Voting/prayer/christians...eh...

Today as i watched TV i felt like i was being manipulated. In addition my friends from various viewpoints/convictions/unfounded opinions keep sending me forwards/propaganda. As a person/leader of the christian faith, i am tired of trying to be careful about what i say to people. In the end i just feel plain manipulated.

I realized that there are very few people in my circle of friends to whom i can really talk to about how im thinking of of voting. In most all of those cases, im preaching to the choir. We're all writing in Mickey Mouse and refuse to disclose how we truly feel about Prop 8 for fear of being tarred and feathered by our peers on both sides. In addition some of my friends are convinced that the only true christians are republicans. Im a registered independent and moderate. (maybe im not praying hard enough)

I'll be honest. I blame James Dobson and the Moral Majority. If you go onto their website they have handy voter guides. So the faithful can just check their brains at the poll booth. They dont have to be bothered to read the legislation/candidates positions/think about what scripture truly says. Oh no James and his cronies have done all the thinking for you! Just follow their party line and their interpretation/manipulation of scriptures and you can be rest assured of being a good christian. (when did Christians become lemmings who follow a leader just because they have money and a huge following? Saddleback/Crystal Cathedral/Willow Creek anyone?)

Honestly, i dont care who/what you vote for. I just dont like having my faith questioned over my voting choices. No one has the corner how Christians should vote. In many ways those decisions are between you and God. If you are going to vote, be honest with yourself about why you are making those choices. Dont do it because its the right/christian viewpoint. Do it because you have used the brain that God gave you. You read your ballot and did some research. Actually read the other viewpoints, not just the ones that affirm your own position/opinions/leanings.

Finally don't send/repeat/drone back propaganda. I've spent some time in a communist country. I can sniff out propaganda with a 10ft pole. For the most part i ignore/delete/patiently checkout while i appear to be listening. If you want to discuss/engage me with an issue. Lets do it civilly and in a spirit of exploration. The point not being to evangelize me/you to agree that im/you're right. But to explore the candidate/proposition and examine the consequences/fall out/benefits. Lets actually open our bibles and read not just the proof-texts that Dobson and his bunch trots out, but the whole passage. (imagine actually reading scripture, on our own, in whole chapters!!!)

Time and time again i have found that what appeared to be cut and dried and the "christian" way to be just sheer emotional manipulation, especially by the republican/democratic parties. So when you do your research please take the time to find legitimate/independent sources.

"But i'm too busy!" you say. But its being too busy to care that has gotten us into this quagmire in the first place. Isn't it worth it to take the time to think/protect our right to participate in our government?

Finally church is supposed to be a place of sanctuary. Jesus didn't only heal jews, but also gentiles. Need i remind you that he ate with prostitutes, hung out with tax collectors and his best friends were fishermen! So pastors, please respect this sanctity and the intelligence of your parishioners and leave the politics at the door.

Which brings me to my biggest gripe about the Moral Majority and Dobson and others of that ilk. Our churches are in trouble. Christians get divorced at the same rate as the general public. Many in the pews are wounded/abused/scared/in pain. Many of our next generation are leaving their communities of faith. Instead of poring time and money into voter guides, maybe we should instead be focusing on healing/building/restoring our faith communities? Once those are healthy, i have a feeling that churches will truly be "cities on a hill" and hopefully voting guides will be unnecessary/irrelevant.

We've already lost the culture war and if we keep trying to fight this war, we risk losing the faithful. Lets instead show the culture/political establishment the transforming/healing power of Jesus, not the political might of people who use the label Christian.

A Gut Check...

As we draw nearer to the election day i feel more and more like i'm watching a football game. People are democrats or republicans more out of loyalty or because they were raised that way, or because one team is winning. Very rarely do i read in the popular media a well thought out explanation of the differences/advantages/disadvantages of being a republican/democrat.

I see all sorts of commentary on Palin's sexiness and outfits and much made of Barak's Muslim heritage but no real commentary on why these things matter. I also haven't seen an unbiased account on the political history of America and just what was going on during the boom years. I've seen alot of facts spun to prove a point, or to sway a vote, but nothing to show the possible consequences of a policy or a historical view on the fall out from similar measures.

And then today i read a commentary in the NYTimes that cited a behavior scientist that made this statement "...but he does touch on many of the perceptual biases that distort our thinking: our tendency to see data that confirm our prejudices more vividly than data that contradict them; our tendency to overvalue recent events when anticipating future possibilities; our tendency to spin concurring facts into a single causal narrative; our tendency to applaud our own supposed skill in circumstances when we’ve actually benefited from dumb luck."

Granted this piece was on how we as human precipitated the financial crisis through our belief in deregulation. But i think it could easily be applied to politics. We tend to watch/get our news/hang out with people who support our biases. Very rarely do we deeply engage with the people across the aisle much less be honest with ourselves about our prejudices and where they were formed.

So why do you vote a particular way? Let's move beyond the "bible sez" cuz we all know the devil can quote scripture too. Besides I've read biblical arguments on both sides. And historically democrats were christians. Most of the southern democrats switched to the republican party over race. The evangelicals over the issue of abortion. Should we as christians be one issue voters?

I guess what i'm looking for is an engagement/discussion of, "is it your class/race/personal history that has led you to vote one way or another?" Because it is through those things that the lens through which we engage scripture/God/one another is formed.

Thoughts?