Seth’s World View

Ah, politics. There’s nothing quite like getting dozens of automated phone messages from political candidates who love nothing more than to tell how evil their opponent is. I usually delete the message before they start tearing each other apart. One of the more signficiant races is the Marilyn Musgrave vs. Angie Paccione race for the 4th Congressional District in Colorado. It gets all the more interesting after reading this article in the Coloradoan. Apparently both women are regular church-goers and consider their faith very important to them. Paccione actually considers herself an evangelical and has attending Timberline Church in Fort Collins for over 4 years.

What separates them? Apparently they have divergent views on gay marriage and abortion. While my views on those topics would be more in line with Musgrave, I find the following to be rather interesting:

“The Democratic Party does a better job of taking care of the poor, the sick, the elderly, people in need,” Paccione, the Democratic nominee, said. “That’s part of the reason I’m a Democrat.”

“My faith is very important to me. It’s the most important thing in my life,” Musgrave said. “My core principles were developed long ago. I try to adhere to my core principles of lower taxes, less government, strong national defense.”

What!? I do hope that Musgrave was taken out of context (which is very possible). I certainly don’t see alignment between faith and a strong national defense. On the contrary, God was always chastising the Israelites for putting too much confidence in their military, and not enough in God. I received Spam from Marylin Musgrave for awhile, otherwise known as unsolicited email. She didn’t win any points with me for that.

So, here we have two candidates who take their faith in God seriously (or so they say…and I’m not questioning that here) slinging mud at each other. Wonderful. I voted last week. I voted for candidates who call themselves Republicans and Democrats. My vote is not based on a single issue. My vote is not based on party allegiance. My vote is for who I think is the best person as a whole based on what I know of them. I just wish it was easier to find accurate information…