I have been reading posts on this site for the last couple of days, and it's kind of like being in a different country, in a good way. I find this constant campaigning tedious and depressing, as I see both parties as two heads of the same hydra. As an activist in the anti-war movement, I've also wondered what happened to all my anti-war comrades after the 2008 election. I've had to wonder if they were okay with endless war so long as it was waged by a party or president they liked.
My concern with GCM of late has not been in dealing with its effect on my life, but in their involvement in electoral politics. It has been my understanding, ever since I learned anything of the Constitution, that the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment was as much for the protection of churches as it was intended to ensure that we are not all pressured to share a common faith. Even the issue of prayer in schools has, in my opinion, been a good thing. When I was a church-going Christian, I did not necessarily want my children indoctrinated in dogma with which I did not agree. If the State of Texas has its way, however, that is exactly what will happen to our parents and students, and I am just sick about it.
I have learned that Jim McCotter and another member of his family are members of the Council for National Policy, a group whose positions I find quite disturbing. They are very secretive about their membership, but I was able to find a roster from about five years ago, and you can imagine my horror when I saw not one, but two McCotters on it.
So how do you all feel about our country being a Christian theocracy? Although I am making it pretty clear in this post that I am against such a thing, I hope you realize that it is not a position I take out of hostility to religion, and if you differ, I will not only be respectful of your opinion, but will try to understand as much of your viewpoint as I can.
Hope this finds you all well. I see from the posts I have read lately that you are still the same courteous, thoughtful, and lovely people you were when I first met you a couple of years ago.
I never voted before my membership with GCM and when I did, it was conservative Republican. I look back and find it amazing that GCM Church was so overtly political; indeed, that it was a Christian's duty to vote Republican, for that sake of "family values-" i.e. abortion, standing against gay rights, prayer in schools and so on.
Today, I have nothing against the GOP but I have learned there is much more than those few issues. A few years ago, I read an excellent book called
The Great Awakening, Reviving Faith & Politics by Reverend Jim Wallis. It is an excellent book for showing there is much more to be concerned about than just abortion and gay marriage. By the way, in the 2008 election, I voted Democrat. I don't regret it at all.
