What I wish they understood

Republicans don't have a monopoly on God.  Neither do conservative "Christians."  You can be a Christian and be liberal.  You can be a Christian and be a Democrat.  You can be a Christian and believe deeply in gay rights.  You can be a Christian and be gay.  You can be an atheist and still be a good American.  It is ok to question some parts of the Bible and definitely ok to not want to base our government on its obscure passages.  You can question and even hate our president and still be a Christian and still be a loyal American. 

How have our values been twisted so much that in the "Christian" nation of America:
* No child should be aborted but who cares what happens to them after they are born.  We would rather judge poor people for having sex than to help them prevent pregnancies.
* Petty robbery is horrible but corporate greed is ok.
* Poor drug users deserve jail and not rehab, even though rehab is cheaper and more effective.
* Our culture of life gives the death penalty overwhelmingly to the poor, mentally incompetent, and innocent while the ones who deserve it are free.
* Although we are the richest nation in the world,  35.9 million people live in poverty.  How is that ok?
* It's better for a child to be in danger and never have a home than to be with a loving stable gay couple.
* Viagra is automatically covered by insurance companies but women had to fight long and hard to get birth control pills covered.
* There's a severe lack of affordable housing for the poor, but instead of trying to help them, we refuse to raise the minimum wage and then pass legislation to make it harder for people to declare bankruptcy.
* Public schools are severely under-funded, dangerous, the teachers are overworked, and we put the blame on the teachers instead of the government and our culture that perpetuates the problem.
* We demand freedom of religion but only if it's our religion, our way.
* We're so busy being judgmental and self-centered, we can't see truth even when it's right in front of us.  We refuse to even entertain the thought that it's ok to be disagree and to try to find the common ground.
* We flood the market of poor countries with our cheap grain, creating huge debt for them, de-valuing the work of indigenous farmers, all the while ignoring the poor and hungry of our own country.
* We demand that all other countries destroy any nuclear weapons, but we alone are allowed to keep a stockpile.
* America completely ignores countries that truly need help (Rwanda? Sudan?) but will sacrifice our generation's money and lives in countries where we stand to gain something.
* We allow employers who CLEARLY can afford it to refuse to give their workers health insurance by keeping them "part-time" (working 38 hours a week -- WALMART) or hiring them as temps (DELL) and never giving them full-time status.
* Religion and faith are wielded as a political tool.  Do you really think God wants people (politicians and ministers primarily) using His name to scare and manipulate the impressionable population?

These things have really been pissing me off lately.  These and a million other things.  And every time I watch the news, I feel worse.

Comments

[Shelly]

AMEN! I am a register republician< BUT I am more a conservative Democrat. I agree with everything you have said. Tough and cheek for our government.
Have a great day!

[Heather]

As bad as it is in this country (I agree with some of the things you mentioned)...there is no other country where I'd rather live. We are blessed to be where we are. As a military family we have seen many things, and are so proud to be Americans with a strong president, even though we don't always agree with him. This comment from a strong Republican...

Heather
mom to Becca, age 4

[Ninotchka]

Bravo Jen. I agree with everything you mentioned. It's a mad, mad world we live in baby!

[Kelly]

Amen to so much of what you said...I have been wanting to blog about this topic for forever now but could never find the right words, thank you Jen!
I especially agree with the drug sentencing and the adoption/gay topic!!!!!!
I agree with a lot of things that Heather said as well.....

[VirgoJen]

You hit the nail on the head!

[Leslie]

AMEN to that!! :)

[Kate]

See, this is what's great about America! I don't agree with some of what you wrote, but hey, that's your right, and I respect you for putting it out there!

I think Heather is pretty much right on.

Oh, and PS- my insurance dropped coverage for ANY type of birth control. Um, yeah, 'cause a $25 pack of pills or a $200 IUD is so much cheaper THAN AN UNPLANNED PREGNANCY! The insanity.

[Andrea]

Totally on the same page as you on all this, Jen!

[Jenni]

Jen,
I LOVE this post, I totally agree! I like all the new pictures you've added as well. Please e-mail me about a banner, I need your help!

Jenni

[Sue]

We may be half a world away but a lot of the issues are the same in this country. Thanks for this post Jen!

[Sandi P.]

Late in commenting on this Jen, but I agree with most of what you're saying hon!

This world can be a crazy place sometimes (well most of the time actually!).

[Raquita]

Well... I swear that's a mouthful I wish I had thought to spit out... glad to meet you i'm a blogging scrapbooking mom too! Don't meet tomany of you on the net tehse days but I'm just getting around to looking I like your site! gives me a few ideas on how to sprce up mine! Will keep reading - keep writing and maybe we'll keep in touch!

Raquita Jones
poet/mom/woman
http://photos.yahoo.com/queue_d
http://raquita.blogspot.com