There is so much to this situation being debated here and it is a very real problem in the political landscape.
There are people who express their Christianity in their political stance in a continuum from extreme right to extreme left, and this expression can be said as god being fashioned in the "believers" image rather than the believer being transformed by faith into the image of their creator.
For me the label "Christian" ceased to have any meaning when one dear to me was raped while being counseled for childhood sexual abuse by a christian counselor employed by a baptist ministry. Heavy shit.
As it turned this perpetrator belonged to an extreme cult with eclectic new age and occult world views calling themselves "The Mystical Church of Jesus Christ"
I share this here to illustrate how meaningless it is to tag a position with the christial label and emphasise the extreme polarity of opinion that can be gathered under the one label of christian. Also, because i feel the dynamic in American politics is just as heavy at this time. The Republican party seems to be shifting further to the right, polarization is becoming more extreme and the Christian debate is a quagmire.
If those who sharea broader middle ground, Republican and Democrat don't stand back from the debate enough to gain some objective evaluation they will be seduced by the extreme, and the consequences for America will be a disturbing thing to witness from the vantage point of any looking on from the outside world. One litmus test is to walk into any bookshop and see the huge increase in books published that present ridiculous arguments that perpetuate an extreme distaste for the current American President.
This experience did not destroy my faith in the God who Is, but any faith or trust in my fellow human beings was shattered. The words of any person are meaningless except when in alignment with how they act out their day to day life. I appreciate the compassion of any human despite the label they go by and i despise the actions of the cruel, the nasty the hard heated, the liars, the greedy, weather they go by the name of christ or allah, republican or democrat or no name.
I consider myself to be one who has had a personal spiritual revelation of the I AM Who I AM, and the fulfillment of revelation being expressed in the person of Jesus but to call myself a born again christian seems meaningless given the misuse of the lable and the character assassination that has be fallen the name of Jesus, hence the rather wordy way of expressing who i believe in.
For me, for a person to say they believe in Jesus means nothing. I do have a character template based on what best i surmise was the intent of his time on earth and think in many ways that it's ok to be easy going and not a religious nutter, and i would rather stand next to a compassionate human being who is agnostic or atheist or islam, than be counted as a brother to one who calls himself a christian but lives by the what i perceive to be precepts of subtle cruelty and moral blindness, as expressed in extreme points of view on matters of politics or faith.
The very real problem i see developing is that the extreme is in danger of dominating the political landscape in the US and this is a dangerous dynamic that will not end well if reason and wisdom are a sideline. This whole situation is one of the many examples of when ideology dominates over common sense. American your real enemy is extremism within.
Another aspect i find hard to figure out is how the more extreme of the rebublicans as expressed by the tea bagers canot accept that they lost the election and those who are represented by the winning candedate have a democratic right to be represented by the President and the Democrats. The election gives the Democrats a mandate to govern.
This dynamic is also disturbing to see from my point of view as a non American.
