On Why Evangelicals Typically Vote Conservative

Evangelicals often view compassion differently then left of center voters.  Compassion, we believe, comes from our mind and will having a concern for the well-being of others and moving to action for their benefit.  We further believe this as an act of our free will.  We believe we are to live a life of compassion as a cornerstone to our relationships, finances and time.  We believe that by demonstrating this compassion, others will be loved and cared for.  We often believe (even if we don’t always articulate this), that left wing governments claim to have a heart of compassion, but skew the meaning and therefore debase the value of what they do.  Liberals at their core think compassion is an act of the collective state - not the individual; therefore, the finances, time and relational structures of acting compassion out should (they argue) be through a government planned body.  We don’t think this is compassion.  Forcing people to pay money for needs that a central planner thinks best is not what we are taught with the simplicity of the parable of the Good Samaritan.  Seeing a need and personally using your own resources to meet that need is the basis of compassion; not forced giving to an inefficient central planner.  

Evangelicals view the household (aka. Oikos) being developed, restored and built as central to a healthy family which in turn leads to a strong economy. Conservative budgets (often but not always) look to reduce taxes on households, where liberal governments look for spending on state intervention to further run or control our household (ex: state run child care, state run graphic sex-ed, several social programs that intervenes or attempts to socially engineer and shape our household).  The family should develop our family; governments should not. Thus we often vote for those who stand in solidarity with this position.

Liberalism is fundamentally opposed with the Evangelical position of man’s “sin nature” and therefore misses entirely the problem and solution to many problems that arise (possibly at no fault of the one hurting): selfishness, broken homes, broken hearts, poverty, unemployment, income gaps and many more. You cannot legislate a man’s heart to wholeness…although Justin Trudeau’s dad thinks he can:

Liberal philosophy places the highest value on freedom of the individual. The first consequence of freedom is change. A Liberal can seldom be a partisan of the status quo. He tends to be a reformer attempting to move society, to modify its institutions, to liberate its citizens. The liberal is an optimist at heart who trusts people. He does not see man as an essentially perverse creature, incapable of moral progress and happiness. Nor does he see him as totally or automatically good. He prizes man's inclination to good but knows it must be cultivated and supported. While understanding as well as any other man the limits of government and the law, the liberal knows that both are powerful forces for good, and does not hesitate to use them.
-The Right Honourable Pierre Elliott Trudeau, April 1974

Man is not inclined to good; we are inclined to be those hellions in Lord Of The Flies. Tell me, did you teach your child to say “no” or did they kinda just pick it up?  We are bent towards evil: all of us.  We believe the Liberals are wrong to think that billions in state planned social expenditures will solve man’s broken heart. We believe the liberals use a flawed premise (government = powerful force for developing good in people) to further damage what is already hurting despite any good intentions. Conversely; we believe strengthening the family is the cornerstone to seeing social change for the better. Love is our “powerful force” not the government; therefore we seek to strengthen families by loving them best we can: not strengthen governments.  Governments are not our partner in building and strengthening our household through large programs and social planning and therefore are not at liberty to extract 100’s of billions of Canadians dollars for such estranged purposes. We typically vote unashamedly for a party that reflects this value.

We often believe a conservative vote best empowers us to love others without draining our resources into an inefficient and often disastrous outfit that is based on laws, programs, perpetual debt and gross neglect.  Our vote for conservativism does not suggest 100% agreement with a particular party, but it does reflect our desire to maintain our personal freedoms to love others as we have capacity and resources to do. We say vamoose to any government using our tax dollars to undue the message of compassion we are best trying to practice through a message of hope and love.

 

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