Conservatism and Christianity: Isomorphic?

This is a deep and serious issue in the American culture. I have pondered it a lot in many ways. I chose to use the concept of "isomorphic" as a means to blog my thoughts. This helps lighten up the issue a bit and throw everybody off some so quick biases don't block further pondering by folks like you.

First, what is meant by "isomorphic." morph means to transform, to move smoothly from one form to another. iso means simply equal. Thus, two objects are isomorphic if as you move from one to the other, you are in the same place. Two things are isomorphic if they are identical in every way. The term was first used in mathematics to account for two sets, seemingly distinct, that were in fact identical.

My first experience in graduate mathematics was proving what it meant for two sets to be isomorphic. Years later the term had morphed into my studies in psychology. We wanted to know - are concepts such as motivation, self efficacy, personality, etc. isomorphic at the individual and group level? In other words, does motivation for a person mean exactly the same as motivation of a team? If so, we could transfer all the learning we had about individual motivation to team motivation.

Motivation happens to not be isomorphic at the individual and group level, just in case you wanted to know.

We hear often questions like, can a Democrat be a Christian? John Kasich, former Republican candidate for President, claimed he can no longer be a Republican because conservative views on immigration are not Christian. Evangelicals are often assumed to be Republican. Pundits want to know how Christians can support Trump? Yet, we accept all Republicans are not assumed to be evangelicals. This "assumed" isomorphic relationship between political party and religious faith is causing a lot of confusion and unproductive narratives, especially for the millennial and younger.

Here is my point. I am a Christian and I am politically conservative, but these positions are not identical in any way, shape, or form. I did not become (morph into) a conservative because I was a Christian and vice versa. I am a Christian because I trust God has made a way for me, invited me and adopted me to a fellowship with Him forever, including but not limited to my time here in this world. I am politically conservative because I believe the civil system of limited government, free markets, the rule of law, and individual freedom from government interference established by our founding fathers provides the most prosperous and virtuous society known to mankind.

I encourage Christians to willfully and competently live out and explain to others their faith independent of politics. I encourage conservatives to be able to have a convincing reason for trusting the ideas of the Constitution independent of their Christian faith. Evangelicals must be able to discuss positions on economics, taxes, marriage, abortion, civil rights, etc. because the conservative rationale provides the most prosperous and virtuous society. Evangelicals cannot be convincing in the public discourse when they mix their support for conservatism with their relationship with Christ. There is plenty of reason for conservative policy to be preferred based own its own merit. To confuse the two reduces the effectiveness of each.

Conservative Christians may be shocked to realize that the Constitution and the Bible are NOT ISOMORPHIC. While all truth is God's truth, public discourse on government policy must not be overtly associated with the Bible and public discourse about the Bible must be void of public policy. This does NOT mean Christians should not engage the culture and politics. Each should play out God's call on their life wherever it leads. However, there is plenty of sound logic to support conservatism on its own. Christians should develop public policy skills and arguments independent of their theology.

At least this is worth some pondering  .......

P.S  After some more pondering of my own on this topic, I have concluded that one of the reasons young people who grow up in evangelical families abandon their faith in early adulthood (surveys show nearly half do) is this: the natural process of questioning and even rejecting their conservative political heritage (the influence of idealism and cultural appropriateness) is now viewed as synonymous with challenging their Christian faith. The Christian youth of today have not been trained to know or see the difference. This is the collateral damage done by evangelicals seeing their politics as an outgrowth of their Christian faith and vice versa (isomorphism) . They feel they must support both to support either or reject their faith if they reject their parents politics.