The Eastern Oklahoma County Democrats have announced that at their next monthly meeting there will be a discussion/debate that caught my attention. I’ll let them explain it:
DemoOkie – The Eastern Oklahoma County Democrats are having their monthly meeting on Thursday, February 12 at 7 p.m. in the back of AFGE Union Hall, at the corner of SE 44th & Douglas Blvd, Midwest City (across from Tinker AFB). If you need a ride, please call Steve Covert at 259-9884.
We are going to have a discussion and/or debate on “Why do Republicans believe they are more religious?”. The event will be monitored by Stephen Covert, thus it will be fair to all.
The core of our discussion will be sent to the three newspapers in East Oklahoma County, the Oklahoman, other newspapers in Oklahoma County, the two NPR radio stations and other radio stations. I will email the event to the interested parties twice. Each debate individual is expected to bring their own supporters. We normally have between 6 and 132 participants with the current average being 50 participants. We hope to have about 60 participants in this event because the subject is so controversial.
I would love to be a fly on the wall at this meeting and listen to all the Democrats sitting around bashing those mean old Republicans on their religious high horses. I’m sure the Republican side will be well represented by… Wait, they didn’t invite Republicans? How can there be a debate without two sides? And certainly it will be fair, being monitored by Stephen Covert. If you’re not sure who he is, don’t feel bad because I didn’t remember either. He was the Democrat candidate for Oklahoma County Treasurer last year and lost to Butch Freeman. His personal webpage still has campaign info on it and has a statement that speaks volumes about how unbiased he is about Republicans and religion.
Stephen Covert – “The republicans in this state are hurting the poor people for political reasons and claiming Christian Values. I personally could not sleep or go to church with my job being more important than the poor people in our society. “
Fair and impartial?
But what exactly do the Democrats mean when they say “more religious?” Go to church more? Have stronger faith? More confidence in eternal destination? There are so many different attitudes about what it means to ‘be religious’ that the Democrats need to define the term before any worthwhile bashing, er, discussion can occur.
The Huffington Post seems to be in sync with leftist thinking, so let’s take a look at what they say being religious means.
Huff Post – Are you religious? What criteria come to mind in answering that question? When evaluating how “religious” someone is, social scientists and the general public tend to rely on the frequency of religious activities, strength or type of religious beliefs, relative importance of religion in one’s life, or some average of these aspects of religious life.
However, in reality it is very difficult to measure someone’s overall religiousness, religiosity or how religious she is on some sort of scale. Although it is common to hear one person describe another as “religious” or “not religious,” what exactly does that mean?
Certainly, some people are highly religious in all three of the above aspects and some are not religious at all. In our study of young people in the United States we find that 20 percent are highly religious in all aspects and only five percent are not religious at all. This leaves 75 percent of the population as more difficult to classify.
One person might feel extremely close to God and believe religion inspires his or her life, but never attend religious services. Another person may attend religious services regularly, and yet feel distant from God or not prioritize religion over other dimensions of life. Not everyone would agree which of these two individuals is “more religious” because we possess varied schematics for how different aspects of religiousness meld together and compare to each other.
Whoever came up with the discussion/debate topic didn’t choose their words very carefully. Basically what I believe the Democrats are wanting to discuss is why some Republicans allow their faith to guide them in their political activities and why the Democrats believe that’s wrong. Democrats, as a party, loathe religion and any politician who allows their Christian faith to have influence in their elected office. I’m sure there are some Democrats who would argue with me on that, but for those Democrats who profess Christianity I will just say your actions say otherwise. The Bible does say we are not to judge someone’s salvation, but the Bible also says that Christians are to be discerning. First Thessalonians 5:21-22 says, “But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil.”
I have written on my blog before that to be a Democrat and claim to be Christian at the same time is not possible. No true Christian would ever support the Democratic Party, the immorality and evil for which they stand.
The Democrats champion abortion. Millions of babies have been butchered in the womb in the last forty years, thanks to Democrats. No true Christian would ever want to associate themselves with people responsible for that.
The Democrats advocate for homosexual marriage. No true Christian would ever support that. Sure, there are Republicans who support recognizing homosexual marriages. No one ever said that all Republicans are Christians.
And lastly, as I have pointed out before on my blog, which party was it that booed inserting a statement recognizing God into the party platform at their 2012 convention? It wasn’t the Republicans. If you claim to be a Christian and your party boos God, don’t you think you might be in the wrong party?
It appears to me that the Democrats have chosen the wrong discussion topic for their meeting, especially when it seems there are no invitations for Republicans to present the other side. Instead, the Democrats should all sit around and discuss amongst themselves – Why Do Democrats Kill Babies and Boo God?
I agree with your sentiment that it would be impossible to be a Democrat and still claim to be a Christian. The two would be a total antithesis of each other. There is no way to reconcile the two together, without the principles of one or the other being compromised.
And of course the Democrats would say that compromise means giving up your Christian values, if you want to be in their party. But if you have values, why would you want to be in their party in the first place?