by Berry Craig

MAYFIELD, Ky. – The economy seems to be in its worst shape since the Great Depression. The war in Iraq is still costing us precious blood and treasure.

Polls say George W. Bush is one of our most unpopular presidents.

John McCain is “John McSame,” as in four more years of Bush-style government of the rich, by the rich and for the rich. His running mate is a rabble-rousing nut job.

Apparently, none of that fazes Elizabeth Dolan, 31, a single mom and waitress in Florida. She’s sold on the McCain-Palin ticket, according to the New York Times.

Dolan came to cheer Palin at a recent rally. She told a Times scribe that Bush is one of America’s great presidents.

“He was really good for my family,” the reporter quoted her. “We’re hurting financially, but he shares our values just like Sarah Palin does.”

“Values voters” like Dolan often vote Republican in my native Kentucky, too. A lot of them work at low-paying, dead-end jobs.

Many, if not most, of them call themselves “born-again Christians.” I’d bet Dolan does.

"You can't be a Christian and a Democrat,” some “values voters” claim.

I was reared Presbyterian. I don't recall from reading the Bible, going to Sunday school and listening to sermons that God is a Republican or a Democrat. I was taught that we are all God's children and that, like a good parent, God loves us all the same.

Yet Kentucky – Florida, too – is home to many pastors – perhaps Dolan’s among them -- who pray, preach and pass out leaflets claiming that the only issues that matter on election day are social issues like abortion, same-sex marriage and school prayer.
These preachers tell their flocks to vote for "Christian" candidates who oppose “baby-killers,” bash gays and want to raze the constitutional wall that separates church and state.

All the while, these same “Christian” candidates favor big tax breaks for millionaires and big corporations and tax crumbs for people like Dolan.

They oppose unions. They want to get rid of government regulations that guarantee worker safety and health, safeguard the environment against polluters and protect consumers against the greedy and unscrupulous.

Yet people like Elizabeth Dolan keep voting for these candidates who will keep working stiffs’ slice of the American economic pie as skinny as possible.

I doubt Dolan is in a union. If she were, she’d know first-hand that unions support candidates like Barack Obama because they will help workers – and not just union members -- get their fair share of the American pie.

The religion or race of the candidate doesn’t matter to unions. How candidates vote – or would vote – on issues of economic justice does.

Besides a Presbyterian, I’m a union member and a Democrat who is voting for Obama. But I wouldn’t for a minute say, “You can’t be a Christian and a Republican.”

As a mortal, I don’t presume to know what God thinks. But my guess is that the Almighty is neutral when it comes to American politics.

At the same time, I don’t see Christ as an apologist for the rich and powerful or a union-buster. He was working-class. He palled around with the poor and the powerless.

Christ preached love over hate, peace over war, charity over greed and brotherhood and sisterhood over bigotry and exclusion. Jesus admonished us to live by the Golden Rule.

Christ was big on economic justice. He promised the meek, not the moneyed, would inherit the earth.

He said all of that without any party label.