With Nov. 2 more than a month behind us, I face the realization that I never fully digested what happened. Obviously, Bush won and Kerry lost. But the foggy part was the message sent by Christians during the political discourse. The message left me feeling isolated as a Christian, not as a Kerry supporter. Fully rejected in the name of God. Or Bush? (I know, it’s confusing to me as well).

An overwhelming number of voters reported that they voted considering “values.” The media were abuzz about how “values” determined the outcome. So I thought I would help set the record straight.

I am probably the most politically incorrect, ignorant, confusing (or confused), “so-far-right-she’s-left” political wonk you will encounter in a long time: I actually believe the Bible to be the unabridged word of God. Gasp! I’ll give you a moment or two to recover.

See, the Bible that I read speaks expressly against sin. Here comes the un-PC part about it: The Bible is consistent in speaking against all sin. In I Corinthians 6: 9-10, for instance, we learn that God equates the sin of homosexual sex with that of the sexually immoral (those who sleep with someone before they are married); the adulterer; idolaters (those who put anything, like school or a nice house, before God as their god); and drunkards. Yes, I know that is hard to digest in terms of policy initiatives, but why is this so hard for us as Christians to understand and accept?

Frankly, there is nothing that keeps us from outlawing and successfully prosecuting every one of these things, if we truly wanted to. But we know that nobody wants to do that. We would all be locked up (and you might have to share a cell with someone who cheated on their taxes. Gasp!). It would be like having a state-imposed religion. A theocracy. What say ye, Brother Bush?

What Christians failed to address on Fox News this season is the abomination of hypocrisy (look up Matthew 7:5, Psalms 26:4, I Peter 1:3). This was my biggest concern and it still is. I fear for my future children being exposed to people saying one thing and doing another more than anything else that the government or a political leader or a homosexual or a person who has an abortion could ever do. How do we win souls by wearing the face of hypocrisy? People feel cheated by this administration. They can’t trust it anymore. How will they trust God if His servants are so inconsistent?

Somehow, I fear that people have lost sight of our goal as Christians: To win souls. Not to make it more comfortable for ourselves on Earth. We don’t win souls by throwing words of hate, condemnation and self-righteous hypocrisy. All we do is make people more distrustful of Christians, and, in doing so, we block the message of Christ.

People are confused about the double standard supported by Christians in this matter, and the argument is not going away. Are we going to rationalize, to justify the things we do, or are we going to change them?

I know the biggest argument against the things I believe is that the Bible “is not actually the word of God” or that “portions of it are contradictory.” Funny how the portions we think are wrong are the ones that convict us, the parts that ruin all the fun. Boy, if I could get rid of that part about lying, I’d feel a lot better about my childhood; I might have even considered a vote for Bush.

A double standard is all we can achieve if we allow ourselves to fall in line with a man or party that speaks vocally about some Christian values, falls silent on others and simultaneously has to make decisions about killing people, lying or cheating. Regardless of the man, this is not the office out of which we want to, or can hope to, receive the full truth of God’s will for us, as a nation or as individuals.

I will not go around arguing against abortion as “government-sanctioned murder” until we stop endorsing the killing of people on death row or the faceless in other countries as a result of war or any other “effort.” It seems dangerous to “compromise our values” in hopes of a tax break.