I am a Christian.

I think abortion is wrong. I believe that homosexuality is a sin according to how the Bible defines it. I don’t think that our planet and the human race came into being the way that science currently teaches. Which political party do I belong to?

If you said Republican you’re wrong. I’m proud to be a registered Democrat. It pisses me off that the Republican Party has co-opted my faith and tells people in effect that if you aren’t with them then you are anti-God. I think the war in Iraq is unjust. A woman should have the right to choose to have an abortion. Religious icons such as the Ten Commandments don’t belong on the grounds of a municipal building. If I told you that I held these beliefs up front then perhaps you would have guessed correctly in regards to my political affiliation, but you might have called my religion into question.

I hear from non-religious people that I should keep my religion to myself. My pastor’s mother believed that your religion was like your toothbrush, for your use only and no one else had any business with it. I read about schools removing religious holidays from their calendars (just the names of the holidays mind you and not just the Christian ones). People are closely scrutinizing Judge Alito because they are afraid that his religious beliefs may affect his decisions if he becomes a Supreme Court justice rather than looking at his past decisions and judging him based on that. All of this gets my hackles up.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand where the hatred and mistrust of religion comes from. Humanity has a long history of killing in the name of whatever god happens to be most popular that week. More recently we have Christians, Muslims, and Jews shooting and bombing each other in some sort of misguided holy war. People who call themselves Christians shoot doctors and bomb clinics because they believe that abortion is evil. The KKK believes that they are doing God’s work. Politicians throughout the millennia have used religion to control the masses and when that particular religion stops working for them, they change it. I know why some want to discard religion wholesale, because of the idea that religion somehow hinders society, but it doesn’t have to.

The main reason that “liberals” want Christians to keep to themselves is that they’re tired of us shoving our particular brand of morality down their throats. That is one major area where I believe Christians have failed. Jesus didn’t call us to do that. If anything he stood up to the conservative religious leaders of his day and said that they were so busy worrying about how they looked that they forgot about justice and mercy. He called them whitewashed tombs, serpents, and blind men. That same thing is happening today with the Religious Right. They build monuments to our religion or wear the symbols of it as some sort of badge of honor. They look down from their high horse judging those that are different. That’s not the message that Christ brought. Christians need to love and help people, not tell them how wrong or immoral they are.

To the Christian Right I say, stop screwing it up for the rest of us. God didn’t appoint you to your post. You were duly elected by the people of these United States. That means that you have an obligation to serve them -- all of them. If you feel that you must make your faith a part of your job, then go ahead. Here’s what that means. It means making sure that the poor people have more than just enough to get by. It means loving your neighbors no matter who they sleep with, what they wear, or what god they do or don’t believe in. It means not screwing up this beautiful planet that God gave us. It means letting people use the brains they have to create the art they want and to make the important discoveries no matter how much those creations or discoveries may bother you. Making that faith a part of your job does not give us the right to indoctrinate other people’s children. You can’t just blow up anyone or anything you feel runs contrary to what you think God would want. You can’t lie, cheat, or steal even if you think the ends might justify it. God hates lies, cheating, and stealing as much if not more than he hates anything else, especially of you do it in His name. I’m not asking you to sacrifice your sense of right and wrong or even to keep it to yourself, but to moderate it and seek a common ground.

To my liberal Christian brethren (and I know you’re out there) don’t be afraid to let people know you believe in God. Do make it clear what that means to you. Educate the masses about the love that Christ had for the poor, downtrodden, and unpopular folk. Let them know that that is the reason you are doing what you are doing. And make certain that you are looking at the big picture. It has been very easy for the Right to come in and co-opt matters of faith and morality. Don’t lose sight of those things in your search for tolerance and vice versa. The admonitions that I gave to the Right can also apply to us. We can’t let the ends that we pursue justify the means that we use. I see so much shit slinging on both sides when it comes down to election time. The two extremes are so busy attacking one another that we get nothing accomplished. We need to set aside our differences (keeping them in sight) and work together for the common good of our nation. If you are a Christian, Muslim, Jew, Buddhist, Atheist or whatever, you should be proud and embrace that. No matter what position you have in society you should not be afraid to let people know who and what you are.

Looking back it is clear that many of the men and women that formed this great nation held some deep religious convictions. Not all of them were Christians, but I think that most of them believed in a higher power. And whatever these men and women believed and however many disagreements, arguments, or fights they may have had they carved this nation out together. They wanted everyone in this new country to be able to worship as they felt led. Tolerance was the order of the day. No one was asked to set aside their beliefs, instead they tried to take the best of what they believed and use that as the bricks and mortar of the Constitution.

We should do no less.