Meet Sandra Nelson
Working to Restore Oregon
Hello! You can learn of my personal story in the BIO section, but this section will tell you about what I believe because IDEAS HAVE CONSEQUENCES! — bad ideas have victims.
I care about truth, defined rather simply as that which corresponds to objective reality. In my own pursuit of truth, I have found that figuring out whom to believe is critical. I tend to trust people who have demonstrated competence and are humble, kind, and do good, defined not by their own subjective standards, but by what God says is good. They ask questions with as little bias as possible, use logic, search for all the evidence they can find, and consider possible consequences of decisions before coming to a conclusion—even if that conclusion is painful.
I think most people perceive what is good and right, but for various reasons, we'd rather not always live by that perception, fearing it might cramp our own desires, invite ridicule, or cost us our comfort. (Most of us may not be as honest with ourselves as Aldous Huxley was, who wrote in Ends and Means, " I wanted to believe the Darwinian idea. I chose to believe it not because I think there was enormous evidence for it, nor because I believed it had the full authority to give interpretation to my origins, but I chose to believe it because it delivered me from trying to find meaning and freed me to my own erotic passions.")
As a young adult, I searched for evidence of truth in the major world religions. Christianity made the most sense to me, as it drew me to its central message of God's love and forgiveness of us and the love and forgiveness he taught us to have for one another. What I eventually experienced was the reality of Jesus' words, "I am the Way and the Truth and the Life." (John 14:6) That reality has influenced every area of my life.
I do not mean forcing a theocracy on everyone! Neither did our founding fathers, who believed in freedom and in the general principles of human nature and of law as taught in the Judeo-Christian worldview. In a free society we are free to believe in God or not to believe. But God's loving and rational designs tend to work for the benefit of all people in a way superior to man's secular designs that ignore the fullness and beauty of what people can be.
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness—the foundational trinity of our independence—are inalienable rights, not given by government; therefore, government cannot legitimately take them away. Family, Faith, and Freedom form the trinity of foundational institutions, each with different roles and boundaries. When those in authority within each of the three institutions honor their respective roles and boundaries, we all prosper as citizens.
I believe this understanding is crucial to the restoration of Oregon and its prosperity and success.
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