Values

The other day I had a visitor from the Conservative Party of Canada. A young individual running to become the Conservative nominee for the King-Vaughan region requested to meet with my father and myself to discuss his nomination, and more importantly to secure our vote for him. I was intrigued because he stated on the phone that he was a devout Catholic and that he wanted the Christian population to be represented in our provincial government once again.

I met him in the confines of our church building and he began addressing the issues of the modern Liberal government, more so their policies and lack of Christian “values.” That caused my eyebrow to rise and I quietly listened. He began to dismantle the corruption of the Liberal Party and outlined his stance on key issues in Canadian society. None of which interested me. I didn’t care about taxes, sex education in schools and proper care for the physically disabled. Not that these are not important issues; but that’s just not where my interests lied. After he concluded he took a glance at me and asked what issues were important to me. I thought to myself, “Thanks for setting the table for me.”

I began by asking him that although those were important issues, what Christian “values” he stood for. He responded; caring for the poor, the weak and providing opportunities for everyone. I responded by saying that although those are indeed an element or subsection of a Christian value system, they do not by any means encompass the most important values. I told him that I see those things as common universal human morals that most North American citizens would agree upon. But what was more important was how a government leader could stand for the Word of God above the social acceptance criteria. I asked him if he would be willing to stand for the Word of God against tides of opposition and criticism. I was more interested in knowing how he would handle growing secularism, pro-abortion, same-sex rights, gender identification, tolerance and many other issues that will most definitely arise to challenge the Word of God. I wanted to know if Christian leaders in today’s politics would stretch themselves to look beyond poverty and the economic climate of Canadian households and actually look into the household of Canadians and realize that there are deeper issues on the horizon. Can loving God and loving our neighbours be upheld by our government without distorting that message into a message of loving people with a blind eye to their sin? How can government achieve that harmony between God and state? I was curious. No satisfying answer was provided.

So what say you? Is a “Christian” government simply one that feeds the poor and provides jobs to the homeless? Or is there more to having Christian “values?” I sure hope it does.