Evangelicals often
view compassion differently then left of center voters. Compassion, we
believe, comes from our mind and will having a concern for the well-being of others
and moving to action for their benefit. We further believe this as an act
of our free will. We believe we are to live a life of compassion as a
cornerstone to our relationships, finances and time. We believe that by demonstrating this compassion,
others will be loved and cared for. We often believe (even if we don’t
always articulate this), that left wing governments claim to have a heart of
compassion, but skew the meaning and therefore debase the value of what they do.
Liberals at their core think compassion is an act of the collective state -
not the individual; therefore, the finances, time and relational structures of
acting compassion out should (they argue) be through a government planned
body. We don’t think this is compassion. Forcing people to pay
money for needs that a central planner thinks best is not what we are taught
with the simplicity of the parable of the Good Samaritan. Seeing a need
and personally using your own resources to meet that need is the basis of
compassion; not forced giving to an inefficient central planner.
Evangelicals view the
household (aka. Oikos) being developed, restored and built as central to a
healthy family which in turn leads to a strong economy. Conservative budgets
(often but not always) look to reduce taxes on households, where liberal
governments look for spending on state intervention to further run or control
our household (ex: state run child care, state run graphic sex-ed, several
social programs that intervenes or attempts to socially engineer and shape our
household). The family should develop our family; governments should not.
Thus we often vote for those who stand in solidarity with this position.
Liberalism is
fundamentally opposed with the Evangelical position of man’s “sin nature” and
therefore misses entirely the problem and solution to many problems that arise
(possibly at no fault of the one hurting): selfishness, broken homes, broken hearts,
poverty, unemployment, income gaps and many more. You cannot legislate a man’s
heart to wholeness…although Justin Trudeau’s dad thinks he can:
Liberal philosophy places
the highest value on freedom of the individual. The first consequence of
freedom is change. A Liberal can seldom be a partisan of the status quo. He
tends to be a reformer attempting to move society, to modify its institutions,
to liberate its citizens. The liberal is an optimist at heart who trusts
people. He does not see man as an essentially perverse creature, incapable of
moral progress and happiness. Nor does he see him as totally or automatically
good. He prizes man's inclination to good but knows it must be cultivated and
supported. While understanding as well as any other man the limits of
government and the law, the liberal knows that both are powerful forces for
good, and does not hesitate to use them.
-The Right Honourable Pierre
Elliott Trudeau, April 1974
Man is not inclined to
good; we are inclined to be those hellions in Lord Of The Flies. Tell me, did
you teach your child to say “no” or did they kinda just pick it up? We
are bent towards evil: all of us. We believe the Liberals are wrong to think
that billions in state planned social expenditures will solve man’s broken
heart. We believe the liberals use a flawed premise (government = powerful
force for developing good in people) to further damage what is already hurting
despite any good intentions. Conversely; we believe strengthening the family is
the cornerstone to seeing social change for the better. Love is our “powerful
force” not the government; therefore we seek to strengthen families by loving
them best we can: not strengthen governments. Governments are not our
partner in building and strengthening our household through large programs and
social planning and therefore are not at liberty to extract 100’s of billions of Canadians dollars
for such estranged purposes. We typically vote unashamedly for a party that reflects this
value.
We often believe a
conservative vote best empowers us to love others without draining our
resources into an inefficient and often disastrous outfit that is based on
laws, programs, perpetual debt and gross neglect. Our vote for conservativism does not suggest
100% agreement with a particular party, but it does reflect our desire to
maintain our personal freedoms to love others as we have capacity and resources
to do. We say vamoose to any government using our tax dollars to undue the
message of compassion we are best trying to practice through a message of hope
and love.
Thank you for taking
the time to read this note. If this blog speaks to your values, would you
consider sharing it? If it does not, you are welcome to speak your mind in the
comment section below.
