I am Feeling The Bern and have been since shortly after Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders announced his campaign for president. I was raised Catholic and am a religion major, two points of contention for the conservatives in my life when they hear that I voted for Sanders in the Georgia primary and plan to support him all the way to the Democratic National Convention.

I am sick of hearing “Oh but you’re Catholic and he’s a…socialist," as if democratic socialism isn’t infinitely more Christian of a policy than the unfettered capitalism that has been plaguing our nation since before my birth. I firmly believe that Senator Sanders embodies the true meaning of what it is to be a Christian, certainly more so than any of the Republican Party nominees. All I ask of anyone who reads this is to seriously think about it on your own. You may disagree and write me off as a heathen and a bleeding-heart liberal, but please just consider what it truly means to be Christian.

1. Sanctity of Life

When you read the title of this piece you probably thought “ah but he is pro-choice, he’s automatically not Christian”. I’m afraid that is not how it works. What Christians must ask themselves is what it truly means to be “pro-life”. This means believing in the sanctity of life from birth to natural death. Anyone who is Pro-Life would argue against such issues as abortion, physician assisted suicide, and the death penalty. Uh-oh, looks like no candidate on either side is pro-life. The conservatives push for the death penalty while the liberals push for abortion.

So where does this leave us? Perhaps we can see who is the “most” pro-life. Strap in everyone, I’m about to fly directly in the face of my good ol’ Catholic Church as well as most vocal Christians with my logic. So we have conservatives. They are against abortion, and for the death penalty. If this is a numbers game then it would make logical sense because more unborn babies are aborted than criminals put to death. But it is important to look further than just numbers.

I believe strongly that the Republican Party today is “pro-birth” not “pro-life”. Conservatives don’t stop at forcing women to give birth to a child they don’t want for any multitude of reasons, they also refuse to help support social welfare programs like Medicare, Medicaid and food stamps. They shift from an overly involved role in the woman’s personal life to none whatsoever once the child is born.

Then we have the Democrats. Yes they are pro-choice but they are also anti-death penalty (Technically Sanders is anti-death penalty, but since Secretary Clinton is in favor of drastically limiting the instances for which the death penalty can be given I consider her anti-death penalty for the sake of argument). In addition to being pro-choice they also believe in getting rid of abstinence-based sex education and providing birth control and contraceptives to the general public. IF you are unfamiliar with why abstinence-based sex education is so bad (basically it doesn’t work) check out this article.

2. Stewardship of the Earth

As Christians we are called to be stewards of the earth. Instead of protecting the natural beauty of the world, we are very quick to ignore serious long-term issues in favor of short-term solutions. Whether its fracking for oil or wanting to shut down the Environmental Protection Agency it is becoming increasingly clear that the Republicans don’t give a damn about the environment. Hell, even Donald Trump said on Twitter that “the concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive”.

Sanders, on the other hand wants to strengthen the U.S.’ push to stop climate change. His platform is both specific as to how he plans to do it, but also shows a fundamental understanding that this is not something we can wait to act on any longer. Additionally, he has demonstrated that stewardship of the earth is something that is important to him through his voting record on environmental issues.

3. Helping the Poor

Senator Sanders is one of the only candidates who has placed an emphasis on helping some of the most marginalized in our society: the poor. As Jesus said, we should feed the poor, and Sanders wants to help them by providing free college tuition since education is at the foundation of any and all attempts to overcome barriers in life, especially poverty.

I know what any conservatives who are reading this are probably thinking: “yes we are supposed to feed the poor, but Jesus wouldn’t want that burden to fall on the government, it should be individuals who choose to help the poor”. This is a valid point, but I would argue that it must then go both ways. It is funny to me how the same people arguing that it is the government’s job to step in everywhere else. They want to use the name of Jesus as an argument for the government telling the LGBT community they cannot have the same rights as a married couple, or the teen mom with an unplanned pregnancy that she cannot get an abortion.

Perhaps I was a bit overzealous in my argument. Conservatives want the government stepping in everywhere except helping the poor and the ill because that’s socialism. That’s intrusion. That’s wealth redistribution. Irony aside, I truly believe that before any of the things conservatives tend to push for, the first thing Christianity would demand for us to do is help the less fortunate. Not make bullshit excuses for how the government cannot step in when individuals clearly are not getting the job done.

At the end of the day, Senator Sanders is the only candidate who truly embodies the ideals of Christianity. Not the hot button debate points, but the meat and potatoes of it all which can be found in the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. Yes there are some major points with which he disagrees with Christianity as a whole, but his policies and his motivations are to help those who cannot get help themselves and to make the country a little bit better than it was before. He plans to do this not by ignoring the damage we are doing to our environment or by ignoring the most marginalized and helpless in our society, but by holding those with power and money accountable.