The Condemnation of Donkeys

For the month of January, I am only taking one class. That class is government. In high school, government was one of my favorite classes. Not only was our teacher super awesome and helped me a lot with college planning, but I found it really interesting. Naturally, like any nerd, I have been ferociously keeping up with the syllabus, and today's topic was the topic that had caused me the most anxiety this month: political parties.

I have a love/hate relationship with talking about politics that dates all of the way back to age ten. It was the year 2000, and so our social studies teacher was teaching us about the election. I ran home that night, and I asked my family if they were voting for George W. Bush or Al Gore. My grandpa responded as if I just asked the most ludicrous question ever. "BUSH, OF COURSE!" Then, he began to rant about how Al Gore would single handedly run the country into ground, and I disappeared into my room to listen to Aaron Carter.

Through school and church I learned a little more about politics. I knew I was supposed to always vote Republican because it was what everyone at church did, so it must be the Jesus way. Plus, grandpa did it, and he was a nice guy.

This mentality worked until about eighth grade. Our social studies teacher that year made us take a political compass test so we could see what we really believed. I knew I would come out Republican because I was a Christian. Imagine my surprise when I actually turned out to be a Democrat! I became very overwhelmed. This was not what Christians were supposed to be. I began frantically erasing my answers and changed them until I was scored as Republican.

Time passed, and even during the next election I found myself cheering on President Bush for a re-election. It wasn't until my senior year of high school when I decided to face facts and realize I actually did not agree with the standpoints that the Republican Party had taken on issues. I realized this over a government assignment where we were to research certain topics and pick a side of the argument. With the exception of one topic, I was on the Democratic side of every argument.

Growing up in a church and seeing how everyone condemned Democrats, I knew this was not acceptable. Therefore, I claimed to be an Independent, even though I knew I was clearly not.

Feeling guilty for lying, I decided to announce my political standing to everyone. Bad idea. The insults basically centered around how "immoral" I was for choosing such a stand point. I almost felt like I couldn't even write about it on my OWN Facebook without being attacked. One time, I seriously took a Facebook political ideology quiz just for fun. My result obviously indicated a liberal standing. One of my friends who claims to be Christian commented on it.

Because of stupid things like this, I went back to hiding my political views... or at least attempting to hide them. It proved useless because people would pry me in the most peculiar way. Another Christian friend asked me a weirdly worded question that basically asked if I thought companies that had a lot of money should use their extra profit to help those less fortunate. I said yes. I was called a Socialist. Sorry for thinking some people need help.

Yesterday, I squirmed in class as I watched one of the few fellow gun-control believers on this Christian campus present his side of the debate. His opinion was attacked by one person in particular. I wanted to speak up, but I was too scared of being attacked too. For the attacker just kept making the same point over and over again which made him look unintelligent, but the fact that his volume grew each time made it seem like he was winning. I also knew my argument on that particular topic may have not been that strong. After class though, I went up to this student I did not even know, and I informed him that I thought he did a great job.

Before class today, I ventured to United Dairy Farmers with a dear friend of mine. We were discussing classes like most college students, and I informed her of my slight anxiety about class today, for I was severely afraid we would be taking a political compass quiz and have to share our results with the class. I sort of let it slip that I was a Democrat, instantly wanting to punch myself in the face for making such a stupid move. To my surprise, I found out that my friend was also a Democrat and had suffered a lot of the hostile treatment that I had suffered. We talked about it the whole way back to campus, and I felt empowered. There were others like me! I was not alone! I was ready to take on whatever my peers threw at me when they would discover I was a Democrat.

Fortunately/Unfortunately, we did not end up doing that, and therefore, my class is still unaware of my political standings. However, I feel so silly for being so scared of my ideologies. I also feel slightly ashamed that Christians that are supposed to be loving would hurt so many people over something as insignificant as politics. What I believe politically does not define me, for God is my Creator, and He is bigger than politics. He is what defines me. If you look in a thesaurus, you will clearly see that Christian is not a synonym for Republican (I just want you all to know that I just double checked to make sure). And somedays, I have to be careful not to go all, "Well, Jesus was a liberal!" and make my rather clever comment about how Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. If I do that, then I am just doing the same thing people have done to me over the years. I believe Jesus doesn't want to be confined to one group of people. I mean don't we speak of how Jesus came to save EVERYONE? Not just the Jews. Not just the Gentiles. Not just the men. Not just the women. Not just the whites (which cracks me up because Jesus wasn't even white). Not just the Republicans. Not just the Democrats.

In the end, I think getting a malt today was a great idea.