Since today is Super Duper Tuesday, and many of our readers will be voting in primaries or caucuses today, I thought I'd start this thread to discuss faith and politics.
As ex-Laestadians, do you see your spiritual journey as relating to your political views or affiliations? Has your politics changed or stayed the same since leaving Laestadianism?
Who do you like among the current field of presidential hopefuls, and why?
While I was in, I was default hard right, like most everyone else. After leaving, my politics slowly moved leftward, first on social issues and later on economic issues as well.
ReplyDeleteTrying to legislate things only because your faith says so bothers me. Your faith can inform your politics, but there needs to be more to back up your proposals than "the Bible says so."
I was a political conservative before I was Laestadian, during my oalc years, and now after leaving.
ReplyDeleteYou will not hear me say "I was pro-life before I was pro-choice and now I am pro-life again!"
4eyes
I was conservative everything when I was in the ALC.
ReplyDeleteNow I'm fiscally conservative, socially liberal, almost pacifist, and willing to dicker on abortion if the terms were right.
Fist fights used to break out here whenever politics came up! I like this new civility.
ReplyDeleteI supported Edwards but I'm going to see Obama this morning (with a few thousand of my neighbors), and am ready to be persuaded that he is presidential material.
free, you'll have to let us know what you thought of Obama's speech. I think he pretty much calls it dead on.
ReplyDeleteHillary would be a good president, too, but I see a more wide based support coming for Obama.
I guess you could say I'm fairly liberal in my views. I want people taken care of. I don't want people going hungry. I don't believe morality can be legislated...it needs to come from the heart. I believe we should work on the causes of the problems instead of trying to bandage up or control the symptoms of our society.
I think that medical marijuana should be legalized. I don't believe in the death penalty. I believe in spending money on programs like WIC, Head Start, health care, and child care assistance. If that all makes me a liberal, so be it.
Okay, never mind. I just realized that you already posted about it. Ha!
ReplyDeleteI was conservative while in the OALC, and after leaving, I am now a PROUD conservative but without a candidate I am excited about. Why would someone who left the OALC and became a saved Christian become a social liberal? Abortion is the biggie for me. Also, every time OALCers hear about ex-members becoming democrats, there goes the witness. Thats how I see it, anyway.
ReplyDeleteReally, the way I see it, Jesus would take care of the less fortunate. Why shouldn't we?
ReplyDeleteDefine what you mean by "social liberal," anon 8:12. What issues would you consider to be the cause of the lost witness to the OALC?
ReplyDeleteI'm a "saved Christian" and a social liberal. I fail to see the implied contradiction.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, God gives us a great deal of freedom to make our own choices (right or wrong) so the real inconsistency to me is why conservative "saved Christians" would want to go beyond God's own methods and control the behaviors of others.