NO ROOM FOR CHRIST IN AMERICAN CONSERVATISM

The deepest flaw in the so-called conservative movement in America today is the fact that it claims to have a foundation in Christian values yet fails to adhere to the core teaching of Christ: Love thy neighbor and thy enemy. For all its pro-religion rhetoric, the basic tenants of American conservatism are far from religious and anything but Christ-like.

While the conservative movement champions the elimination of abortion claiming that all human life is precious, it has vigorously defended this Country's pursuit of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, killing tens of thousands of innocent lives in the process. At the same time it extols the sanctity of human life, the conservative movement advances the death penalty seeking to broaden its use. Both inconsistencies are justified with the assertion that terrorists and criminals are enemies of the state, and indeed they are, but warring and executing are not Christ-like behaviors and those who claim to be carrying out God’s will in the process are not fooling anyone, least of all the Almighty.

Nowhere in Christ’s teachings does one find a call for inequality and ill treatment of others. In fact, compassion and understanding for outcasts is a central theme of the Gospels, but the conservative movement sees inequality in a different light, justifying it as a legitimate means to an end. The conservative drive against homosexuals is characterized as a ‘war against sin’, and discrimination against that group is justified as a necessary tool designed to prevent homosexuality from taking root. Unequal treatment of homosexuals is not only condoned, it is championed. Imagine if the victim in Christ's “Good Samaritan” parable was a homosexual instead of a robbery victim. Today's American conservative movement would have passed him by too and felt totally justified. The lesson here: just because inequity is popular among Christian conservatives doesn’t make it Christian.

Another core value of conservatism is self-reliance. Those who carry their own weight are adjudged righteous and those who don’t lazy and worthless. The conservative movement champions individualism and shuns social dependence on one another. Never mind that Christ advocated caring for the poor and less fortunate. Forget that Christ encouraged community building and shunned individual-promotion over the advancement of all. In the conservative movement self-advancement is number one!

In the same vein conservatism generally advocates a reduction in government efforts to feed, shelter and provide medical care to the poor and elderly. And while it is rightfully claimed that churches and individuals are more effective than government in providing said services, the simple fact is that churches and individuals have come nowhere close to meeting all the needs of the poor either. Without government intervention millions would suffer, a fact the conservative movement conveniently ignores.