thoughts on politics - part 1

I'm so proud of Alex, I've turned him into my own personal pundit. Here is his 'white paper' on this year's election: It's long so I will post it in sections...(going backwards so that it reads in order).

I have been thinking long and hard about whether to post about politics here. In the end, Alex put it all much better than I could have. One thing that I can add to what he says here is that I have not, and do not, judge people who have taken the time to search for knowledge of the facts and their hearts to make this decision. I hope that you, my friends and family, will take the time to educate yourselves and make an honest decision FOR YOURSELF.
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First: This e-mail is being sent to you in love. Thank you for reading it, I know it’s a bit long, but it gives insight into my heart during this time.

Needless to say this year’s presidential election is probably the most important of recent history. We are in an unpopular war with no easy way out, an economic crisis nearing the fallout of the great depression, a healthcare system that is the worst among the civilized nations of the world, Social Security which is going bankrupt and if that’s not too much to juggle in our brains we must consider the issues that confuse even the simple elections like abortion, taxes, social services, and foreign policy. How as American citizens and Christians should we make a decision? I don’t want to tell anyone how to vote; I just want to think out loud via this e-mail, in order to lay out my decision making factors and maybe open a dialogue that would help us all consider our priorities and maybe self reflect a little bit on why we are choosing the way we are.

First of, I think its important to say that there is no correct Christian answer. I wish it would be that simple. Many Christians want to make it a clear choice based on one issue over another, but we simply have no indication Biblically that Jesus would single out that same issue and ignore others that are perhaps equally important to Him. For example, we might say that God values human life greatly and cite “Thou shalt not murder” and cite Psalm 139 and Isaiah 44 as evidence that God surely cannot stand abortion, but one can also find Biblical evidences for many of today’s issues and some of the issues are handled differently by the opposing candidates. Almost every political issue can be found in the Bible and God has an opinion on each one. As we’ve been learning in our Revelation studies, God has a clear opinion on how Israel needs to be treated politically. We all know the verses relating to taking care of the poor, the elderly, the sick, etc. God surely has an opinion on how we handle war and contrary to what many Christians say, just because there are many wars in the books of Joshua, Chronicles and others in the Old Testament doesn’t mean that God is for us in every war. Each of the wars covered in those books can be studied separately. I am not going to get into the specifics of the war we are in now or whether I think God is for us or not.

Prayer needs to be part of our decision making process. Even if we all vote differently, Romans 13 teaches us that God establishes every government power according to His perfect will. This does not mean it doesn’t matter how we vote. Our individual actions need to reflect our heart and our Lord.

What I want to layout is the process I am using to separate my thoughts on this and invite you: family and friends in Christ to think out loud with me and correct me if necessary and provide wisdom. I am interested in every opinion and every difference in priority you may have. Please respond and feed my brain and heart.

Statistically speaking, the average American votes on likeability of the candidate and not on the issues themselves. This is just a sad reality to me. I know none of us are going to vote based on that, so we can go ahead and skip that consideration.

Actual considerations to factor in (in no particular order):

1. Experience of candidate
2. Morals. Does the candidate match my moral views?
3. Economy. Which candidate has a better plan for helping us out of this crisis?
4. Healthcare.
5. The War.
6. Foreign Policy.

I want to go through each one briefly to separate which ones I’ve chosen to cancel out over others.