Young Christians and the GOP

Political parties are vying for the millennial vote, but for many young Christians, their politics and religious beliefs aren't matching up.

Kerri Miller discussed the role of young conservative Christians with Matt Lewis and Ed Morrissey. Some highlights:

LEWIS ON CHRISTIANS IN POLITICS:
" ... Something I've heard a lot of late: that Republicans need to fight fire with fire, they need to be just as nasty as the left. Otherwise, they're going to keep losing elections. And it does strike me that if you sit in a pew on Sunday, and hear 'Love thy neighbor, do unto others,' all these things good Christians are taught, on Sunday, and then on Monday you're to go declare war on your political adversaries and mock them — there is a tension there. And it probably stands to reason that this is something a lot of conservative Christians struggle with."

LEWIS ON POLITICAL "WAR":
"I think there's always been a tension between the city of God and the city of man. And people of faith have always struggled over this question, 'Should I be involved in politics, or not?' I just think it's a little bit tougher to do today, because of the political environment. And there is a sense among a lot of conservatives that the reason that they've lost elections, the reason that Obamacare got passed and that Barack Obama was reelected and elected, is that conservatives got too wimpy. They weren't tough enough. They weren't fighting. And so really they're using this war metaphor, which is to say, this is worth the fighting for, these issues are so important that we need to declare war. And sometimes in war, you do things that are a little bit unseemly, but you do them for the right reasons."

MORRISSEY ON THE TACTICS OF THE LEFT:
"Things work out. You have to keep it in the proper perspective, and . ... people don't put it in the proper perspective. They consider their political opponents as enemies. They demonize them. And this is true across the spectrum: the right, the left. You have many people, not everybody, but many people who want to demonize people. And this is the Alinsky method that John Hawkins was talking about ... that demonizes, humiliates and then marginalizes political opponents so that their voices aren't part of the mix. And it's effective, to some extent, but for Christians it's a real problem because it isn't how we're called to treat our fellow human beings. And that's because temporal politics isn't supposed to be our highest priority in the first place."

LEWIS ON THE GOOD A CHRISTIAN IN POLITICS CAN DO:
"I'm not saying that Christians shouldn't be involved in politics. In fact, I think that it's imperative because there are so many bad people and bad impulses and bad incentives in politics. It's important for people of faith to go into politics. And a great example ... is a guy named William Wilberforce, who should be the model. This is a guy who was a British parliamentarian ... and he was essentially somebody who became saved, became an evangelical, and almost quit politics because he thought it would be corrupting. And he was advised, 'No — don't quit politics. You can make a difference.' Wilberforce dedicated his entire career to ending the British slave trade. He worked on it for 30 years and accomplished that goal. So one man, in politics, can make a difference. Even if most of them are corrupt, or incompetent, one man — or woman nowadays, certainly — can do that."

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