somewhere safe that I can make a confession....

[Susan Mac]

I voted Labor. :eek:


I just needed somewhere safe that I could say that and not be lynched.

You see, I'm a Bible-believing, regular church-going, evangelical Christian, with political views leaning a little past left of the centre. I liked the Labor candidate in our electorate, and had no reason to not vote Labor, and there was No Way I was voting Family First.

But judging by the 12000 FB statuses I've read, and the handful of conversations I've had, with some of my Christian friends, I think I need to repent of my evil ways and become a far-right conservative! :laughing::laughing::laughing::laughing::laughing: :laughing:

I just think there is a whole lot more to politics then whether or not a party has policies supporting, opposing or neutral on abortion and gay marriage, and whether the leader goes to church or not.



Thanks for letting me get that out. :)

[Benji]

Religion and politics are supposed to be separate from the State. I'm an athiest and would never vote for a party simply because there is *one* athiest among them that I know of (i.e. Labor). There may be athiests among the Liberal Party as far as I'm aware. Not so much Family First :laughing:

Either way, they are not really supposed to base their political views on their religion (although, Tony Abbott does unfortunately).

I voted for Labor when K Rudd was up for PM and he's religious - perhaps your friends just need to open their minds a little.

[bumMum]

:yelclap:
it's okay. my facebook news feed is driving me crazy too with hate for the labour party. I just want to reply to one of them and say "JUST SHUT UP"

[meatpopsicle]

:yelclap:
it's okay. my facebook news feed is driving me crazy too with hate for the labour party. I just want to reply to one of them and say "JUST SHUT UP"

Heh. I'm in the ultimate safe labor seat, so my news feed is all 'yay' and 'rangas rule'. I'd rather vote labor than liberal, but sometimes I just want to throw the cat among the pigeons and post something really right wing :laughing::laughing::laughing:

[Susan Mac]

There may be athiests among the Liberal Party as far as I'm aware. Not so much Family First :laughing:

Not atheists in Family First, but plenty of nut jobs!




Either way, they are not really supposed to base their political views on their religion (although, Tony Abbott does unfortunately).

Yes and no. My understanding of separation of church and state is that the state should not impose any religious belief on the people - you can follow any religion you like, the government is not going to tell you what to believe. I like it that way.
However, I do think that our 'religious' beliefs impact how we view everything in the world - my understanding of how the world works or should work as a Christian will differ from yours as an atheist simply because we believe different things. I think my political beliefs are coloured by what I believe the Bible says. I don't think you can say 'you follow this religion/no religion therefore you must vote this way'.



I voted for Labor when K Rudd was up for PM and he's religious - perhaps your friends just need to open their minds a little.

Mostly I think they need to think for themselves and not let someone else tell them what to think all the time. :hair:

[Benji]

:yelclap:
it's okay. my facebook news feed is driving me crazy too with hate for the labour party. I just want to reply to one of them and say "JUST SHUT UP"

I put an update stating if you want to talk about how much you hate women and having a female PM or want to talk about "just because the PM has a VAGINA" to kindly delete yourself from my FB and bugger off! I'm sick of it too.

[bumMum]

yeah I did post to one girl who didn't say anything derogatory about women, just hates the labour party, and I said "you lib voters are taking over my news feeds with this stuff, it's getting boring now." she said she would stop posting now. phew. I later posted a link to a save the kimberley thing and she had a go at me! haha oops. totally not the same thing though right?

[CookiesRYum]

I just saw this after you posted in my thread - how annoying is it to be ASSUMED you must vote a certain way.. :hair:

[trishalishous]

DH has had similar comments,but I converted him to 'hippy' years ago :laughing:

[Mischief]

Whilst I find things like equality every important, I have to admit that to me Labor was the better party to govern simply because they will support the public health system and school system much more than the Libs would have. :)

[kar]

As far as I am aware Jesus was fairly left leaning too.... Helping the poor and downtrodden and all that :yes:

[silverstars]

I still don't understand the whole Christian = Conservative thing???

[Susan Mac]

I still don't understand the whole Christian = Conservative thing???

But if you find out, can you please explain it to me? :p

[Tam-I-Am]

I believe (and I"m no political expert, so am not willing to say that it *is* definitively) because with left-leaning politics and policies, more freedoms re: Personal choice come into the fore. Things like freer access to abortion (because left-leaners see bodily autonomy as being extremely important), gay marriage, decriminilisation of certain drugs, more freedom with regard to what's considered socially acceptable in terms of relationships, reduced gender disparity etc are all really important to left-wing politics. These things don't mesh with most xtian agendas, so there's not much left but conservative right wing politics.

Which always seemed a little ironic, to me, I must say - given that most xtians claim that xtianity is based on love and acceptance.

Kat, I'm not sure what you mean by "Equality is important, but labor is going to better caretake...". It read to me that you were saying that labor AREN'T interested in equality?

[MummaBear03]

Whilst I find things like equality every important, I have to admit that to me Labor was the better party to govern simply because they will support the public health system and school system much more than the Libs would have. :)

Yep, the majority of my FB friends are teachers or nurses, or training to be teachers or nurses, or childcare workers of course since many are friends from work, and they either voted Labor or Greens so no Labor-hating on my FB!

[Susan Mac]

Here's a great piece about what I'm talking about, that the party opposed to gay marriage, or the candidate who is a Christian shouldn't be the sole basis for a Christian voting for them. Just if anyone was interesting.

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/in-the-political-realm-birds-of-a-feather-dont-necessarily-flock-together-20100728-10vy3.html

[Mischief]

Sorry Tami, I missed that.

No, what I meant was that equality is very important to me, but the reason I am in favour of labour was to do with them being better caretakers of our nation with public health and schooling.

I dont word myself very well sometimes. LOL

MB03 - HEHE.... Can I Liberal hate on your FB page then? :D