"My Sister Rocks!" or "Who Would Jesus Vote For?"

For a while now, I've had the intention of writing a blog entry entitled "Who Would Jesus Vote For?" No need. My sister laid it all out perfectly in an e-mail to my mother that I'm going to post here. My mom had been sending my sister weird e-mails about Sarah Palin--prophecies about how God wants her to be VP (I'm not kidding you!) and stuff like that. My sister, who is a practicing Christian, but not a religious extremist and who uses her brain to think (imagine that), is voting for Obama. She decided to send my mother some e-mail links regarding McCain and Palin. This included the information about Sarah Palin's town when she was mayor charging women for their rape kits, as well as McCain's sordid past affairs and how he left his first wife. Here was my mother's response:

I'm confused. Since when did you become pro abortion? No one candidate is going to be perfect, but I would rather have the one who is not going to reinstitute partial birth abortion. There is probably more to the story on the rape kits, too. I figured as a Christian you would not be pro Obama given his stance on partial birth abortion and his muslim roots. I guess I was wrong. I won't bother you any longer. But it is clear that God wants Sara Palin in place as VP. It's going to happen.

Classic. So, my pissed off little sister proceeded to write back to my mother with a response that has never made me prouder. The following e-mail was my sister's response. I added some info and links before she sent it, but it's 95% her. My sister Rocks!

To be against Sara Palin and most everything she stands for does not translate into me being pro-abortion. You're much more intelligent than that, Mom. Do you think Jesus would not give a shit about the working class people and would hoard his money so he can live a lavish lifestyle? Do you think Jesus would dump money into huge corporations and not do a thing to help the millions of people who don't have jobs? Do you think Jesus would want high profile people who claim to work for him to blatantly lie over and over (with proof!) showing their true character which does NOT reflect Him? Do you think Jesus would leave his wife because he couldn't handle the fact that she no longer had her beautiful looks following a car accident and then go and marry someone much younger, prettier, and very wealthy? Do you think Jesus would want his people to live carelessly ruining the beautiful earth he created because they were too busy thinking about themselves? Do you think Jesus would make racial comments assuming someone is Muslim because they're black and have a different name? I'm pretty sure my God is compassionate and would help those who have nothing, yet struggle to take care of their families. Yes, God will pass judgment on those who do not follow His commandments and live their lives for him, but that is NOT our job. Matthew 25:31-46

As for abortion, if you do the research instead of continuing to think what Republicans want you to think, you will find that Barack does not want women to go out and start having partial-birth or late term abortions. "On an issue like partial birth abortion, I strongly believe that the state can properly restrict late-term abortions. I have said so repeatedly. All I've said is we should have a provision to protect the health of the mother, and many of the bills that came before me didn't have that." So Barack is so bad to think that if complications resulted in my life or the baby's, we should choose the baby and let me die. Hmm... I would hope you would have a different opinion on that. And Joe Biden actually supports a ban on partial-birth abortions. Just because someone leans on the liberal side (I'm independent by the way) doesn't mean they are automatically pro- abortion! (Which, by the way, I've never heard of anyone being... the position is pro-choice. I'm pretty sure nobody is excited when they're faced with the decision whether or not to terminate their pregnancy. People who are pro-choice don't jump for joy whenever someone has an abortion.) What a ridiculous way of thinking!! Abortion is NOT a black and white issue, it needs to stop being treated as such... and it needs to stop being the only reason someone would vote for an individual to run a country!

It's funny that the Republicans reach out to the Christian extremists with ONE issue and hope the people are so stupid they make a decision about whether or not someone can run a country based on that one issue alone. It's obvious it's working. I used to buy into this as well until I realized I had a brain that could see the whole picture and realize that a president needs to be able to do so much more to fix our economy and have the people's best interests in mind...not just spout out that he is a Christian who is against abortion.

Barack Obama and Joe Biden are also Christians (check the facts—Obama belongs to the United Church of Christ and Biden is Catholic), and they use their brains to realize that yes, abortion isn't necessarily the right thing to do, but they realize it's a much more complicated issue than that. They also realize there are OTHER issues that are important for our nation as well.

It amazes me how arrogant so many Christians are. We all have to answer to God, even people who don't believe in Him. Since when did God tell us that as his followers, we are so righteous that we should judge others and "play God" ourselves. I'm pretty sure he is very disappointed in many Christians and the churches who have taken things too far.

Yeah, you never really know if the person we elect can fix our problems, but I'm pretty sure I'm voting for the person who has shown so much more integrity, compassion, and brains during this campaign.

On Obama being Muslim: http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/muslim.asp

Palin's record on women's issues: http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=palins_record_on_violence_against_women

Evidence of Palin's role in charging rape victims: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jacob-alperinsheriff/sarah-palin-instituted-ra_b_125833.html