Ignorance really IS bliss

"When I heard these things, I sat down and wept.
For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven."

~ Nehemiah 1:4

Are conservatives happier than liberals?
Source: MSNBC

Individuals with conservative ideologies are happier than liberal-leaners, and new research pinpoints the reason: Conservatives rationalize social and economic inequalities.

Regardless of marital status, income or church attendance, right-wing individuals reported greater life satisfaction and well-being than left-wingers, the new study found. Conservatives also scored highest on measures of rationalization, which gauge a person's tendency to justify, or explain away, inequalities.

The rationalization measure included statements such as: "It is not really that big a problem if some people have more of a chance in life than others," and "This country would be better off if we worried less about how equal people are."

To justify economic inequalities, a person could support the idea of meritocracy, in which people supposedly move up their economic status in society based on hard work and good performance. In that way, one's social class attainment, whether upper, middle or lower, would be perceived as totally fair and justified.

If your beliefs don't justify gaps in status, you could be left frustrated and disheartened, according to the researchers, Jaime Napier and John Jost of New York University. They conducted a U.S.-centric survey and a more internationally focused one to arrive at the findings.

Wanna talk about relativism and situation ethics and seeing the world the way you want it to be or reinterpreting either the Constitution or the Bible to suit your own agenda? Then don't point fingers at us Liberals, take the log out of your own eyes, right-wingers. "White Liberal guilt?" "Ashamed to be an American?" Well, yeah actually. You say them like they're bad things. I think of it more as having a conscience, some self-awareness, and some empathy. We ask God to search our hearts and show us our sin.

Conservatives prefer to focus on other people's sin and try to control everyone around them. This leads to an ironic duplicity because they want government to control people's sexuality but think it's immoral to regulate corporations. We can invade Iraq (for our own oil interests) but Heaven forbid we intervene in Darfur. Who's more like the white-washed tombs Jesus talked about, the Pharasees and teachers of the law, and who's more like the 12 Apostles (granted, sometimes making mistakes, but earnestly following) and the early church?

Progressive Christians are taking back our church so the "religious"-right had better be on notice.