If you read or watch the news for any length you are bound to come across Christians who make pretty demonstrative statements about how voting for one candidate or another would be wrong as a Christian.
Examples:
- There are those who say that if you vote for Obama, who is pro-choice, then as a Christian you are not acting in good faith or conscience.
- There are those who say if you voted for Bush, or will vote for McCain, then as a Christian you are not acting in good faith or conscience because they support the war in Afghanistan, Iraq, and possibly other places, etc.
- You get the point….right?
That voting is not always, and probably never has been a black or white, cut and dry issue. Anytime you vote for a candidate, whether it be Hilary, Obama, McCain, they will enact policies and make choices that at some time or another will go against your views….whether you are a Christian, Agnostic, Atheist, etc, etc.
I wish it were that simple, but it is not. Some of you may take the pro-life/pro-choice issue as your main issue, and that’s where you will lay your stake. Others may take a gay/lesbian’s couple right to marry/not marry as your main issue, and that’s where you will lay your stake. Others may say that marching into war is the main issue, and you will stake your claim there based on the candidates view.
It is not always cut and dry. There have been candidates who are Christian who have cut taxes and eliminated community health programs, sending many to the street to struggle away in poverty.
What I’m saying is that when we hold the ethics of Jesus up against a candidate, no candidate will match those completely. I wish that were not true, but it seems to be. So until someone fits that bill, then we as Christians should not go around claiming that others are not Christians, or are acting in bad faith or conscience because they voted for one of the candidates over another.
The choices we are presented are sometimes grey, and if we play out the long tail effect of each decision, then we would see that everything is not always black and white.
In Matthew 5, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus presents to us a way of life that is so radical and counter-culture that it makes no sense to our rational minds….it is so counter-intuitive. So as a Christian, as long as I know I’m struggling to live out those teachings, then I know others are as well. And no candidate is going to be a savior, whether they are Christian or non-Christian, whether they claim to be or not be.
