subject: The Tea Party, A Christian Perspective By A. Davis [print this page] The Tea party represents a movement of Christian Men & Christian Women who feel like they will not be valued human beings, but rather out casted by the New America that President Obama and so many are working towards. They think the only America that will allow them to have a voice where they are valued is the Reagan America. This is the reason why even 20+ years after Reagan"s presidency has ended you still have so many people referencing him as though his presidency was some sort of ideal state.
When in fact we haven"t seen the ideal state, all of our presidents have played their role in trying to make this a more perfect union. However; we have never seen it yet. If we believe all leadership is appointed by God as the Bible says then that means there have been no mistakes in our collection of U.S. Presidents.
My biggest concern is that the starch opposition and even hatred for the tea party legitimizes their feelings of fear. It is a natural human trait to be afraid of change. I can count thousands of Senior citizens that were scared to jump into the internet era and instead chastised it. Even Ministers now who tell people to stop "tweeting" and using "facebook" because they don"t understand it and thus assume it must be bad.
I think the thought leadership these days politically needs to be around, how do you get the tea baggers to feel included in the New America? After all it isn"t as though they don"t have some legitimate policy concerns as well. Whether or not people agree with them, this country has always been about debating to get the better answer.
Are there hypocritical members of the tea party? Absolutely, to claim you"re on a Christian Walk and show images of President Obama as Hitler or in white face, or other symbols and use of language that is racially coded isn"t doing the Christian Walk justice. It isn"t what Christ taught; dissent can be done in a way that isn"t hateful. At the same time, those who label the tea party members are not living out the Christian Walk either, if this is really about living a Christian Lifestyle, we have to live that Christian Lifestyle even during political discussions. Christianity isn"t a hat that we should put on and off when it is convenient; we need to walk it out even during the toughest of circumstances.
The sentiments of some of the tea party members aren"t anything new, they are just exposed, compelled to have their feelings come out of hiding because of what they see as a threat to the myopic lives that many of them live. However; the heavy majority of the Tea Party is made up of individuals who are simply concerned citizens.
Laws like the one passed in Arizona as it relates to people of Latino descent, the move to trounce out honorable servants like John McCain and Governor Christ who are conservative and understand there is a new America on the horizon will only continue and accelerate if fire is fought with fire.
