Article: Because I am Christian, I'm not voting Conservative [View all]

From the Toronto Star:
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2015/09/08/voting-conservative-not-the-christian-thing-to-do.html

I will not be voting Conservative at the forthcoming election. Not because I am committed to party politics — far from it — and nor because I am convinced of the righteousness of any particular politicians — I am certainly not — but for one very simple reason. I am a Christian. Yes, I will not be voting Conservative because I am a Christian.

My own conservative credentials began to evaporate more than 18 months ago when I embraced equal marriage and once the door is unlocked it has a habit of opening wide. The journey from legalism to love, or religion to relationship, isn’t directly political as such and it’s dangerous and facile to overly politicize faith. But it’s also downright naïve to think that religion and politics have no mutual hinge. Cue the usual attacks because someone has dared to change his mind, as though evolution is a sin and ideological and spiritual stubbornness a virtue.

In terms of environmental protection and ecological concern the argument is almost axiomatic. Contrary to how even other conservative parties and administrations have behaved, the Harper government has allowed ideology to triumph over scientific reality and has empowered deniers who are not given table-room elsewhere. I interviewed many of them over the years and while they’re not always the big oil puppets their opponents claim, they are generally politicians more than experts.

The poor and marginalized? The government’s taxation policies have reversed a long-standing tradition of redistribution and have encouraged the perception that tax is a burden rather than a duty. We’ve heard too much about “the other” and of the so-called undeserving and this is as un-Christian as it is un-Canadian. We share therefore we are.

I feel like Harper's going to die the death of 1000 cuts with articles like this. Just little things constantly picking away at his base and pushing him further and further out of the mainstream.

I'm still aiming at the NDP slate in my riding, but it's been an NDP stronghold for ages. I'm not changing much where I live, though this will be my husband's first federal election since he gained citizenship (immigrated from the USA).