Romney, Obama, religion and politics, faith and beliefs, advancement and decline.

An original rant by Pete Davis.

Anyone who knows me knows that my political position is generally very conservative on most issues. Some might be surprised to know that I am somewhat apathetic on many issues, and anarchist on others.
The religious church affiliation and alliance that a person has I think has little to do with his character. With that said, I won't be voting for anyone who I don't believe to be a Born-Again Believer in Jesus Christ. I believe that G.W. Bush is a Believer with strong convictions that he stands behind. It would be easy for him to back down on the stem-cell issue to gain more popularity. It would be easy for him to fall back into his old ways of alcoholism to "fit in" to the Washington crowd and the social scene more.
I don't think that Bill (or Hillary) Clinton are true believers in Christ. They (like Bush) are members of the Methodist Church, but they have long stood in FAVOR of legalized abortion, Gay rights, and on the "non-Christian" side of a lot of issues. Actions speak louder than words. I have never known of the Clintons to stand up for the moral right side of the issue. I may be wrong, and they are morally upstanding people, but I have only heard the worst side of things.

I am not saying that I will never vote Dem, but as long as (as a party) they are voting to legalize (and subsidise) the killing of unborn children, I won't be a part of that team. I don't know how a follower of Christ can justify that position.

You may say that since the President and Congress don't make that call, it doesn't really matter what they think. The Supreme Court can overturn the Roe V. Wade ruling, and the Supreme Court is appointed by the President and Affirmed by the Congress. Pro-life executive and legislative branches will give us a Pro-Life Judicial branch.

Nit Romney is Pro-life and a Repblican. He is also a Mormon. The Mormon faith adds so much to the Bible, that I don't think I can ever embrace and support a candidate with an alliance to the Mormon Church. Satan is a real force in the world today. His only goal is to stop the non-believers from becoming believers, and to become a stumbling block for believers. A group of people who can contaminate the truth "just enough" that it still sounds good, but leads souls astray is definitely not doing the work of God.

Here is some of what I consider "Core beliefs" that I cannot budge on:
Faith in Christ is the ONLY method of Salvation.
Everyone needs Salvation. It is available to all men who will repent and ask God for it.
Jesus Christ is Deity. He is the Only Son of God.
Jesus, The Holy Spirit, and God (Jehovah) the Father make up the Trinity (Godhead) that created all things.
Jesus was born of a Virgin, lived a perfect life, and was crucified to pay for our sins.
The Holy Bible is the COMPLETE and INSPIRED word of God. The Koran, the Book of Mormon, the Apocrypha (Catholic), the Hindu holy books, or any other books that contradict the Bible are not the truth, and not worthy of my faith.
Anyone who denies the "core truths" of the Christian faith is a false leader. I don't care if he has millions of followers, if he denies Christ, he is not doing the work of God.

With that said, there are many things that I believe that I can accept some people who differ with me on some issues. If a God-fearing Bible-Believing Christian wants to sprinkle instead of dunk in the baptistery, I won't stand in their way. If they don't want to allow their children to listen to secular music or wear makeup, thats fine with me.
If different groups of Believers have different practices and convictions involving Holidays, Christmas Decorations, Secular activities, or styles of worship, I really don't have a problem with that. I have my convictions, and you have yours.
If you get 100 Christians together, you will have at least 100 different opinions on the following questions
How should Baptism be performed?
What is appropriate clothing for a minister?
Is the KJV the only revision of the Bible that should be read by Christians?
Should Christian Children be allowed to attend Secular school, Halloween celebrations, Easter Egg Hunts?
Should children be allowed to wear jewelry, makeup, short pants?
Should mixed race marriage be allowed?
Should a Christian fight in war, own a gun, or work in law enforcement?

I have my answers to those questions and I am sure that you have yours.

Philippians 2:12 (King James Version)
King James Version (KJV)
Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

Getting back to the subject at hand: I hope that we can have a Christian in the next presidential election that we can all rally behind. I can deal with a lot of things, but I don't think the country needs a leader who isn't grounded in a solid faith. Barak Obama is a member of the Church of Christ (not a Muslim as earlier reported) but is he a Christian? Does he support Christian values? Can a Christian support Abortion? Gay marriage? Can you support those things and have a strong faith in God?

Do more Christians need to be involved with Political things? I think so. Unfortunately, most of the people that I respect enough to vote into office don't have the stomach to get involved. Its a conundrum. In this day and age, I don't know if someone can keep their faith and compromise themselves enough to get the support they need to get elected.

We are living in an age now where Congress has openly homosexual members, whore mongers, liars, thieves, and people with any number of religious labels. Diversity in the US is inevitable, but I don't know how much longer God will protect us as a nation with the overwhelming turning away from Him that our leadership has made, especially over the last few generations.

The next election will have many issues facing the candidates:
Global warming (a non-issue, but you can't explain that to some people)
Socialized medicine (we already have it. No ER can refuse treatment based on your ability to pay. The govt picks up the tab, we apparently need more administration and bureaucracy involved)
Border control. (a lot of words and emotions behind this one. Little action will ever take place)
The war on terror.( Maybe we can sign a peace treaty soon. Maybe a surrender will happen. Maybe the enemy will give up. Who? When? Where? How? I understand how we got in, but I don't understand how to ever get out without a LOT more bloodshed and heartache. )

I will be 40 in 2008. I have seen a LOT of change in my lifetime. The political baseline has moved FAR to the left since the 60's. People used to have shame.
At the same time we have had great improvements in technology in that time. The PC I am typing on was unthinkable back then. The Internet was barely on the drawing board in 1968. There has been more wealth created in my lifetime, more inventions developed, more advances in automotive, agriculture, energy, space travel, and information and other technologies than in any other period in history. I wonder sometimes if we have become so advanced in spite of our collective loss of faith as a people. I am reminded of a passage in Romans

Romans 1
20For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

21Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

22Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.

As we have indoctrinated our young people in the Church of Academia that God is not real, not necessary, or not the complete truth with absolute black and white behavioral guidelines (sins and commandments) while at the same time we have made all of these advancements in technology, have we once again chosen the fruit from the wrong tree? Have we made ourselves fools? Is there any turning back? Will we as a people ever see the need to repent? I think that we have gone further down the slippery slope of the moral slide that we may never collectively see the error in our ways.