Friday, August 18, 2017

The Politics of Jesus: which party supports you?

The other day I heard about a site called "I side with" (NZ election version here).

It helps people like me who get too concerned about personalities (English, Ardern, Flavell, Fox, yay; Winston Peters, nay) to focus on policy. By answering the questions, the site (having predigested policy statements) lets you know which party fits your views best.

Now, the other day when I first took the quiz, it came up with one set of answers. On Saturday I revised my answers in a few cases and also found a whole lot of new questions (participants can suggest new questions). This was what was returned:



So, on the one hand, this is not terrifically helpful to me, because of the closeness of scores for the first five parties. Intriguingly I have the Greens and ACT scoring pretty closely, even though they are generally poles apart on policy!

On the other hand, given that my answers are unlikely to be significantly different from most Christians (a bit morally conservative, fiscally responsible, environmentally friendly, refugee and immigrant welcoming, etc) it is illuminating how many choices a Christian has in this election about which party is broadly supportive of Christian values in respect of politics.

I will keep thinking, evaluating, discerning. I am sure you will too. And I will take the I side with quiz again before 23 September 2017!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

There is also this one: http://www.onthefence.co.nz
Blessings
Bosco

Peter Carrell said...

(without actually looking at that site ...)

Is that one just for Anglicans, Bosco? :)

Father Ron Smith said...

'Margins of Error' are just another factor in this process. Also, self-diagnosis can be a real problem - especially when you find you've made the wrong choice; like those who voted for Donald Trump. Politicians themselves are not 'free from error'. So, do be careful when using these tools.