After my recent post publicly stating my support of Democratic candidate Joe Biden, I have been asked to explain why I, a follower of Christ, align with the Democratic Party.
This is no easy question.
My journey is nearly 37 years in the making, and it is full to the brim of twists and turns. I have learned, changed, adapted, gained deeper understanding, and grown my entire life. Anything I say here will be inherently flawed and incomplete. How do you type out a worldview 37 years in the making in just a few lines or pages? How do you capture the journey with all its pain, beauty, learning, and complexities? How do you make a statement which cannot be shredded by someone who adamantly disagrees?
I am not sure it can be done; nevertheless, I believe the only path of healing for our deeply divided country is mutual respect and understanding. We can only heal and forge a better way by working together, and we cannot work together if we do not respect and understand one another.
We need not agree, but we must seek to understand.
For this reason, I am attempting an answer to the question of why I align more with the Democratic Party.
In this article, I will focus on a couple existential reasons I tend to align with the Democratic Party and present a further explanation into my take on the issue of abortion. In future articles, I will examine other relevant issues.
Now, it needs to be stated that I am a complete political novice. I do not understand the complexities of how our government works or all the complexities of the issues. My stances are imperfect, and I readily admit I could be wrong and may change as I learn and grow in the future. My current stances reflect my journey thus far (as do everyone’s). If it is your desire to better understand the journey of another, then please, keep reading. If it is your desire to find flaws, pick apart my rationales, and tell me why I am wrong, then I prefer you to stop reading.
For me, this is not about presenting an iron-clad case for why Christians in general should align with the Democrats. Neither is this about putting my ideas on the table so others can throw knives. It is an attempt to help any open-hearted, open-minded individual better understand the journey, thoughts, and convictions of another.
If you can come to this table with such an attitude, you are very welcome here.
It is my expectation that responses to this post be respectful and kind. Questions are welcome, but only questions which seek better understanding. I will not engage with comments which are judgmental, condemning, or unkind. And here is my reciprocal offer: If you attempt to engage with me and my beliefs in a respectful manner, I will do my best to engage with you and your beliefs in a respectful manner.
Unity is the only way forward. And since we cannot always be unified in shared belief, it is crucial we become unified in mutual understanding.
Existential Considerations
Let me start with a couple (let’s call them) existential reasons I tend to align with the Democratic Party as these are foundational to all subsequent discussions.
First, I believe it is the responsibility of a society as a whole to care for the poor, marginalized, and the oppressed, rather than the responsibility of those individuals who are poor, marginalized, and oppressed to care for themselves (to “pull themselves up by their boot straps,” if you will).
The general message I receive from the Republican Party is “everyone needs to take care of themselves,” and many Republicans seem to be more focused on protecting individual liberty (such as the freedom to walk around without a mask during a global pandemic and the freedom of big businesses to engage in practices such as non-ethically sourced labor).
The general message I receive from the Democratic Party is that society needs to provide quality services, goods, and practical support for the poor, marginalized, and oppressed, even at the expense of the American people.
I find the latter nearer to the attitude of Christ than the former.
Second, I believe people come into this world neither “good” nor “evil,” and I have come to reject the dogma of Original Sin. It is my current belief we all come into this world with desires - desires for physical needs, and on deeper level, a desire to connect with others.
After we are born, we are faced with the reality of living in a broken world. We are built to survive, so our survival mechanisms kick in when we do not feel safe or connected, and these coping mechanisms become protective shields which can alienate us from the very people we long to feel connected, the coping mechanisms designed to protect us bringing us long term harm. And our lives unfold in circumstances outside of our control, and we become broken.
I believe we are all interconnected. If one person hurts, everyone hurts. One person’s brokenness is the whole world’s brokenness. We are, all of us, both victim and oppressor. We have an obligation to work together for peace, healing, and harmony. It is not an issue of what is fair, it is an issue of what is right.
Though flawed (I will not claim the Democratic Party has it all together - I am by no means a loyalist), I do believe the Democratic Party falls more in line with this notion of interconnectedness and of mutual work toward healing for all, which again, I see reflected in the life of Christ.
On the Issue of Abortion
I have been pro-life my entire life. This is one issue on which I have not much waivered, though I have not held judgment or condemnation for any woman who has had an abortion, held any hatred for doctors performing abortions, or felt any sense of alliance with extreme anti-abortion protesters.
Though I am a feminist (believing women and all identifying genders should be given equal opportunities, rights, and privileges to men), I see unborn children as separate from their mother. As I stated in my previous post, this used to be the main issue on which I voted for Federal positions.
I have come to realize it is not clear which party has truly helped the pro-life cause – not clear which party has reduced abortions and shown true concern for the sanctity of all life. But Republicans, along with most Christians (especially Caucasian Christian pastors/leaders) have made it clear there is only one issue for a Christian person to consider when voting – abortion. Not only is there only one issue, but there is only one party for those with a conscience.
A party which controls a large percentage of their voters on only one issue has a lot of potential for abuse. Essentially, the Republican Party can put up literally any candidate, can manipulate the fears of the party, and can have free reign on all other issues because they know the Evangelical Christians will vote for their candidate no matter what. This is a dangerous abuse of power, especially when it is questionable how much the Republican Party helps the pro-life cause.
I do not personally care for a party which manipulates Evangelical Christians through the issue of abortion.
Let us consider abstinence-only sex education. Abstinence-only education seems to promote the value of sexual purity over the sanctity of human life. Abstinence-only education says it is more important to educate our children on avoiding engaging in the immoral practice of premarital sex than it is to provide an education that likely reduces abortions.
I recently heard a psychologist share about a link she discovered between abstinence-only education (along with the “True Love Waits” movement) and increased sexual shame, even in healthy, committed relationships. A little research shows she is not alone.
Not only are we teaching our children to be ashamed of their bodies and natural desires, but we are putting them in positions where if they do happen to find themselves pregnant (having unintended sex without any contraceptives available), their deep shame at their situation and the embarrassment they could cause their conservative family may actually put them at a higher risk for having an abortion than a teenager in a family with a sex-positive mindset and comprehensive sex-education including contraception education.
Contraceptives reduces pregnancy, thereby reducing abortions. We cry foul at the idea of teaching our children about safe-sex because we do not want to encourage them to have sex (which I can completely understand), but from what I can find, there does not seem to be any correlation between contraception education and increased sexual behavior.
Therefore, we as a Christian people seem to be prioritizing the ideal of sexual purity over the ideal of reducing abortions. If the Christian Right can prioritize sexual purity over saving babies, why is it inconceivable that a Christian might be Left-leaning and seem to prioritize other issues over abortion (keeping in mind it is arguable whether the political Right actual helps the pro-life cause in any practical sense).
The messaging from the Christian Right says abortion is the most important issue when it comes to voting. Nothing stands with higher importance than the saving the lives of unborn babies – not oppression, not the destruction of the planet, not quality of life, not deaths of other kinds, not corporate greed, or anything else. All that matters is the saving of unborn babies.
Even if that is all true, is it only Left-leaning individual who are expected to prioritize unborn babies over everything else? Right-leaning individuals do not seem to prioritize unborn babies over all else. As I mentioned, Right-leaning policies appear to prioritize sexual purity over saving unborn babies by refusing to engage in practices which likely reduce the number of abortions. It seems the Right finds it more important to tell teenagers not to have sex (knowing they will, by and large, do so anyway) than it is to reduce abortions, and as an unintended side effect, whole generations have now been raised with deep seeded issues of shame surrounding the entire issue of sex.
If the Right truly valued saving unborn babies above all else, should they not be dedicated not only to putting appropriate laws in place, but also to researching and implementing all means to reduce abortion?
Putting laws against abortion into place will not make abortion disappear. Abortions would still occur even with the laws in place, and despite all the politicians who have been elected by Christians, those laws are yet to be put in place. In the meantime, how many babies could have been spared had the Right been dedicated to diligent research and implementation of policies and services which would make people less likely to get abortions in the first place?
I am not claiming Republican Christians do nothing to reduce abortion – there are great Republican Christian people who do wonderful work with people who have had or are considering having an abortion, but this type of work (along with the research and implementation of abortion-reducing policies and services) does not seem to be given high priority by the Republican Party.
The highest priority for the Republican Party appears to be protecting the way of life of the Right (such as the right for the wealthy to not have to pay higher taxes and the right to keep weapons which can be used to threaten violence against those who tell them to wear a mask).
The priority of the pro-life party appears to be protecting their own way of life. Maybe that is not reality, but it is the messaging that comes through, loud and clear.
We all have to make our choice from the options set before us, even while doing whatever we can (on micro and macro levels) to make the options better in the future and to work to heal problems from within rather than just from without.
While Republicans claim to be the political party most concerned with the sanctity of human life, for the reasons stated above along with reasons pertaining to other issues which I will address in future articles, concern for human life is not the message being communicated from the Republican Party.
From where I stand, the Democratic Party appears to hold the sanctity of all human life as a higher value than the Republican Party.
For Continued Exploration:
The Body Keeps the Score, by Bessel van der Kolk M.D.
Come As You Are, by Emily Nagoski, PH.D.
Podcast episode Defining Sexual Shame, from Mormon Sex Info, interview with Dr. Tina Sellers
Stanger-Hall KF, Hall DW (2011) Abstinence-Only Education and Teen Pregnancy Rates: Why We Need Comprehensive Sex Education in the U.S. PLoS ONE 6(10): e24658. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0024658
Abstinence-Only Education Is Ineffective And Unethical, Report Argues, https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/08/23/545289168/abstinence-education-is-ineffective-and-unethical-report-argues
They're Right. Abstinence-Only Education Doesn't Work. https://www.authenticintimacy.com/resources/5923/theyre-right-abstinence-only-ed-doesnt-work
Abstinence and abstinence-only education: A review of U.S. policies and programs
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