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A couple of blog entries of interest to me, re: politics and faith.
So you’re thinking of voting for a pro-choice candidate...: Christian writer, I can't remember OTOH if she calls herself Evangelical or not, but I've found her posts thought provoking in the past.
Pro-life and voting for Hillary: Christian blogger, probably not Evangelical. I came across this one skipping through links, and I am liking what she has to say as well as how she says it: mother of non-neurotypical children, rape survivor, social justice warrior.
Personally, I'm fully behind abortion being accessible and legal, sex education that does more than the mechanics of sex (consent, pleasure in sex - including how to achieve it, sexuality as personal and societal identity, and the consequences of intimacy should be addressed for both boys and girls, whatever orientation), and contraceptives/morning after pills being freely available at chemists/pharmacies. (The issue of not selling contraceptives 'because it goes against my religion' hasn't come up in Australia, so far as I've heard in the mainstream media.) But many of the people from my churches tend to take the very simplistic views that tend to be epitomised by the US Evangelicals: baby = good, abortion = bad.
I wish people didn't need abortions - but doesn't everyone? And then the solution to that is surely to put all the possible blocks in place to keep conception from happening when you don't want it to happen? And sure, I believe firmly in abstention as a personal choice, and and in sex as a tool towards intimacy rather than as mere physical release. But, you know, not everyone else does! And so long as they're not trying to push sex on me, I don't feel like pushing abstention on them.
Uh. So that was a soapbox.
But. I'm finding it kind of interesting watching the whole Hillary vs. Trump circus. And, I guess, how, well, precious some Americans are about the sanctity of their choices. Like, it's a permanent moral failing to vote for the lesser evil and you should be ashamed of yourself for even considering it.
eg. Maureen Dowd on The Perfect GOP Nominee.
For someone who has to vote for the lesser evil all the time (it's called Mandatory Voting) this feels awfully like a kid whining that they don't have coloured sprinkles on their ice-cream, only caramel sauce: my sympathy level is pretty much nil.
Frankly, even Australia's "left-wing party", The Greens, don't represent me in everything. But the big things - the things that we, as a society, can't afford to let slide - are more important than me and my personal like or dislike of some of the fine print, and some of the wingnuts out there grandstanding.
Finally, for a bit of humour, let's go back to 2012 and the article "The Aussie System Gets My Vote by Annabel Crabb, political correspondent with a marvellous wit (her TV series Kitchen Cabinet features all stripes and kinds of politicians at home and in the kitchen - can you imagine this in the US? *HILARITY*). It's mostly about mandatory voting, which is certainly easier with 24 million than with 270 million, but there's a small nudge in there about dull-and-plodding getting the job done while flash-and-sizzle kind of turns everything into showbiz.
King George III voice: "President Donald Trump... Good luck!"
So you’re thinking of voting for a pro-choice candidate...: Christian writer, I can't remember OTOH if she calls herself Evangelical or not, but I've found her posts thought provoking in the past.
Pro-life and voting for Hillary: Christian blogger, probably not Evangelical. I came across this one skipping through links, and I am liking what she has to say as well as how she says it: mother of non-neurotypical children, rape survivor, social justice warrior.
Personally, I'm fully behind abortion being accessible and legal, sex education that does more than the mechanics of sex (consent, pleasure in sex - including how to achieve it, sexuality as personal and societal identity, and the consequences of intimacy should be addressed for both boys and girls, whatever orientation), and contraceptives/morning after pills being freely available at chemists/pharmacies. (The issue of not selling contraceptives 'because it goes against my religion' hasn't come up in Australia, so far as I've heard in the mainstream media.) But many of the people from my churches tend to take the very simplistic views that tend to be epitomised by the US Evangelicals: baby = good, abortion = bad.
I wish people didn't need abortions - but doesn't everyone? And then the solution to that is surely to put all the possible blocks in place to keep conception from happening when you don't want it to happen? And sure, I believe firmly in abstention as a personal choice, and and in sex as a tool towards intimacy rather than as mere physical release. But, you know, not everyone else does! And so long as they're not trying to push sex on me, I don't feel like pushing abstention on them.
Uh. So that was a soapbox.
But. I'm finding it kind of interesting watching the whole Hillary vs. Trump circus. And, I guess, how, well, precious some Americans are about the sanctity of their choices. Like, it's a permanent moral failing to vote for the lesser evil and you should be ashamed of yourself for even considering it.
eg. Maureen Dowd on The Perfect GOP Nominee.
For someone who has to vote for the lesser evil all the time (it's called Mandatory Voting) this feels awfully like a kid whining that they don't have coloured sprinkles on their ice-cream, only caramel sauce: my sympathy level is pretty much nil.
Frankly, even Australia's "left-wing party", The Greens, don't represent me in everything. But the big things - the things that we, as a society, can't afford to let slide - are more important than me and my personal like or dislike of some of the fine print, and some of the wingnuts out there grandstanding.
Finally, for a bit of humour, let's go back to 2012 and the article "The Aussie System Gets My Vote by Annabel Crabb, political correspondent with a marvellous wit (her TV series Kitchen Cabinet features all stripes and kinds of politicians at home and in the kitchen - can you imagine this in the US? *HILARITY*). It's mostly about mandatory voting, which is certainly easier with 24 million than with 270 million, but there's a small nudge in there about dull-and-plodding getting the job done while flash-and-sizzle kind of turns everything into showbiz.
King George III voice: "President Donald Trump... Good luck!"