Religious values and Political views that don't make sense

We all have many friends that are good people of faith and conscience. People that are diligent in daily prayers, consistently attend services and hold their faith as an important part of who they are as a person. They quietly go about their faith both in their daily activities, their religious declarations on social media, prayer at meals, retreats, good works and generally how they treat the other residents of this planet.

All of those attributes are wonderful testaments to their faith and examples of how they truly cherish all that their faith professes.

And many people of strong religious faith also have strong political opinions. Often, their faith is concurrent with their politics, but for many, there seems to be a huge gap - an incongruity - that is very difficult to reconcile. How are some people able to reconcile the core values of their faith with their political beliefs?

Every major religion has the same basic value system, the stories on how that system is communicated to followers is different, but they all end up at the same place. Don’t kill anyone, treat each other nicely, love your neighbor, befriend your enemies, help the poor and hungry, don’t love possessions and money too much, honor your elders - but ultimately it’s ‘Love One Another’. It’s pretty simple and reminds me of the book ‘All I Really Need To Know I Learned in Kindergarten’. Play nice, tell the truth, share, work together and be polite.

To be fair, it’s safe to say there is no perfect match when it comes to political figures. There will be no one running for office that shares exactly the same beliefs and values. The challenge is making a choice based on what values we are willing to let go of as we vote.

Somehow there seems to be an abundance of people that conveniently forget about their faith when it comes to politics. That there are still millions that believe our leadership is doing a great job right now and that they espouse their faith in reasons for their support. They are somehow able to turn off all of the teachings and basic precepts, they are willing to turn their back on just about every tenet of their faith. How can they flip that switch or do they simply not recognize it? Where do they learn how to do that? Does it require some special training? Reconciling the teachings of faith has got to take extraordinary mental gymnastics that goes beyond anything most humans are capable of.

Trying to explain away the continued assault on scientific facts, children, women, political and economic refugees, people of all faiths, lgbtq community, neglect of our veterans and lets not forget systemic racism. The palpable negative energy that is currently being produced by our leadership and their supporters is nauseating. The continued use of words and actions that are demeaning and objectionable do not reflect any religion in history and do not reflect the great America that welcomes all to its shores.

The new year brings hope that our United States can achieve some sense of balance and and renewed prosperity for all Americans, not just a select few.