How Can Christians Be Conservatives?

A friend of mine asked essentially this question of me in a recent e-mail. He couldn't understand how such a "warm-hearted" person as myself could embrace conservative values. After much thought, I realize that biblical Christianity and conservatism have many aspects in common.

Self-reliance is the hallmark of conservatism as well as Christianity, at least in the physical realm. The Apostle Paul wrote that if a person won't work, he shouldn't eat. Some members of the early churches assumed that they needed to be free of manual labour so they could study the apostles' teachings and the scriptures. In reality, they became freeloaders, taking food and other goods needed by impoverished believers.

Conservatives and Christ's followers believe that charity is an individual's responsibility, not that of governments. The duty of rulers, as Paul pointed out, is to punish evil and reward good. Instead, non-Christian people want the government to decide who needs help and who is merely freeloading. In practice, private charities are more fair and more efficient than government programs.

Conservatives are concerned with law and order. So are Christ's followers concerned with living peaceful lives. Conservatives and Christians want the guilty to be punished and to make restitution to their victims. Leftists, on the other hand, blame external forces for internal mistakes in thinking. History proves that conservative and Christian ideas work much more effectively because they deal with the root of the problem: sin.

Though my How I Was Razed memoir was theological in nature, I did write about how I obeyed the law while others didn't. Contact me about purchasing this wondrous testimony of God's providence.