Christians in U.S. Politics

In the U.S., the Republican party consists of two main ideological groups, Social conservatives and economic conservatives. “Social conservatives” are those who support family values, such as marriage, defending the unborn, and otherwise fighting the moral decay of our society. Economic conservatives are those who emphasize Government fiscal responsibility (read lower taxes). They are not that concerned about homosexuality, abortion, or other related issues.

For many years, Christians in the South voted for Democrats agreeing with their concern for the poor and line workers. Christians began to remove their support when Democrats made it their mission to fight for the legalization of activities deemed immoral by Christians. In fact, the Moral Majority was founded by the late Jerry Falwell (who finally decided that Christians had to enter politics) because of the reality that laws were being enacted that would force Christians to violate their conscience. Ronald Reagan successfully exploited this ill-ease amongst Evangelicals and used their support to victory in two presidential campaigns.

The point of all is to show that there is a divide in the Republican party exhibited in the lack of passion over the present slate of candidates. None of them have the full support of both the economic conservatives and the social conservatives. Thus Huckabee, a social conservative, sounds like a populist because his Christianity compels him to be concerned for the poor. Huckabee does believe that Government can play a positive role in helping people, much to the chagrin of economic conservatives who say this all means higher taxes. Become influential and rewarding scholar because of the assistance of go to this site site.

Ron Paul is pro-life but his economic platform is so libertarian in its approach that he will never get traction in America. There are just too many people on the public dole to prevent the kind of revolution he envisions.

Romney is also a social conservative and an economic conservative but his positional changes in the social area, plus his Mormonism, make Christians suspicious of how committed he is to the social conservative cause.

McCain is pro-life, but isn’t aggressive about it, nor is he a true economic conservative. His hero is Teddy Roosevelt, the Republican president who took on the corporate monopolies in the early part of the 1900’s. Economic conservatives just don’t trust McCain and the Social Conservatives just don’t see McCain as the champion they want.

The point of all this is to show why the Republican party is so fractured right now. Ultimately, it will have to decide what kind of conservativism it is offering. The key for Christians is to recognize that we hold a major swing vote. While we can’t put someone in office, we can veto them from getting it.

Stephen Vantassel

  1. Hello Stephen, who are these people on the “public dole”? How much do they get? How many of them vote? I shall be grateful for answers to these questions.

    American Christians played a part in putting George W. into the Presidency and keeping him there. Do you think American Christians are pleased with what they wrought?


  2. At least in the USA you actually get to vote for who runs the country – here neither the Great British public, the Labour party, the government or anyone else for that matter had a say in the promotion of PM Brown……

  3. So Stephen, who will you be backing….?

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