Can anyone put together a list of things that the left has done to make America safer, stronger, more prosperous, and more united?  How about a list of things they’ve done to make American Christians and Jews feel safer?  Joe Biden claims to be a Catholic, and in her youth, Kamala Harris attended a Baptist church.  Her husband is Jewish.  How much does their faith inform their words and their actions?  When you compare biblical teachings and admonitions with the stated goals of Democrat candidates, it’s difficult to find much alignment.

Forty-seven percent of Americans are Protestant, and 21% are Catholic, while 3% are Mormon, Orthodox, or Jehovah’s Witness.  Six percent are Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, or Hindu, and 23% are atheist, agnostic or otherwise unaffiliated.  Seventy-seven percent of Americans are people of faith, and we appear to be getting pushed around by a very vocal minority.

Although there are significant doctrinal differences among Protestantism, Catholicism, and Judaism, there is enough of an overlap so that the camps should be able to find some common ground on which candidates to support.  How?  By watching what they do and listening to what they say.

From the Catholic perspective, there are some things that are always wrong, and Catholics are forbidden to support them.  Catholics may never support a candidate, program, or a law that promotes abortion, the redefinition of marriage, euthanasia, human cloning, or embryonic stem cell research.  We refer to these as “The Five Non-Negotiable Disqualifying Factors.”  A candidate who supports one or more of these has disqualified himself as someone for whom a Catholic may legitimately vote.  While not formally listed, I believe that transgenderism should be included in this list.  Voting for someone who supports these evils represents participation in grave and intrinsic moral evils.  Although Catholics may not directly support evil persons, programs, or laws, when all the candidates endorse morally evil policies, then Catholics may vote to limit the harm that may be done.  I would suspect that a great many Protestants would share the Catholic position on the above issues.

With this in mind, we should believe leftists, including Kamala Harris, when they say that

- if elected, they will not support religious exemptions for doctors and nurses whose conscience prevents them from performing abortions.

- Christians are not welcome at a Democrat candidate’s rally.

- churches should host same-sex weddings, religious schools should allow men to compete in women’s sports and share women’s bathroom and locker rooms, and faith-based charities should relinquish their tax-exempt status.

- U.S. colleges and businesses should permanently sever ties with universities, research institutions, and other academic programs in Israel.

- “Zionists” (those who support Israel’s existence in the Jewish ancestral homeland) should be banned from college campuses.

- parents should not tell schools what to teach their children.

- open borders are a net benefit to the host country.

John Locke argued in his 1689 work “Two Treatises of Government” that legitimate political authority is derived from the consent of the governed.  That is, rulers are entrusted with power on the condition that they protect the natural rights of life, liberty, and property.  If they fail to uphold that trust, then the citizens have the right to withdraw their consent and, if necessary, replace the government.

We’ll get a chance to do that soon.

Image: Darkmoon_Art via Pixabay, Pixabay License.