catapult magazine

the National Council of Churches. Link from http://www.elca.org/advocacy/media/10principles/ to a downloadable PDF study guide with these 10 principles and discussion questions.[/b:1be57b7cc5]

Our Christian faith compels us to address the world through the lens of our relationship to God and to one another. Public discourse is enhanced as we engage civic leaders on the values and ethics affirmed by our faith. At the same time, religious liberty and the integrity of our democracy will be protected as candidates refrain from using faith-based organizations and institutions for partisan gain. We offer these ten principles to those seeking to accept the responsibility that comes with holding public office.
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:1be57b7cc5]War is contrary to the will of God. While the use of violent force may, at times, be a necessity of last resort, Christ pronounces his blessing on the peacemakers. We look for political leaders who will make peace with justice a top priority and who will actively seek nonviolent solutions to conflict.
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[:1be57b7cc5]God calls us to live in communities shaped by peace and cooperation. We reject policies that abandon large segments of our inner city and rural populations to hopelessness. We look for political leaders who will re-build our communities and bring an end to the cycles of violence and killing.
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[*:1be57b7cc5]God created us for each other, and thus our security depends on the well-being of our global neighbors. We look for political leaders for whom a foreign policy based on cooperation and global justice is an urgent concern.

calls us to be advocates for those who are most vulnerable in our society. We look for political leaders who yearn for economic justice and who will seek to reduce the growing disparity between rich and poor.

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:1be57b7cc5]Each human being is created in the image of God and is of infinite worth. We look for political leaders who actively promote racial justice and equal opportunity for everyone.
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[:1be57b7cc5]The earth belongs to God and is intrinsically good. We look for political leaders who recognize the earth’s goodness, champion environmental justice, and uphold our responsibility to be stewards of God’s creation.
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:1be57b7cc5]Christians have a biblical mandate to welcome strangers. We look for political leaders who will pursue fair immigration policies and speak out against xenophobia.
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[:1be57b7cc5]Those who follow Christ are called to heal the sick. We look for political leaders who will support adequate, affordable and accessible health care for all.
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:1be57b7cc5]Because of the transforming power of God’s grace, all humans are called to be in right relationship with each other. We look for political leaders who seek a restorative, not retributive, approach to the criminal justice system and the individuals within it.
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[:1be57b7cc5]Providing enriched learning environments for all of God’s children is a moral imperative. We look for political leaders who will advocate for equal educational opportunity and abundant funding for children’s services.[/list:o:1be57b7cc5]

Finally, our religious tradition admonishes us not to bear false witness against our neighbor and to love our enemies. We ask that the campaigns of political candidates and the coverage of the media in this election season be conducted according to principles of fairness, honesty and integrity.

I guess this response gets more to a Christian response beyond an election year, but here goes.
I feel that today is terribly anti-climactic, which I guess I figured would happen. I had hopes that Bush would realize that enough people thought he was wrong to replace him. Apparently, not enough people did. I do think that the bulk of the people here, hopefully all, regardless of political affiliation or identification, realize that we are a long long way from where we need to be as a Christian society and a “Christian” country. What then do we do with this fine list? How do we actively, respectfully and productively work to change the status quo to what we believe God would have. (I fully realize that that last sentence could be seen as dangerous, but I’ll leave it in there anyway). How do we let Bush know that we disagree with some/most/all of his policies now that the easy way of expressing ourselves has come and gone?

I am so sad that this has happened. So many of Bush’s positions/policies seem so anthitheical to Christianity to me that I can’t believe he got such an overwhelming majority of Christian votes. After listening to some election commentary today, I was intrigued to learn that 80% of people polled after voting said it was morality that governed their decision making at the voting booth. Not the war. Not healthcare. Not the economy. I can’t say I was surprised. I know so many people who reluctantly voted either for Bush or against Kerry becuase of “moral” issues (mostly abortion but also gay marriage and stem-cell research). I think the Kerry campaign made a huge mistake by alienating pro-life voters. As one of my professors said today, abortion is the Achilles heel of the Democratic party. I just hope that the importance of “moral” issues such as abortion does not go ignored next time around like it has this time. Maybe next time around there will be room for more people who want to be consistently pro-life, from unborn children to the urban poor to the citizens and soldiers of “enemy” nations. And just maybe in between now and then we can gain a richer sense as a nation of what contitutes the “moral.” All issues are moral at their root. Thanks to the culture wars we’ve been altogether too selective in defining what is a moral issue. I’m going to go cry now.

Well said. There is a striking difference between the way issues are discussed in the US and outside the US. Outside, the war in Iraq and American foreign policy are THE moral issues. Inside they’re not even framed in those terms.

If you look at how Bush phrases himself when talking about the war and foreign policy, he consistently makes both moral issues and did so during the campaign.

Many of the voters polled (by some poorly-worded polls that have led to oversimplified knee-jerk post-election commentary) felt that the war in Iraq and American foreign policy were “moral issues.” Same with the economy. It depends entirely on a voter’s ethnic and religious background. The emphasis on stem cell research, abortion and gay marriage came from the mainstream media and is turning out be quite suspect. Post-election analyses on C-SPAN (man, the number of post-election panel discussions is amazing!), as well as commentary in the NYT and WP show more varied results than originally thought. Read any alternative media (anything that doesn’t scream “liberal pity-party,” that is), and the “moral values” verdict isn’t so cut-and-dry.

Bush has definitely couched the war in Iraq/war against terror/general foreign policy in moral terms, i.e. using the words “right” and “wrong.” It’s pretty much how he managed to appeal to the Scots-Irish voting bloc.

It seems to me that the average Republican isn’t getting the message then. If you asked them, I would guess that most social conservatives would say “moral values” means stopping abortion and gay marriage. They probably wouldn’t include stopping Abu-Graib-type abuses unless prompted by the questioner. Is my impression accurate?

Yes Dan. I think you’re right on target. And then I think you/we are talking about a problem with “Conservative Christians” as a religious group and not just a political group. It seems that most conservative Christians limit their scope of politics to pro-life and pro-choice and just recently gay marriage. Very infrequently do I hear anything about restorative social justice, third world debt relief and environmental policies—all of which have a definitive moral aspect to them regardless of which side of the line we stand on.
But now I’m deviating from the original intention of the thread.