The Devil's Advocate

Many of your posts on the topic "What Matters Most to You?" were very well written. What stood out to me was that many of you stated that your positions on political issues were influenced to some degree by your religious beliefs. I would venture to say that this is common amongst adults, too. So here is my "slightly" controversial question: if you count among your most important issues those topics that seem to relate to religion, such as abortion and gay marriage, are you really focusing on the issues that most impact your life? I am certainly not looking for any particular response from any particular viewpoint here, but I find it interesting that some 15-year-olds are more (?) worried about gay marriage and abortion than about issues such as gun ownership rights / gun control (especially considering the events of the past week in Colorado and Pennsylvania), and school funding. In other words, regardless of your positions on issues like abortion and gay marriage, are those really the main issues that determine your political identity today? Let's say that a political party or candidate took positions that you agreed with on abortion and gay marriage, but took positions with which you disagreed on every other issue. Would you still support that party or candidate, or could you bring yourself to support the other party or candidate, regardless of its or his/her positions on abortion and gay marriage? Again, I am not looking for any particular response here.

(Sidenote: I realize that for some of you, abortion and gay marriage may be very personal subjects due to the circumstances / events of your life or the lives of people you know. I will thus remind all who post to this blog that your comments may be read by people [inside or outside the class] who have gay friends or family members, or know people who have had to make decisions about whether or not to have abortions. Keep that in mind as you craft your responses.)