Voting

So I read this book by Shane Claiborne entitled "Jesus for President."  I know, I know....I was that girl..but I was curious and did hide the cover when checking it out ;0)  I actually didn't read 98% of the book...I skimmed and it looked typical--but there were some excellent quotations scattered that I loved.  This one is particularly good at describing some of my current feelings on politics.

“The distinctly kingdom question is not about how we should vote but about how we should live.  The decision we make in each future election is no more important than how we vote every day.  We vote every day for companies, for people, and we put money toward “campaigns.”  We need to think of the faces behind the scenes.  Who are the masters and Caesars that we pledge allegiance to by the way we live and through the things we put our trust in?  We vote every day with our feet, our hands, our lips, and our wallets.  We are to vote for the poor.  We are to vote for the peacemakers.  We are to vote for the marginalized, the oppressed, the most vulnerable of our society.  These are the ones Jesus votes for, those who every empire had left behind, those whom no millionaire politician will represent.”

First posting

I wrote a Facebook note regarding political things, and had been wanting for sometime to find a better venue to publish my thoughts on the wide variety of topics I think about any given day. I'm not quite confident I'll get the feedback/readers I hope for, but we'll see it goes. If nothing else, I'll just get my thoughts out, reread them, and remind myself how clever I am ;0)
To start it off, here's a copy of the post I put on facebook. Thoughts?

This election season has been such an incredible learning and growing experience for me--as I've really fought to become grounded in my values, processes, opinions when it comes to the political arena both as it relates and doesn't relate to these specific presidential candidiates. Being politically active and educated is something that I've always desired, but never made time for in college.

I read a discussion board tonight entitled 'Why would Christians vote for Obama,' and once again felt heavy hearted. Many of the participants, my parents, and many of my peers have shared that they don't feel like a true Christian would vote for Obama. I understand where that comes from but understandable is not synonymous with excusable.I just can't ever see how one can say that my voting for Obama would be bottomline unChristlike and voting for McCain would be bottomline Christlike. We do need to respect all life, born and unborn--and that includes abortion and that includes life lost in war--of which there is no doubt John McCain will continue to advance. And what about the poor both in our country and around the world...I'm not advocating for socialism, I spent a semester in Russia and am certainly aware of the realities of socialism. However, I'm not prepared to allow anyone to think that my advocating for the poor or war that is killing innocent individuals everyday is less Christlike than voting against abortion. God cares just as strongly for the widow and the orphan--and in that sense--would it be that far off for me to wonder how Christians could vote for McCain due to his lack of sufficiency in those areas? I'm not advocating for Obama--but I am weary of being told that McCain is the only answer if you're a Christian. It's simply false and offensive to your Christian brothers and sisters who so strongly advocate for the poor often neglected by Republicans, who so strongly advocate for innocent lives in Iraq and other countries to be considered as important as our lives. Abortion is a very serious issue and speaks a great deal of the moral decline of the human race. However, it is not the only issue God is concerned with. God is not of a political party. He has values on both sides of the line and implicating that those not on your side are not on His side is completely inappropriate and not your call to make. Furthermore, just because you don't vote for Obama doesn't mean you should vote for McCain either.As Christians, we know that the true solutions in life lay with Jesus Christ--not with John McCain, not with Barack Obama, not with Ralph Nader. Our hope should be in Him, not in some political figure.

Will I vote? Absolutely, and if you don't you should be ashamed of yourself for neglecting that great privilege. I'm voting as a measure of gratitude for the privilege--not for either candidate because I don't believe I could honor the Lord in voting for either. When one of them gets elected, I will pray earnestly and fervently for my country. And I will continue to make it a priority to make changes starting with myself---you have to be the change you want in the world. If you're not recycling for reasons of responsible energy consumption, advocating for peace and life instead of war, advocating for the lives of unborn children, being a good steward of the blessings inherent in living in this country, giving your time/money/resources to help the poor and widow and orphan--then don't expect your presdiential candidate to do it for you. You do it. You answer to God for what you did--and guaranteed he's going to be a lot more interested in if you did/didn't do those things than whether who you voted for to do those things actually did them-- while simultaneously you weren't even doing those things. God's going to laugh me out of the courtroom if I get to judgment day and say that "Well, no I didn't help the poor myself...Obama was supposed to do it, which is why I voted for Him...so in a sense I did help the poor." Heck no, techno. God didn't say "Thou shalt vote for the poor to be clothed" He said go clothe the poor, in fact give them the jacket off your back. Our lives are not that hard. We have so so so much to be grateful for--and we don't live adequate lives of gratitude and service for the Lord.