I have a confession to make: I’ve been cranky on Facebook.
Yes, it’s true. I am occasionally vociferous and curt with some of my really
smart and adorable FB friends. Perhaps I’m growing tired of the 47%-of-Big-Bird
nonsense. It is true that years ago a friend and colleague told me that I
“didn’t suffer fools gladly.” She has since un-friended me; I guess she didn’t
like it when she became one of the fools I didn’t suffer, but I suspect she was
right.
In this most contentious election year one of the attitudes
that I find the most off-putting and the most likely to stir up my ire is the
allegation that Christians, since we’re supposed to be charitable, should vote
liberal. Evidently we’re not fulfilling our obligations as believers if we have
concerns about the national debt or the property rights of those who make more
money than we do. The implication is that you have to be a quasi-Marxist to be
a good Christian.
Really? Well, some defining is in order here. What’s a
Christian? That’s a tough one, not
because it’s hard to define, but because many non-Christian ideas use that term
in spite of their non-biblical origins. Anyone can hop on the Christian
bandwagon and everyone pretty much has -- every major religion claims Christ as
either a teacher, a prophet, or a leader. Only biblical Christianity sees Jesus
as the literal Son of God and Savior of mankind.
Christianity, in its purely biblical sense, is merely (if I
can borrow C.S. Lewis’ phrase) the certitude that:
