Is it just me?
I've been noticing an alarming trend recently. Nobody can have missed the fact that today is election day in the States, and it's fairly clear that the rest of the world is as fascinated as the USA itself over the result. Here's the thing that's worrying me:
I have come across an enormous number of Christians who are voting McCain, and pushing that decision onto anyone that comes their way, based ENTIRELY on the fact that Obama is pro-choice. Some of them bring up the issue of gay marriage too.
These are important issues, for sure. I don't like the idea of abortion one bit. I think it's wrong. I would love to see a world where abortion doesn't exist. But I don't think for one minute that it is a good idea to cast your vote based on that issue and that issue alone. I also suspect that it won't matter who gets in when it comes to these issues, because there's more to changing a law than a personal belief.
I don't want to make this a long post, because I don't think it needs to be. I'm not trying to push a political perspective on anyone. Vote the way you want - that's the whole point of democracy, right? I don't like to see people mass emailing and telling people that they have to pray that Obama doesn't get in, because I think it goes against the idea of democracy, and it uses the name of God to guilt trip people. Not my idea of a good time. I just wanted to suggest that the kind of short-sightedness that's causing people to vote on one or two issues, can cause enormous problems. The result of this vote will affect America and the world for the next four years, minimum. Do you really think that the only issue affecting the world until 2012 will be whether or not it's legal to abort a baby?
Is it just me that sees this?
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3 comments:
There is this , what I think of as, bizarre approach to politics like we can somehow vote in the Kingdom of God. I think I'm with you on this one - we may have a man who supports the life of the child (apparently) but who makes life tough as tough for widows and orphans (not to mention any other groups in need in society. At the end of the day, heaven isn't going to appear on the ticket, and history has taught us that anything orhter than heaven tends to have just a hint of hell about it.
Love
Pa
definitely not the only one who sees this.
The fact is Obama won, and I'm glad to have played a small part in making that possible. His victory means that he was considerably able to eat into the evangelical voting bloc (well, at least enough to make a dent), showing that people are finally starting to move on from those narrow interests to seeing the broader picture.
As for heaven and hell being on the ticket, I'd say that neither were the case. Rather, earth was the only option, in that the people who were running for office were neither abhorred by heaven or sponsored by it, but are human beings engaging in (hopefully) the great debates of our time, debates that may not necessarily have a "right" or "wrong" answer (though some do), but rather a "better" or "worse" answer. In my view, the guy with the better answers won.
I wish I had found this post when the election was on. Andrew and I sometimes felt that we were the only ones that felt this way...
We could have gone out for a beer and talked US politics together. :)
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