Send to a Friend

KidA111's avatar

How do Christianity and American conservatism go together?

Asked by KidA111 (26points) September 28th, 2010

I realize that these two ideologies dont necessarily go hand-in-hand and that you can adhere to one without adhering to the other but you cant deny that they tend to affiliate with one another in american politics. I also realize there is a difference between social and fiscal conservatism. However (and this may be a bit presumptuous of me) I cannot help but think that a majority of American voters just assume these two movements are compatible and lump them both into a greater movement of “American conservatism”

That being said, how is a religion which is supposed to advocate self denial (Mat 15:26), abandoning your assets and giving to those in need (Mark 10:21), not returning evil for evil (1 Peter 3:9) etc consistent with an ideology that – generally – supports the profit-motive, self-interest based economic system we have: “capitalism”, tax-cuts for the rich, opposition to universal healthcare, gun ownership rights used to kill in the event of a threat to your family, and a strong military used to retaliate against attacks and start preemptive wars?

I realize that many Christians in our country choose to be realists, and as realists many of them may find these conservative ideals to be the most reasonable positions to take in politics (note that im not criticizing the ideas themselves and i can certainly see how they can be argued for) I just cannot for the life of me see how you could reconcile these seemingly incompatible beliefs that stand as such core values to their respective ideologies

I’m especially curious about how capitalism and Christianity can be reconciled, as a system that supports principles of gaining wealth in an inherently competitive way seems to blatantly conflict with Biblical teachings (Proverbs 23:4) (Luke 19:45) (Acts 4:34–37) (Philippians 2:1–4) (Acts 4:32)

Using Fluther

or

Using Email

Separate multiple emails with commas.
We’ll only use these emails for this message.