Christian Principles in an Election Year

The National Council of Churches in the US [1] has produced some advice for Christian voters titled Christian Principles in an Election Year [2]. It starts by saying “Your church, your communion, and the National Council of Churches USA do not endorse any political party or any candidate” (which is in bold in their text) and then lists 10 issues that Christians should consider when voting.

Here are the 10 section headings, the full article has a sentence or two explaining each one. I think that most good people (regardless of religion) will agree with all of this – maybe substitute “God” with the name of some other entity that has not been proven to exist or with “humanity”.

1. War is contrary to the will of God.
2. God calls us to live in communities shaped by peace and cooperation.
3. God created us for each other, and thus our security depends on the well being of our global neighbors.
4. God calls us to be advocates for those who are most vulnerable in our society.
5. Each human being is created in the image of God and is of infinite worth.
6. The earth belongs to God and is intrinsically good.
7. Christians have a biblical mandate to welcome strangers.
8. Those who follow Christ are called to heal the sick.
9. Because of the transforming power of God’s grace, all humans are called to be in right relationship with each other.
10. Providing enriched learning environments for all of God’s children is a moral imperative.

The Blogger Joy Reid [3] often uses the term “Matthew Christian” to refer to Christians who follow the book of Matthew and act in ways that would be considered to be good by most people regardless of belief. This is in stark contrast to some of the nasty people who call themselves Christian and who promote hatred, inequality, and war – such people give all Christians a bad reputation (see the comment section of any blog post concerning religion for examples).

John Goerzen’s post titled Politics and the Church (which references the NCCUSA article [4]) is also worth reading. Interestingly his blog post had a Google advert for “Christian Masturbation” when I viewed it. John also has a good post explaning why he is voting for Obama – based on his Christian beliefs and “Traditional Values” [5].

• [1] http://www.ncccusa.org/
• [2] http://www.ncccusa.org/votingprinciples/
• [3] http://blog.reidreport.com/
• [4] http://changelog.complete.org/posts/771-Politics-and-the-Church.html
• [5] http://changelog.complete.org/posts/762-What-Traditional-Values-Mean-to-Me.html