Caucus Voter’s Guide (2008)
Written by Mark Van Steenwyk : January 30, 2008
Everywhere you look, people are issuing voters guides. James Dobson has one. So does the Christian Coalition. There are guides put by environmentalists. Almost every major lobby group has a guide. But I’m not complaining. I think these guides are great.
Some people get the false impression that I am against politics. By no means! I am passionate about politics. In fact, I’ve put together a 2008 Primaries Voter’s Guide to help you weight the options. It only includes the Democratic and Republican front runners. You can download a print-worthy copy of the guide (feel free to distribute it among your friends) here.
Btw, there is a good reason why this isn’t posted under “satire.” That is because I’m being (mostly) serious.
for further reading . . .
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It will be spread. This is amazing
That’s just too cool.:)
Great stuff! Received this from a friend. Helped me to realize why I despise voter guides… they tend to be narrowly issue focused, built around the developers pet issues rather than “big picture”–”overall vision” focused.
Two suggestions under “Jesus Christ”: 1) in the “Public Experience” row adding a phrase like “for all the world” to the end would help to communicate the global nature of Jesus’ vision. 2) in the “abortion” row your use of “pro-life” is a departure from the rest of the “Jesus” column which mostly uses paraphrases of the words of Jesus himself. Here you grab a modern political term. How about changing that to “neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more.” Those words from Jesus communicate powerfully both the loving approach of forgiving grace and the call to holy living that embraces all of life.
That’s a great suggestion, John. I think I’ll do that. I was trying to be a bit funny when I call him “pro-life” as contrasted with how I describe the republican’s descriptions.
Really nice.
According to this, being pro-life is not the same as being utterly anti-abortion. I like this position.
BTW, what would Jesus say about evolutionism vs creationism? (as a biologist-evolutionist-christian believer this interests me).
Bingo! Great Post.
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haha my mom actually forwarded this to me… miss you mark.
I miss you too Greg. I’m sorry we didn’t connect last weekend; Amy and I were doing a birthing class all day Saturday and part of Sunday.
Gregory
love ya man. great to see you on here. peace
“How about changing that to ‘neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more.’ Those words from Jesus communicate powerfully both the loving approach of forgiving grace and the call to holy living that embraces all of life.”
I agree that this should certainly be our attitude towards women who have had abortion and men who have facilitated them, but it doesn’t say anything about the baby. Is Jesus for or against killing an unborn child? That quote obviously doesn’t address the child. I think you should change it back or find something else.
Nathan,
I can’t speak for Mark (but here I go anyway) but I think “neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more” speaks to the issue, In the context, abortion would be the “sin” that Jesus clearly names, just like adultery was with the woman addressed within the original biblical story. Jesus doesn’t let the adulterous woman off the hook, but commands her to live a life worthy of such salvation that she is encountering that very moment–the very presence of God has come to her rescue and fundamentally changed the way we approach sin and condemnation. So, Jesus is against sin, which in this context would be the taking of a child’s life…but the antidote to the problem is not condemnation and the systematic rooting out of her misdeeds, but forgiveness and proclamation.
In fact, as written, the “stance” (if you want to even call it that) does not speak specifically “to the child.” You are right on this, but the question is, does it need to? Instead, it focuses on the larger negatives of abortion. Pro-life should not just be on abortion, but if it speaks to that area, it must speak to the effects on the mother, father, social sphere, etc… I think Jesus’ line does that better than a simple “pro life” sticker
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