SoCal AG News

Will you cast your vote on November 4th?

Monday, October 27, 2008

Politics create instant camaraderie between two strangers when they agree. But politics can also produce an awkward silence, or it can be the lit match in a gas filled room. Hopefully people remain friends, though it may only be possible at the cost of any political discourse.

We’ve all experienced elation when our candidate won, and disappointment when our candidate lost. When this happens, we feel we ourselves lost, our whole country lost. The genius of democracy is grass roots participation in the political process, but with results there are winners and losers – a reality that will hit home on November 5th in families, friendships, congregations, and communities.

Christians, including evangelicals and pentecostals, are in more than one political party, and there are independents who feel shunned because they don’t tow the party line of either political base, and their concerns are represented in more than one political platform.

Regardless of party affiliation, Christian values should inform our political decisions. In each election, we have an opportunity to cast our one vote that represents our convictions in a broad array of issues – family values, ethic of life, racial reconciliation, human rights, poverty, compassion for children and disenfranchised, and environmental stewardship, to name a few.

While Americans would not surrender their right to vote, many will not exercise this right on November 4th. Some are disenchanted with the slate of candidates, many are cynical, and others question how their one vote will make a difference. One can only remember the ink-stained fingers of Iraqi citizens in their first election this century. Whether the right to vote is taken away or is given, then we realize its power and privilege.

Embracing the privilege of being United States citizens, we also belong to another “citizenship” that transcends country of origin, geography, socio-political, and cultural differences. Paul in his letter to the Ephesians writes:

… remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us.  He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God (Eph 2:12-22).

Our earthly citizenships and kingdom values will always be in tension; therefore we continue to pray in this way:

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And do not bring us to the time of trial,
but rescue us from the evil one (Matt 6:9b-13).

On November 4th each single vote – however insignificant it seems – will be cast to represent values that are significant to our future and our children’s future.