why am i so liberal?

last night one of my best friends from high school came across my blog. after spending a couple hours looking it over last night, he called me this morning to ask me why i am so liberal. his question was posed out of interest and not out of criticism (i think). i joking told him to read the scriptures for the answer, and that i would give him a brief synopsis of what i meant.

i do not profess here to offer the only exegesis of any scriptures used, nor am i claiming here that all christians/mormons should believe likewise.

brex,

here are my views on various so-called 'liberal' things.

-war - "therefore renounce war and proclaim peace" (d&c 98:16). while i am not a absolute pacifist (though maybe i should be), i believe that there are very few justifications for war. in fact i believe that most wars participated in by the nephites in the book of mormon were wrongfully waged. in the end, they only beget more war and strife. it is the example of the anti-nephi-lehites who went against the warhawk nephites and refused to battle that actually changed hearts and created peace.

-poverty - "For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: ... Naked, and ye clothed me" (matt 25:35,36). "One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor" (mark 10:21) "And the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them." (moses 7: 18). "And they had all things common among them; therefore there were not rich and poor, bond and free, but they were all made free, and partakers of the heavenly gift." (4 nephi 1:3). "And also, ye yourselves will succor those that stand in need of your succor; ye will administer of your substance unto him that standeth in need; and ye will not suffer that the beggar putteth up his petition to you in vain, and turn him out to perish. " (mosiah 4:16) i could go on and on and on with scriptures discussing our moral and divine duty to eliminate poverty. it is the most discusses sin throughout all of the scriptures. more than sexual sins, pride, theft, lying, blaspheme, and all other sins combined. we often claim to be a christian nation, and yet we lead all industrialized nations in widening the gap between the rich and the poor. economic despair places so many citizens in virtually (and actual) slavery. while we are swimming in our money pens, thousands of children across the world are painfully starving to death. supposed free-trade and free-market capitalism are only making things worse. i believe we need to change our economic policies to shorten the gap between the rich and poor and lift those in need out of their suffering.

global warming - "And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." (gen 1:28). while i believe that we have a divine duty to take care of the earth (there is more in the d&c about this), i believe that the human costs of global warming are even greater. that the earth goes through an atmospheric carbon cycle is no longer questioned. that the increasing carbon levels in our atmosphere will have a major effect on humanity is not questioned. all that is questioned is our role in adding to the carbon in our atmosphere. eventually the earth's volcanos will burn and expunge buried carbon back into the atmosphere making it hardly inhabitable by humans. the scientific community is 90% sure that our burning of carbon fuels is accelerating the process and bringing what ought to happen in the next several thousand years into the foreseeable centuries ahead of us. 90% is a pretty high number and each month science is becoming even more sure about our impact in a warming climate. things have to change.

health care - "I was sick, and ye visited me" (matt 25:36). i don't recall jesus charging the sick and afflicted for healings. the united states is the one of the only 1st world countries that does not guarantee health care for all of its citizens. in our country, 1/3 of bankruptcies are due to medical costs. our privatized and for-profit health care leaves millions uninsured to suffer and die. families are forced to gamble with their health, unable to pay the expensive insurance premiums where 30% of the pay does not even go to medical costs, but rather to advertising and ceo pay. those who oppose univeral healthcare often point to our country's advanced medical technology, not realizing that while saving the few rich, we are unnecessarily ignoring the many poor.

immigration - "I was a stranger, and ye took me in" (matt 25:35). recently the first presidency asked elder marlin k jensen to address the utah congress and plead that they use compassion as they sought a resolution to the immigration problem. at the same time, republican presidential candidates were fighting over whose immigration plans seemed less like amnesty. we will always have an immigration policy to exclude others if we have foreign economic policies that hurt our neighbors and crush their economies. not only do we need to be more compassionate to the strangers who are trying to feed and clothes their families, but we also need to strive for economic policies that don't oppress them in the first place.

abortion - "Abortion is a most serious matter and should be considered only after the persons involved have consulted with their local church leaders and feel through personal prayer that their decision is correct." (from lds.org). a decision is a choice. while i believe that most abortions are immoral, i do not believe that i have the right to make that decision for others. i cannot know or understand the struggle that someone faces who has an unwanted pregnancy whether from rape, incest, or stupid decisions. the only arguments against abortion are almost always religious in nature and we ought not to base our laws on our religious beliefs. whether or not a zygote, embryo, or 4 month fetus is a human being cannot be established outside of religious beliefs and we constitutionally cannot say that one religious (or non-religious) belief is better than another in establish our laws. the choice of an abortion should be that of the individuals and god, not the state. roe vs. wade actually protects the rights of women who become pregnant from rape and incest, or whose lives are in danger. overturning roe vs wade would likely take away those rights. as far as i'm aware, the church has not recently entered into the political abortion debate, yet so many mormons believe it ought to be banned. rather, i believe we need to focus more on preventative measures and sex education. we need to work together to decrease the number of unwanted pregnancies.

captial punishment - (what would jesus do?). we do not live the old testament's rules and regulations and we ought not to when lwp (life without parole) is available, playing a function in protecting society that was unavailable in biblical times. i do not see how capital punishment would fit within jesus's gospel of love. it is a fact that the death penalty does not deter crime; it is not cost-effective (killing to save some bucks seems evil anyways); nor does it provide a function to protect society that lwp does not. instead the death penalty says that the right to life is not necessary, but is rather contigent and created by man and not god. the united states trails only china in the number of executions in advanced nations.

prison reform - "I was in prison, and ye came unto me" (matt 25:36). likewise, i believe are prison system needs some drastic reform. we have a higher percentage of our citizens in prison than any other nation. our recidivism rates are also higher than any other nation. this is largely because we too often see prison as simply a place of punishment and seperation. our prisons are a closet corner and mattress where we can stuff our dirty laundry. instead of just hiding away our criminals, we need to focus more on the economic and social disparity that too often leads to a life of crime. furthermore, we need to follow europe's prison model of reform through education, counseling, and employment.

same-sex marriage - (the scriptures, especially lds scriptures, are silent on this issue). there is only one verse in all of the standard works that explicity condemns homosexuality, and even that is unrelated to gay and lesbian marriages. i'm sorry, but i just plain disagree with church leaders on this issue. i feel it is very unfortunate that the church is fighting this battle. in fact i am sometimes angry that the church is more than willing to get into this political arena for 'moral' reasons where there is no scriptural justification while all of the above moral issues have a plethora of scriptural justification for pushing a moral agenda.

while all of the above were accompanied with religious arguments, there are even more non-religious arguments that i can tag on. i hope that helps and gives you some understanding as to where and why i stand on these issues.