The Politics of Faith...

Have you seen the picture of the Obama team praying before going on stage for a rally? This article in Time explains how different this season is than '04, when the Democrat party tried to distance itself from any affiliation with matters of faith.

This year, we're seeing both parties appealing to the Bible for moral mandates; one party is intent on stepping into people's lives on issues of sexual morality, but stepping away on economic and environmental matters. The other party is intent on stepping into the economic machinery while leaving sexual, family morality to ride a more libertarian course.

My observation is this:

Neither party is consistent - both try to legislate at some points (require health insurance from all employers, or forbid abortion), and at other's call for the government to 'keep their hands off' (my body, my womb, the wage I should need to pay my employees, my freedom to get eight miles to the gallon).

Is this inconsistency principled in some way, or just a double standard?

I'm hoping that we can have conversations at our church around these kinds of subjects in a summer study series, but I don't know. It seems that political discussions often become inflamed with nasty rhetoric and accusations, and people end up hurting each other. In a commendably eclectic community like the church I pastor, shouldn't it be possible to work though a book like this one, discussing various issues and seeking to gain a faith perspective on them, listening carefully to those who differ from us with an eye towards understanding?