Celeste Gracey has written an interesting piece at The Daily, a publication of the University of Washington. She points out that next Tuesday some Christians will vote for Ralph Nader. Other Christians will vote for Barack Obama or John McCain. Maybe even some Christians will vote for Cynthia McKinney from the Green Party.
How do Christians, those who claim to follow the Person, plans, priorities and values of Jesus, process all of the campaign issues and then cast a Christ-honoring vote?
Local issues such as light rail or greater investment in the bus system seem difficult to figure out with respect to faith since both may be trying to make transportation more ecologically responsible.
However, an initiative that makes it legal to end the life of a person who is suffering with disease may be more clearly influenced by faith because of the doctrine of the sanctity of life.
Wednesday I had another politically engaged conversation with a good friend. My friend is a committed Christian and is going to vote differently than I. Both of us have prayerfully arrived at our decisions. We both respectfully think the other is completely wrong. Though we’ve had spirited conversations and even some debate we’ve never gotten angry with each other and our friendship has not been negatively impacted in any way.
I wish my friend would “see the light” as I do. Nevertheless, I respect my friend for prayerfully processing the issues and candidates. One concern I have about this election is how many Christians may not be arriving at their voting decisions by faith but rather by practicalities and personalities.
Is it possible to absolutely know how Jesus would vote were He here? Probably not. But Christians still have a responsibility to seek to understand the issues in light of the Person and teachings of Christ and respond accordingly.
How do Christians, those who claim to follow the Person, plans, priorities and values of Jesus, process all of the campaign issues and then cast a Christ-honoring vote?
Local issues such as light rail or greater investment in the bus system seem difficult to figure out with respect to faith since both may be trying to make transportation more ecologically responsible.
However, an initiative that makes it legal to end the life of a person who is suffering with disease may be more clearly influenced by faith because of the doctrine of the sanctity of life.
Wednesday I had another politically engaged conversation with a good friend. My friend is a committed Christian and is going to vote differently than I. Both of us have prayerfully arrived at our decisions. We both respectfully think the other is completely wrong. Though we’ve had spirited conversations and even some debate we’ve never gotten angry with each other and our friendship has not been negatively impacted in any way.
I wish my friend would “see the light” as I do. Nevertheless, I respect my friend for prayerfully processing the issues and candidates. One concern I have about this election is how many Christians may not be arriving at their voting decisions by faith but rather by practicalities and personalities.
Is it possible to absolutely know how Jesus would vote were He here? Probably not. But Christians still have a responsibility to seek to understand the issues in light of the Person and teachings of Christ and respond accordingly.
3 comments:
I wish I could have heard the political perspectives from both you and your friend. It would be interesting to see perspectives (even if different) from a Christian viewpoint. Voting for me has been always something I wish I could avoid because it's overwhelming. Do you have suggestions for resources on biblical perspectives in politics? Something practical that covers many of the current issues?
I'm not sure how helpful our discussion would have been but both of us enjoy drinking coffee.
Here's a site with with the listing of Republican and Democratic platforms and some biblical perspective--
http://ivotevalues.com/party_platforms/
This election was very "painful" for me. I wasn't "gung ho" about anyone.Both Presidential candidates have positions that I believe in and positions I don't believe in. I prayed for God to "tell" me who to vote for, then I realized, I will vote who I think will be the best and THEN pray AFTER the election for WHOEVER wins....THAT is probably MORE important!
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