Post 33: Political Affiliation Uncertainty

In my atheist years I was basically liberal. I felt that everyone should do as they wished, respecting authority when necessary. I also felt that it was good for the government to help those who needed it. At times that included my own family, since we never really were all that rich.

Conversion to Christianity resulted in a change in political affiliation. Since I had begun to believe there were in fact concrete morals, I went from social liberal to social conservative. This means that I felt the government should help support traditional (i.e., Christian) values and morals. I remained economically liberal, thinking the government should help the needy as appropriate. This sort of separates me from the high-profile Christians, who are strongly conservative through-and-through.

I didn't think that there was an actual term for my political affiliation. I called myself a centrist because I was fairly evenly divided between Republican and Democratic ideologies. Then during a government class in college I realized that my orientation was called "populist," apparently more common historically in the northwestern, mountain states. Its polar opposite is libertarian. So for the past few years I have been a strong populist. I believed that people should honor Christian values, and the government should help in giving economic assistance to those who need it. I sort of support the Occupy movement in that people making tons of money don't really need all that cash, especially since they will never use a lot of it and thus it could be better used elsewhere.

Recently while browsing on my preferred Christian forum, someone asked for people to explain their political views. Surprisingly, a lot of Christians are not conservative. I cited Acts 2 and 4, where the early church is shown to be very communal. In modern parlance, socialistic. Indeed, in my high school years I had socialistic leanings in my political beliefs, and to this day I still do.

However, in that same thread, a few others said things that got my brain churning. The next person to respond was a libertarian - my polar opposite! His argument was essentially this: We are made with free will, so we have the right to choose what we do. Jesus did not force anyone to follow him. Instead he let them decide for themselves. Therefore trying to force a society that is not godly to follow God's standard is not the example Jesus set for us and indeed, it's futile.

Another person, who has since that time become the chief administrator of the forum, pointed out another flaw in my thinking. The early church that I base my political belief upon is drastically different from American society in a crucial way. The early church was very oriented to God. The Holy Spirit was working strongly in them, making it natural for them to share with each other and be communal. American society, on the other hand, is anything but that. Capitalism has created a culture that says "Mine! Mine!" and it certainly lacks the Spirit's power.

While contemplating these things, I realized something about myself. As I said before, I have now begun to believe there is a concrete moral system that exists. And I have generally felt that everyone should follow this moral system. But guess what? Trying to get non-Christians to follow the Christian moral system is next to impossible to do!

So now I see that wanting a communal society, as nice as it may be, is day dreaming at best. Indeed, social conservatism seems like something that doesn't work to well. It's trying to force a set of values on a group of people who are unwilling to accept it.

Now the question may arise. Do I have the right to force my opinions on others? I certainly have the right to state my opinions. That's a fundamental of freedom. This results in an interesting dichotomy. Some of you will say, "No, you don't have the right to force your opinion on me." But is that not what you're attempting to do with me? Forcing your liberalism on me? Clearly, I would say, trying to get others to believe as you do is right. We do it all the time. But should we? As I said before, Jesus did not force people to come to him. He let them choose. What does this mean in the arena of politics? Surprisingly enough, let them do what they will. In the social sphere today, things like gay marriage and abortion are causing tons of conflict between non-Christian and Christian. Believers are attempting to cram Christian values down the throats of those who do not wish to accept those morals. Fine. They want these things? Let them have what they want. For me, it feels wrong to vote yes on a law that would permit abortion. Those are lives that are being killed, and I'm not doing anything to stop it. But as I've shown, trying to prevent it does no good. In ancient times, and even the days of Rome, it wasn't unheard of to get rid of babies. Did the church rally against it? No. Why should we now?

As much as I may be socially conservative myself, it's impractical to be that way in terms of law. So it almost seems logically superior to be liberal in this regard.

Now, for the economic side of things. I still contend that the government should help those who need it. But with a condition: people who can work should seek it. If you don't work, you don't eat. That's still economically liberal. I think it's practical. So all of this leaves me thinking that instead of being an ideological populist, it may indeed be more practical and even akin to what Jesus's life was like to be a liberal, even libertarian!

Post 32: Progress Report

I have a strange ability. Often when people set out to do things, to chase their dreams, they give up along the way. I'm not doing well on my New Years' Resolutions but with the things I mentioned in the previous post I'm actually doing really well! Here's a little update for you.

There's still about six months until I head off to university. I have decided that I'm going to Kansas State University. For good reason too: not only is it cheaper, I have something like over $6,000 in scholarships coming my way for my high grades and Phi Theta Kappa membership. A few days ago I spent the better part of my waking hours working on scholarships online, and hopefully I'll win one or two. In high school I applied for something like seven of them but didn't win any. Despite having insanely high grades and strong writing skills. Oh well. Still need to look into student loans. I figure I will go with the Sallie Mae company. Four of my five semesters in community college had 4.0 GPAs with an overall of 3.945.

A couple weeks after graduating I got my degree in the mail. I was so proud of it, I was telling everyone I got in contact with. It has a nice leather cover and the degree is laminated inside. Fifteen years of schooling have culminated in receiving that degree, and dangit I want to utilize it! I could contact the local employment agency to see what jobs, if any, are open around here. I'm hesitant to do that however, because I already have a job. Picking up two jobs, even if both are part time, would curtail a lot of my free time. Instead, I'm improving my Web design skills via volunteer work. I play a game called NationStates and lately I've been building the Web site for the group I am a member of. One of my weak points is graphic design but that's being improved with time.

Related to that, I'm still learning how to program in Java. I've finished reading the textbook I bought so now I'm just looking around and trying projects to improve my skills.

One of the things I was really concerned about the last time I posted was driving. I took the permit test and failed the first time. It's a series of 25 or so questions and you can get no more than 5 wrong otherwise you fail. I had 9 wrong the first time. A couple of them were kind of dumb mistakes but a couple others were questions worded very trickily. My second time, a week later, I passed having made only three mistakes. My official permit came in the mail a week or so later.

After that I had to find people to teach me to drive! I need 40 hours of daytime driving and 10 hours of nighttime driving. At first nobody was really willing to help. Then a month later I received like 3 or 4 offers. My first time driving was a Saturday after work. I discovered that driving isn't nearly as difficult as it may appear, but the mechanics are also slightly different from what I always assumed. I'm naturally a fast learner and this was no exception. At first I was nervous to get up to 20 mph but now I consider that slow! I've spent a lot of time on gravel roads and am itching to get on suburban streets and highways. Definitely looking forward to future driving. I want to put more work into turning, parking, and stopping.

In the field of faith, I have discovered Dr. William Lane Craig's Web site Reasonable Faith. It is a site devoted to Christian apologetics and rational arguments for the existence of God and Jesus. Not only have I learned a lot from it, I've also had my faith strengthened. To be honest, I do often get nervous when I approach areas where the arguments are strongly debated and put through the rigors, however in time I will muster the courage to read through those and understand both sides of the argument. My favorite and most convincing argument, to me, is the teleological argument, also known as the watchmaker theory, fine-tuning, or Intelligent Design. I hope to someday share what I've learned.