No party or ideology has a monopoly on the solutions to ending poverty in America, and both parties are to blame for expending more energy on policies aimed at the upper and middle classes at the expense of people in poverty. With a few exceptions, neither Republicans nor Democrats have prioritized pushing forward a comprehensive policy agenda to combat poverty.
As a seminal event in Baptist life, the first gathering of the New Baptist Covenant was historic—not because this meeting marked a transition from injustice and division to reconciliation and unity, but because it showed us a vision of what could be if we were willing to put in the sweat equity to bring the vision into being.
Fears about the present and a desire for a lost past, bound together with partisan attachments, ultimately overwhelmed values voters’ convictions. Rather than standing on principle and letting the chips fall where they may, white evangelicals fully embraced a consequentialist ethics that works backward from predetermined political ends, bending or even discarding core principles as needed to achieve a predetermined outcome.
God holds us accountable for how we treat each of God’s children. Take care of the corners…
As Christians and citizens, we are called to engage the issues, to seek justice, and to elect leaders who we believe best reflect our values and goals.
Truth or respect? Imagination or connection? My theology does not ask me to choose one over the other. There is need for both truth-telling and respectful rules of engagement. There is need for moral imagination grounded in personalized human connection.