Liberal because of my religion (not in spite of it)

I've been itching to blog about this for a long time, but have never devoted the necessary time. Taking a break from coding, I think I'll begin to tackle the issue now.

I feel as if the reason a good majority of members of the Church affiliate themselves with the GOP is because of controversial platforms including that of pro-choice and gay marriage. However, being liberal transcends these superficial issues and to me, it is about more than that. It is about compassion and living a Zion-focused life. How can we be against wealth redistribution and welfare when in the scriptures, Christ teaches to "impart of all your substance to the poor." Alma 1:26-27 says "...they were all equal, and they did all labor, every man according to his strength. And they did impart of their substance, every man according to that which he had, to the poor, and the needy, and the sick, and the afflicted; and they did not wear costly apparel, yet they were neat and comely" [emphasis added]. Christ did not judge the poor as lazy; are we above our Savior to think that we can? Of course there will always be those who abuse the system. But by cutting social programs to lower taxes for the middle-class hurts more of those people who depend on those programs to make ends meet or even to maintain a subsistence lifestyle. As the richest country in the world, to have our people hungry or sick due to lack of healthcare is simply unacceptable. There are also those who will argue that the only way to become the richest nation in the world is to rely on capitalism, a system that is inherently not equitable, and there will always be losers. Conservatives purport that those whose lifestyles are above middle-class deserve them because they have worked hard to earn it, and those who are lower-class have brought it upon themselves. However, if you take a peek at history, it is quite clear that the playing field has never been level. There will always be those born into privilege or with opportunities that others do not have. Moreover, I believe that everything given to me and those around me comes directly from our Heavenly Father. All that we have is not ours, it belongs to Him. Thus, it is not necessarily our wealth to hold on to and keep to ourselves rather than sharing it with those who Heavenly Father imparted a more challenging life. Although it is hard to fathom, I am one of a small percentage of women in the world who are able to receive an education, not to mention part of the even smaller percentage who receive higher education. I have been blessed beyond all reason and it would be disrespectful to my Father in Heaven to not use everything he gave me to help my fellow man. What kind of person would I be to one day have my wealth and not wish to share it with those of my brothers and sisters who are not as fortunate as me? And no, I am not simply advocating hand-outs to the poor. But more money needs to be funneled into social programs like job training, child care, health care, and social security. Not to mention in poor rural communities and urban slums, the public schools are not well-kept and the education received is far beyond the level of more affluent public schools. And No Child Left Behind is no solution either... it is implausible to think to cut funding to schools where students are performing poorly because A) it's those schools that need funding the most, and B) it's not practical to base a school's quality purely on standardized test scores.

Another issue that has recently become important to me is the preservation of the environment. God appointed man to be stewards over the earth, a creation and gift from Him. Yet, the earth is constantly abused and degraded for economic gain by monolithic corporations. The earth is being deforested, oil is seeping/dumping into the delicate ecosystem of the world's oceans, and air pollution is destroying natural weather patterns and climate changes are experienced all over the world. Yet, the United States thus far has not taken any substantial action to reduce such environmental degradation.

Moreover, man was given dominion over animals. Man was not given permission to slaughter and torture animals for their gain. I promise I'm not a PETA freak or anything, but there is something innately unethical about inflicting so much pain and misery on animals for our temporary pleasure and satiation. Not to mention the plethora of other reasons to abandon eating animal products...

Thank you for your patience with some of my newly-acquired beliefs; I've worked through a lot in my head, but I am going to make the disclaimer that I know next to nothing about most of these issues and I'm still trying to learn how to articulate everything that is in my head. But I'm still voraciously trying to find out more, and maybe one day, I'll be able to make some sense of this messy world.