Here I am sorely confused, yet again, by conservative Republicans.

I guess Democratic senator Barack Obama has been getting a scolding lately from Christian leaders, this time basically for appearing at a church to give a speech about fighting AIDS. Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in California (and author of “The Purpose Driven Life”, you’re bound to know), hosted a two-day Global Summit on AIDS and the Church and Obama was one, among many, to be invited to speak. Other presenters – doctors, ambassadors, Christian leaders, another senator – collectively represented organizations ranging from World Vision to UNAIDS to the Rwandan Ministry of Health. The whole Summit was designed to address and emphasize the advantages – and I’d imagine, moral imperatives – of the catholic and local churches in serving those afflicted by HIV/AIDS and fighting against the pandemic, and altogether the summit was something of an unprecedented effort in getting the church to address the problem.

Now surely, you’d think that we can all get on board with people coming together to tackle the problem of the 40 million people infected by AIDS, right?

Well, no. Apparently many conservative leaders are saying that a politician who supports abortion rights (to provide a wonderfully vague and imprecise generalization of a man’s politics) should not have been allowed to speak at such a prominent church. At a summit with the theme of working together, it’s Christians and pro-life groups – not Democrats – who don’t want to work together and have protested Obama’s participation.
As Obama said to Jay Leno, “Everybody was reporting on me going to this church. It was like, a Democrat in church!”

Gee, a Democrat in church. I certainly hope they cleaned the upholstery afterward.

Really, I’m too frustrated to say much. If you’re not noticing the sheer stupidity of this, of essentially protesting people who may not be exactly alike one another but are coming together in open dialogue with the intent of serious action against a horrible killer, then you’re probably not going to understand my frustration. Obama is a man who has earnest convictions and an honest dedication to the true purpose of politics - making life better for the sake of all.

I disagree with him on how to respond politically to the issue of abortion. And yet I respect him. He’s a man renowned for tossing political entrenchment and fostering bipartisan discussion about real political problems. He’s a man of real faith who earnestly wants to reconcile his faith and his role as a politician in a democracy. Isn’t this what we want of politics? Or do we still want one America waging a war against another America?

This might be where the “God Gap”-closing Democrats – Obama probably the most evident example – possibly have it right. “Because God said so,” is not a good enough reason in our constiitution-based, pluralistic nation reason for making something into a law. A politician can’t make a law banning a practice like abortion just because “God says so.” Certainly, I – and from everything I’ve seen from him, Obama as well – believe that God did indeed “say so”, and believe that we must do everything in our power to obey His edicts. But we’re going to have to come up with justification in addition to that for legislation, if we’re to maintain our government as a pluralistic democracy and not a theocracy. (Remember, please, that the founders of this nation were fleeing from a government that bore an awfully close resemblence to a theocracy, one that dictated what they should believe and how they should worship.) We’re going to have to find reasons beyond our faith to govern in a particular way, if we are indeed wanting to preserve government.

So what good does it do us, as Christians, to boycott and incite anger against people who disagree with us? How can we preach so passionately about the humanity of unborn children and yet simultaneously dehumanize our brothers in Christ who happen to vote Democratic and take an alternative stance on abortion? (I also have to wonder: we’ll readily talk about how poverty can only be eradicated by local efforts, not by government… but when it comes to abortion we do so very little locally and yet look toward government action – a reversal of Roe v. Wade – as the answer. Huh?) Young Christians across America – kids, like me, coming from typically conservative and faith-based evangelical homes – are experiencing a political crisis of intense proportion and are now facing a choice:

Can we, in good conscience, side with people who we might agree with ideologically, but whose primary course of action in actual effort is to stick their head in the dirt and refuse to move? I certainly don’t know if there is an answer. I will say that showing up at an conference about engaging the church in waging war against a great and silent killer of God’s cherished children, the HIV/AIDS pandemic, probably means you that when you leave the conference you should actually talk about HIV/AIDS, and not preach patronizing rhetoric about “hypocritical liberals who want to save all lives except those of the unborn” as Franklin Graham apparently did afterward.

Now I’m a fiery believer in Christ and a strong proponent of evangelism, but I must say this to conservatives and the Republican party: if you want my vote, stop this confusion and the political games. Stop it now, and start once again letting your politics emerge from your faith and the reading of your Bible.

And the next time you show up at a global summit on AIDS and the Church, start talking about AIDS and the Church – and the 25 million people who have already died of AIDS. Otherwise you’re a modern-day Pharisee.