With the 2006 elections behind and the 2008 Presidential election making news, I come to a bit of a fork in the road. A moment where I can choose conformity or non-conformity.
Prior to the 2006 elections, I attended a church where the Pastor, from the pulpit, said he wasn’t going to tell us who to vote for and didn’t care if they were Republican or Democrat. But he then went on to say that as Christians there are two important issues we SHOULD vote on:
- The Sanctity of Marriage
- The Right to Life
After spending Christmas with my extended family, these two issues were again brought up as being the most important issues facing voting Christians in 2008.
From my view, Christians have become polarized in politics. You’re either liberal or conservative, period. The political vision of a Christian today is so focused and narrow that I have no doubt people vote on two issues and two issues alone.
But should we? What happens when Christians vote on just two issues?
It’s difficult to deny that while we have held fast to traditional marriage and the Supreme Court is now considered more “conservative” we are no better off in foreign relations, national safety, energy or the environment.
- From a global scale, the U.S. is now considered a bully in many parts of the world, our “lone-ranger” policy makes us unwilling to work with any other country and eager to line up inflated “evidence” as an excuse for aggression.
- As a result other countries, most notably North Korea have beefed up their weapons programs. Thousands of Islamic extremists have taken up the fight against the “infidels” and would like nothing more than for the United States to cease to exist.
- We’re incredibly dependent on oil and have yet to develop any legitimate alternative to petroleum based fuel. Say what you will about hybrids or ethanol, but no one has been able to rally auto manufacturers for serious change.
- And while many believe global warming is a myth produced by the “liberals” it’s hard to ignore rising temperatures in the artic, thousand-year-old ice shelves falling off the coast of Canada, entire ecosystems changed in the ocean, and generations of children with asthma in murky-skied big cities.
I don’t think I can conform to the “Christian vote”. And I’m not sure what that says about me, my faith or the fact that I work for a Christian ministry. But there are so many issues, so many things that will affect the health, stability and existence of this country, I feel ignorant narrowing my vote to just two issues.
Your comments welcomed…
This Life Journey 
Voting is like picking which salad dressing to put on your ice cream. They all work to some degree, but you don’t really want any of them. -Jared
A very refreshing point of view, Danny.I say that not only as a liberal who agrees with your train of thought, but because I believe such thought is that of a true Christian.”What happens when Christians vote on just two issues?”A big mess that surely doesn’t make God smile. -Hayley-
Well put Danny.Your list of other issues that Christians should be concerned with could go on and on. Not to sound like Bono or a GAP commercial but might we mention AIDS in Africa or Global Poverty. Less trendy things could be capital punishment or a taxation bureaucracy that unfairly benefits the rich and educated at the expense of the poor and working poor.But why care enough to vote when you could be cynical from the sidelines and feel like you are better than the entire process. Yeah I think I’ll stick with that. Here is what I’m thinking of politics right now