of these things! If we do, it will be a great day in America. A great day for ALL Americans.