Stepping out of my comfort zone.

I'm scared. Scared that you'll hate what I write, hate my style, notice my mistakes and comment on them, or worse yet, that you'll notice them but be too polite, or considerate of my insecurities, to mention them. Is that a run on sentence? Yikes! I'm not sure I should be doing this at all.

So, why am I doing this? Because some things need to be questioned, and thought through. I need to figure out why we do the things we do. This first, and perhaps only blog, is about politics....and I don't even like politics.

OK then, here we go!

I was raised in a smallish Ontario city, in a biggish working class family, attending an evangelical Christian church every Sunday, without fail.  I know for a fact that my parents voted Conservative, but never really knew the reasoning behind this, if in fact there was any reasoning at all. Maybe they were just told to vote that way. I don't recall actually being told that this was the way that all Christians should vote, but it was certainly implied, and I believe that several of my friends at church still feel this way. 

I married a man who likes to describe himself as a "Montreal liberal baby". He's very opinionated on all things political, to which many of you can attest. We've had 40 years of political debates in our home, and seldom agreed. I can't say that I'm truly a supporter of any political party. I weigh up the options, look at their track record, and decide if I can stomach the leader as our next Prime Minister. I freely admit to having voted for all three of our major political parties over the years. 

Lately, there have been several things that I've been mulling over....hence my first attempt at blogging.   I've been watching the senate scandals, the Duffy trial, listening to the lies, the cover ups, the lack of integrity so evident in our federal leadership. As we Albertans know, we just threw out our own provincial government after a longstanding Conservative reign. I think it was the backlash from some of my Christian friends on Facebook, that really started me thinking and questioning our reasons for voting as we do.

Now, I'm not a scholar or a writer, I didn't study political science, and I'm not claiming to be an expert. I have more questions than answers. My questions have to do with the relationship between my faith and politics. What makes a certain political party more "Christian" than another? Is it their roots? Is it what some of the members profess to believe and support? Is it how truthful they are? How much integrity they show? What they actually do while in power? How honest they are in expense claims? I'm not sure how to measure it. Skimming the surface of the very little I know about political parties, I realize that I'm not qualified to write in any depth or with any authority on the subject. Hopefully I know a little bit more about my faith.  Let's go at it from that angle then.

Jesus. He's a good one to start with. What did he have to say about how he would identify his own?
These verses have been playing over and over in my mind, so I'll share them with you. In the Gospel
according to Matthew, chapter 25, Jesus talks about how he will separate the sheep from the goats. "Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me." 

When the righteous asked him when they had ever done these things for him, he replied, "whenever
you did these things for the least of these brothers of mine, you did it for me."  It's just one example, but it seems to me that Jesus usually taught about loving people, showing mercy, not favouring the wealthy, helping others, giving to those who are in need.

I googled a few articles on the history of the NDP, attempting to see why so many Christians seem to
be really fearful of our new provincial government, and if indeed, as some have stated, it's time to move out of Alberta! These next few paragraphs come from an article about the history of the CCF, the early founding fathers of our first "socialist government", which became our present day NDP:

For some Canadians, a socialist party was a terrifying idea. The mayor of Vancouver, Gerry McGeer, saw it as proof that Soviet Communism had entered Canada through the back door.

"If you elect those people, they'll take away your home, they'll take away your car, and burn down your churches. Furthermore, they'll nationalize your women"

In fact, the CCF was firmly against Communism and believed in achieving socialism through democratic elections rather than revolution. 

In 1935, five CCF MPs were elected to Parliament including Tommy Douglas, who later became the first CCF Premier, elected in Saskatchewan in 1944.
The CCF became the New Democratic Party in 1961. Although the Party never held power nationally, its policies were adopted and implemented by federal governments over the years. Those
CCF initiatives include unemployment insurance, family allowance, Medicare and universal old age pensions.

I doubt if many of us would like to dispense with these things, or call them evil.

I do understand where many Evangelical Christians are coming from, in that the Conservative party has sold itself as the one who upholds "family values" (whatever that looks like), is against things like abortion, same sex marriage etc. I'm not saying those are bad reasons, but has it proven to be true? They've been in power for many years and haven't made any changes in these areas. Why? Because they can't. They may have put forth bills trying to change these laws, but the Supreme Court of Canada won't pass them. Why? They are against our Constitution. So this leads me ask even more questions. Is our Prime Minister unaware of the law, or the Constitution of Canada?  If so, that's pretty scary. If not, then what motive could he possibly have for making these futile attempts to pass a bill that is never going to be passed? Are they attempting to appease the right wing voters by appearing to support these causes? Another unwelcome thought isn't it? I don't know what's going on really, but the whole bunch of them, federally and provincially have not been at all what they should be. Taking more than they are entitled too, lying, giving all the tax breaks to the rich, and not the poor, cutting in places where we  all need more funding, not less, such as health care and education....these are not signs of "Christian" behaviour in my eyes, and unless they clean up their acts, I can't reward them with my vote.
  

I realize that I've been talking about both the provincial and the federal governments, and it might be confusing. I'm really trying to look at the principles behind who they are, what they say, and what they actually do. I guess I'm just saying that maybe we should think a bit more, ask ourselves some hard questions, give our new provincial  government a fair chance to prove themselves. If they turn out to do as poor a job as the last lot, are dishonest in their dealings, if they also cut health care and educational funding..... we can vote them out again! That's the beauty of our democracy isn't it?

 Now be gentle with me. It's my first attempt, and I'm easily bruised. :)