It seems to me that there are two golden rules that are in direct conflict with each other, and I’m not sure how conservatives reconcile it.
Rule 1) “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”
Rule 2) “He who has the gold makes the rules”
The real question is, why do “conservative” and “Christian” show up next to each other? They should be mutually exclusive! Conservative philosophy teaches that you should take care of yourself and that money is the only force capable of incentivizing people to act other than in their own best interests, and amassing piles of it is the proper approach to life. Christian philosophy teaches that “the love of money is the root of all evil”, and that you should be nice to people because it’s the right thing to do.
How do these people resolve these two things?! I would very much like someone to explain to me how these two philosophies are anything other than mutually exclusive. They are matter and anti-matter, they should not be able to exist together. I can’t figure it out.
Definitely true. The Bible says it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter heaven. If one listens to what Jesus preaches, it is much further to left than any mainstream politician. What has happened is the true market conservatives — who do not give a hoot about the moral values found in the Bible — have persuaded the religious conservatives that they are on their side. That is how you have a conference supposedly on morality with a section on how to resist government-run health care. It would be an interesting counter-argument to just stand up and start reading the Sermon on the Mount, which no matter what one thinks of religion is one of the more stirring moral arguments one can find. A good read on the topic you raise is Thomas Frank’s “What’s the Matter With Kansas?” about why people in the state frequently vote against their best interest. He argues that the Republicans use hot-button issues to prejudice conservative religious people against liberals and get them to think anything proposed by them must be wrong.
Another thing to read to the conservatives would be Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution. And then Article 11 of the Treaty of Tripoli.
Jesus for the Christians
Section 8 for the Conservatives
Ar.11 of the T. of T. for both.
then send in the classy hookers.
The quick answer is that the Bible is quite large. This is part of its strength, but also part of its weakness.
As a progressive, you emphasize those parts of the Bible which conform most closely to your world view and generally ignore those parts that do not do so.
Conservatives do the same.
Historically, the Christian Church has been split into two parts, generally referred to as “the high church” and “the low church”. If you look through time, these parts shift, but the split remains. Early on, it was Catholics (high) vs Protestants (low). Now, it is Evangelical/Born Again/Mormons (high) vs Episcopalians/Non-denominational/Quakers (low).
The high church tends to be more hierarchical and traditional (aka conservative) where as the low church tends to be more egalitarian and rational (aka progressive).
@Matt
Thanks for the book suggestion, looks quite interesting! And I like your idea on the Sermon on the Mount. Someone should try that in congress just to see what possible arguments would be raised… hmm..
@nordsieck
I completely agree in principal, however I feel you rather dodged the point. (Bit of a straw man perhaps?) The Bible is indeed huge, but the concepts taught out of it that “conservative Christians” claim to live by are fairly straightforward. Nobody’s preaching old-testament stoning of people who eat certain foods on certain weekdays. Although the work ethic taught in the old testament is very tribe/society based, so a lot of it is actually reasonable and even leans towards “liberal” thinking.
I know that “arbeit macht frei” is a core republican concept, and that’s fine. It even agrees with the bible. The idle man being worse than the unbeliever and all, that’s fine. Great even! Lets create job programs that help us help each other. No problem there. It’s the greed and money that’s a problem!
I just don’t understand how “conservative” and “christian” can even go together. In all the years we spent together being taught bible stories I don’t remember a single time when we were told that we needed to bribe people to be good with large piles of money, or that money was the only way to motivate people to act for more than their own good. I don’t even remember any stories /leaning/ that direction.
Of course, I WAS busy being sarcastic and snarky with you and the other wise guys, so maybe I just missed that part. 🙂
The quick answer is that the Bible is quite large. This is part of its strength, but also part of its weakness.
As a progressive, you emphasize those parts of the Bible which conform most closely to your world view and generally ignore those parts that do not do so.
Conservatives do the same.
Historically, the Christian Church has been split into two parts, generally referred to as “the high church” and “the low church”. If you look through time, these parts shift, but the split remains. Early on, it was Catholics (high) vs Protestants (low). Now, it is Evangelical/Born Again/Mormons (high) vs Episcopalians/Non-denominational/Quakers (low).
The high church tends to be more hierarchical and traditional (aka conservative) where as the low church tends to be more egalitarian and rational (aka progressive).