Religious belief and voting
Pew has some research on how various religious groups voted in the 2018 midterm election. It's kind of depressing - about half of all Catholic voters voted for Republicans and half for Democrats, but almost 80% of white Evangelical Christians voted Republican. If this election really was a referendum on Trump, that means that a majority of Christians voted for the policies of a man and party that are diametrically opposed to the teachings of Jesus. They chose hate and fear and greed instead of love and kindness and self-sacrifice.
How religious groups voted in the midterm elections
How religious groups voted in the midterm elections
posted by crystal | 3:56 PM
6 Comments:
Either they are horribly mislead or (and I think this is more likely) it proves they aren't true Christians.
John 13:35 (NIV)
35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
Galatians 5:22-23(NIV)
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
I think for a lot of Christians, what Jesus said and did means less than what the leaders of their current denomination tell them is important.
I agree. And there may be fear involved too - it's hard to be the one to stand up against injustice if it appears that you alone have that worldview.
But all they have to do is not vote for that party. Maybe it's hard to do that if you've been a life-long Republican. My step-parents are Trump voters and I just can't understand how they can believe all the lies. It's like we live in parallel universes.
I think they must feel guilty about voting differently from how the leadership directs them. We had a major election here many years ago where our pastor (at the time, we don't attend that church anymore) demanded everyone in the congregation vote a certain way. Later, at a bible study, the study leader was reiterating what the pastor said and I pushed back hard on it! I questioned the leader why they would just take someone else's word about it and not research and pray about the election for themselves? I reminded them of 2 Timothy 2:15 "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." I believe we have a God-given responsibility to seek the truth. They were shocked that I would speak out against the pastor but we ended up having a great group discussion. I didn't try to persuade anyone to vote one way or the other, just to educate themselves. I guess I'm a little passionate about the subject lol!
I think some of them don't believe the lies but they certainly excuse all the lies and bad behaviour. It's weird to have family here in Canada that are Trump supporters and will turn a discussion into a heated argument. I don't understand it, we have no say, the situation doesn't usually affect us directly and yet they are diehard supporters and get so angry when I don't agree or try to change the subject in order to avoid the arguing. Sigh, it sure feels like a parallel universe.
Almost everyone at my church was a conservative Republican but the priest was a liberal Democrat. Everyone hated him (except me). I never spoke up about it back then. Confrontations are hard! Easier to do it from a blog ;)
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