By: Dale Weckbacher
Matthew 5:9
Blessed are the
peacemakers,
For they shall be
called sons of God.
NKJV
Recently I was attending an event at my church. As we always do, we asked if anyone attending
the event had any prayer requests and one woman raised her hand. She shared how the tone of this presidential
campaign was stressing her out. We
shared with her the need to find peace from the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ,
which seemed to provide some peace in her heart. However, her request caused me to begin
thinking about how we can be peacemakers during this chaotic campaign season.
Unfortunately, much of the chaos this campaign season is due
to divisions in the Republican Party and if these differences are not resolved,
I fear we may assist in the election of either Bernie Sanders or Hillary
Clinton as our next President. This
would be an unmitigated disaster for the United States and insure it declines
into insignificance as a world power creating a vacuum most likely filled by
radical extremists with little regard for life, liberty, or the pursuit of
happiness.
In order to heal these divisions in the Party, the GOP must
find common ground within its differing factions and unite to insure the
removal of radical liberal and progressives from power. To begin this process, let us look at these
differing factions within the conservative movement.
1)
Social Conservatives – These individuals lean
conservative when it comes to social issues like assisting the poor, standing
against abortion, and the belief that marriage is between a man and a
woman. However, many of these social
conservatives are also fiscally liberal and support government programs that
help the poor. Some pastors such as Rev.
Cabrera speak of a calling to politics to conservatively uphold social values
while supporting liberal governmental programs of wealth redistribution to the
poor. (1)
2)
Fiscal Conservatives – In the other end of the
conservative spectrum, we have individuals who are fiscally conservative but
believe social issues should not be considered during the election or even
support liberal social values. These
individuals believe the Republican Party should stop discussing social issues
during campaigns believing this turns people away from the GOP and causes them
to vote Democrat. These Republicans
rally behind men like Colin Powel who voted for Barack Obama twice lamenting
how the GOP has lost its way by supporting conservative social issues and
ignoring conservative fiscal issues in his opinion. (2)
(3)
This view that somehow being socially conservative means abandoning fiscal
conservatism is hogwash for it is possible to do both. In fact, if fiscal conservatives dig deeper
into social issues they will discover that liberal social values are behind
much of the creation and expansion of the welfare state fueling the explosion
of deficits and debt in the United States.
3)
Evangelical Conservatives – These are
conservatives drawing their values from the Bible, the Word of God, viewing
government’s role as one of protecting the God given rights to life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness. They are
fiscally conservative because the Bible instructs them to be good stewards or
managers of the earthly wealth entrusted to them by God (Luke 16:1-13). They are also socially conservative for the Bible
also values life in the womb (Isaiah 44:2) defines marriage as between a man
and a woman (Matthew 19:5), and places the responsibility for caring for the
poor on each individual and not some government program (Matthew 19:16-22). Essentially, through the Bible, evangelical
conservatives have achieved a balance between fiscal conservatism and social
conservatism.
As an evangelical conservative, I believe the best way of
unifying these differing factions of conservatism is to unify around the
Bible. However, this is a process each
individual must determine to do on his or her own. This is a long-term process and a process
that will go on until the return of Christ leaving us with how to unify these
factions of conservatism prior to the November election. To accomplish this these varying factions
must find common ground and unify behind this.
This is why I believe this election is as easy as ABC, anyone but Bernie
or Clinton.
The last eight years of the failed fiscal and social
policies of the Obama Administration have demonstrated the failures of totally
ignoring both social and fiscal conservatism.
The United States cannot afford another four or eight years of these
policies and all factions of conservatism must unite behind the eventual GOP
nominee who in my opinion will be either Donald Trump, a fiscal conservative,
or Ted Cruz, an evangelical conservative.
I call on social conservatives, fiscal conservatives, and
evangelical conservatives to unite behind either GOP candidate for failure to do
so will insure no conservative fiscal or social issues are even considered for
the next four or eight years. Will you
join me in being a peacemaker this election by helping me unify the
conservative factions in the GOP in order to save our nation from going down
the destructive path of liberal destruction?
1. Veith, Gene. Socially Conservative but
Economically Liberal. www.pathos.com. [Online] Cranach The Blog of
Veith, August 6, 2013. [Cited: March 19, 2016.] www.patheos.com/blogs/geneveith/2013/08/socially-conservative-but-economically-liberal/.
2. Goldberg, Jonah.
Wake up, Socially Liberal Fiscal Conservatives. www.nationalreview.com. [Online] National Review,
January 18, 2013. [Cited: March 19, 2016.]
3. Howerton, Jason.
Colin Powell Reveals Why He Voted For Obama Twice in Contentious Interview With
Bill O'Reilly. www.theblaze.com. [Online] The Blaze, January 29, 2013.
[Cited: March 19, 2016.]
www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/01/29/colin-powell-reveals-why-he-voted-for-obama-twice-in-contentious-interview-with-bill-oreilly/.
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