Elephante

Last night I watched a little of Republican You Tube debate. I'm not really sure why. I know that I have major philosophical issues with almost all of the their stances. Over Thanksgiving, I spent some time with my parents as well as Carrie's dad and stepmom. Both sets of our parents are pretty conservative, which makes for some tension filled dialog, especially with my in-laws. I pretty much try to steer away from those conversations, but, no matter how hard I try, they always seem to come up. My liberalism is constantly attributed to the fact that I am "young and naive" and I can't help but think about 1 Timothy 4:12. I wish they would attribute my liberalism to what it truly comes from: my passion and commitment to follow after Jesus' commands.

Anyways, in talking with my mom, she said that she really liked the Republican candidate Mike Hackabee, former Arkansas governor and ordained Baptist minister. During the debate, I really liked what he said regarding his record of giving in state college tuition to children of undocumented immigrants: "In all due respect, we are a better country than to punish children for what their parents did. We're a better country than that." While I certainly don't agree with Huckabee on this issue as a whole, I felt as thought he was the only candidate that didn't look at undocumented workers as "second rate" humans (and the only one who even comes close to my thinking on the subject.

But, I was let down later in the debate when one of the video questions was directed to him:

Tyler Overman: Hi. This is Tyler Overman from Memphis, Tennessee. And I have a quick question for those of you who would call yourselves Christian conservatives. The death penalty, what would Jesus do?

Cooper: Governor Huckabee?

Huckabee: You know, one of the toughest challenges that I ever faced as a governor was carrying out the death penalty. I did it more than any other governor ever had to do it in my state. As I look on this stage, I'm pretty sure that I'm the only person on this stage that's ever had to actually do it.

Let me tell you, it was the toughest decision I ever made as a human-being. I read every page of every document of every case that ever came before me, because it was the one decision that came to my desk that, once I made it, was irrevocable.

Every other decision, somebody else could go back and overturn, could fix if it was a mistake. That was one that was irrevocable.

I believe there is a place for a death penalty. Some crimes are so heinous, so horrible that the only response that we, as a civilized nation, have for a most uncivil action is not only to try to deter that person from ever committing that crime again, but also as a warning to others that some crimes truly are beyond any other capacity for us to fix.

(Applause)

Now, having said that, there are those who say, "How can you be pro-life and believe in the death penalty?"

Because there's a real difference between the process of adjudication, where a person is deemed guilty after a thorough judicial process and is put to death by all of us, as citizens, under a law, as opposed to an individual making a decision to terminate a life that has never been deemed guilty because the life never was given a chance to even exist.

Cooper: Governor?

Huckabee: That's the fundamental difference.

(Applause)

Cooper: I do have to though press the question, which -- the question was, from the viewer was? What would Jesus do? Would Jesus support the death penalty?

Huckabee: Jesus was too smart to ever run for public office, Anderson. That's what Jesus would do.

What a cop-out. Lets be real here, Jesus would absolutely, 100%, no questions asked, no doubt be against the death penalty. Period.

Also, I find it surprising that the religious right is supporting someone who said this about the Bible: "The reality is, I believe it, but I don't believe it's necessarily literally true in every single respect." (Not that this is wrong or bad, just ironic that the religious right is backing someone who feels that way.)

Anyways, this has turned into a really long post. If you made it this far, thank you. My question, that I would love to hear your responses in the comments, is this: Is there any situation in which you would vote for a Republican in 2008?