Keeping that in mind, we proudly congratulate our new friends at Transparent CCU.

Transparent CCU is a site with the intention of keeping a critical and theological eye on my alma mater, Colorado Christian University.  Like myself, the administrators of Transparent CCU are alumni and have taken to heart the changes in the last five years on campus.  I can only speak for my own experience when I say that during my attendance, CCU churned out well rounded graduates, no matter their major.  As a youth ministry major, I went into CCU excited to be given the education from both the left and right, religiously and politically.

The problem started with the firing of a prominent, liberal Biblical Studies professor.  The university claimed it was due to the local Christian community’s outcry of the liberal Christianity that students were being taught.  After this, the long-time president of the school stepped down.  The major turning point for me was the hiring of an extremely unqualified retired U.S. Senator, Bill Armstrong.  Mr. Armstrong came to CCU without a degree.  Just a high school diploma and a career as a vet, business man, and politician.  No experience in education.

With this new president, so came new objectives for the school. These Strategic Objectives have pointed the school into a doctrinal Bible college with little evidence of the education that alumni had experienced.  This new shift has been made clear with the creation of the “Centennial Institute“, a Evangelical, right-winged think-tank.

Along with that, John Andrews, the lead writer at the Centennial Institute, has his own think-tank called “Backbone America“.  Named after his hometown, Andrews’ site claims to be non-partisan, but his writings tell me and others different.  In fact, his bio on the site explicitly says that they support Colorado’s Marriage Act (an anti-gay act), free-market enterprise, and the support of tax limits; it’s a Republican think-tank.  

Transparent CCU is, for lack of a better term, a CCU watchdog.  I congratulate them for their valor and focus on the lack of integrity and the illegitimate education that the CCU administration is pushing on its students.  The changes at CCU are disappointing for many of their alumni.  I look forward to their progress keeping the school accountable.

To begin, “politics” NEEDS to be understood as the process by which groups of people make decisions.  It is an emotional and ideological noun that has the tendency to be confused with “government” which is the organization that is the governing authority of a political unit.  “Politics” falls into “government” in the sovereign and administrative terminology.  I am defining and outlining these terms, so when I write them, you understand the meaning behind my words.

The Republican Party has taken many twists and turns which starts from the “Whig Party”, but soon found a different face when taking on the abolitionist’s cause. Keeping in mind that elected officials was the party’s main focus of democracy (republicanism), this led to the stance on the size of government in a citizens life.  This size is known as “small government” and can be characterized by the position it takes on business and government’s role in business. President Lincoln was the first prominent Republican leader by leading the South out of slavery and into “Reconstruction” via agriculture and business.

An example of this small government is the economic platform of the GOP, which, both now and then, is run by a “free market society”. This also known as “capitalism”, in which government is not involved in society’s market. This is thought to be the driving force of the GOP. Even though this is a focus of the party, this not always the case (example).  Again, this characterizes the “small government”. Another term for this type of government is a “weak” government.

Another piece of the Republican pie is how they approach issues to the .  Health care, oil and transportation are issues that fall directly in line with this “small government”.  Military and religious issues fall deeper in the Republican psyche and are characterized by another conservative principle; personal responsibility.

Personal responsibility and self efficacy is value of the GOP and its followers is driven, in my opinion, observation, and experience, by religion. Christianity and its well known stance on purging and excluding of sin from society. Because of the close ties of society and government, Christianity and its stance on personal responsibility is a centerpiece on their platform.  A textual and Biblical example of this would be Luke 9:57-62; Galatians 5:1, 13-25.

“Personal responsibility” is where Christianity propels social issues to the top of the Republican list of priorities. These can loosely be defined as abortion, stem cell research, and homosexuality. Because these social issues are a portion of the pie of the GOP platform, they are amplified to an enormous degree due to modern progressive movements such as legalize civil unions, shutting down all forms of abortion, and eliminating traditional methods of embryonic stem cell research (an old method now-a-days, but still under consideration).

These issues are not cited in a formal matter at all, but these are issues that are in the forefront of the lay, middle class mind, Evangelicals continually hammer these issues at American politics as the main issues. Also, I have little doubt that if anyone were to ask a pragmatic conservative “Are these the three issues that your party’s focal point is constantly on?”, that they will not at all disagree.  Again, they are not the only issues, just three that are amplified.

The GOP, currently, is in the minority with time to spare.  Partisanship keeps them at bay(example) and clings to Evangelicals.  The concrete stance on their platform could hurt their changes in future elections and hope for its current constituents.  This assumption of the GOP history that I have presented, is based off of experience and honest history (I hope, from the citations I have given). The only real reason I bring this subject to the limelight is because of the current political cartel that has established itself as the dominate, religiously correct body.  The weak, small governance and personal responsibility characterizes fear that the right wing has that they may have to pay prices (literal and figurative) on behalf others who do and don’t deserve the help. If you understand that, and the obsessive need to keep government out of your life, then you’ve understood the GOP.
This is all to say that I have not at all mentioned the interaction that Christianity plays in the politics of the Republican Party.  That requires a book’s worth of writing.

Some links to further understand the GOP:

http://www.emayzine.com/lectures/grn.htm
http://www.gop.com/
http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/