The Christian Vote

Voting is hard. Let me re-phrase: deciding whom I should vote for is hard. Determining the big races such as President, Governor, US Senate seats is usually a relatively painless job; but who knows if I would rather have an ethnically named Democrat or a no-name Republican for the 7th District Justice of the Peace. And don’t get me started on the Libertarians…

To top all that off, I am a Christian. To be more precise, I am something of a neo-evangelical, moral conservative, social liberal guy who loves Jesus. I happen to attend Christian churches and am a member of a United Methodist congregation. All of this means that I bring extra baggage to the voting booth each cycle.

I cannot justify, for myself, voting straight ticket. I think a government run completely by Democrats or Republicans would be trouble; and don’t get me started on the Libertarians. So I like balanced government, largely because I am a liberal-conservative-moderate.

This last election brought up more of the religion v. faith talk than others I can remember. I live in a state that is solidly red – solidly; so, most of the talk was rather one-sided. “Obama’s a secret Muslim!” (If he is, he’s a really bad one.) “Obama supports abortion!” (So does McCain.) “Democrats are evil!” (Maybe...) However, I live in a metropolitan area, so there is a significant blue-ish population as well, providing for lively coffee shop and workplace discussions to be overheard.

For me, it comes down to this: there are moral issues and there are civic issues. Homosexuality is a moral issue; whether gay people have medical visitation and joint property rights is a civil issue. War is a moral issue; when a nation should resort to war is a civil issue. The national financial status is a civil issue; where those funds go is often a moral issue.

As a Christian citizen, where do I draw my line of demarcation? I do not think it is a clear point like so many do. I personally find abortion abhorrent, but we have had eight years of a rabidly more conservative President than this cycle’s Republican nominee. The status quo on abortion has not changed one bit. Why would anyone think McCain would have changed it? If that is one’s only delineating issue, then I think she/he is a bit mis-guided.

For me, the weighing back and forth of all these issues took a significant amount of time, thought, discussion and … prayer. I heard no ethereal voice telling me to vote for Obama, McCain, Barr or Nader, but I was ultimately confident in my choice.

Regardless of your vote, we – as Christians – can rejoice knowing that our nation has progressed to the point that we had the guts to elect a person from an ethnic minority. Whether that is change you can believe in, change you voted for or even change you can tolerate, we as a nation got there. We missed Dr. King’s attributed prophecy of a black President by about twenty years, but we got there.