Driving to the polls I pulled out my prayer beads and prayed in the car. I walked in, smiled and expressed thanks to the people who got up so early to run everything. Classic American scene. Polling booths in an elementary school gym. I found an open booth underneath a basketball hoop.
I stood quietly and made my selections. Having made the selections, I went back and found the names of the Presidential ticket I was not voting for. Gazing at the names I tried to bring their faces to mind. Holding them before my heart and mind, I prayed:
May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you. And give you peace.I waited until I was sure that the prayer was real, that I held nothing back. I then paused a second time, my finger poised over the "Cast Ballot" button. I prayed:
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.And then I pushed the button.
Jesus answered, "My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. If it were, my
followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish
leaders. But my Kingdom is not of this world." John 18:36
and
Luke 22:25-26Easy-to-Read Version (ERV)
25 But
Jesus said to them, “The kings of the world rule over their people, and
those who have authority over others want to be called ‘the great
providers for the people.’ 26 But
you must not be like that. The one with the most authority among you
should act as if he is the least important. The one who leads should be
like one who serves.
Were on my heart as I voted also.
I really like what a local Episcopal church in town is doing: Election day communion. As they said "We are united by something more powerful that our political differences."
Here in College Station, Texas I hope that really holds.
Really like the Election Day Communion. There's one in Abilene as well that I hope to attend today.
What's funny is that the voting doesn't create the disunity; only reveals it. If Richard had told us for whom he voted, we might decide that Richard's act of voting created disunity. But as a matter of fact, Richard didn't tell us--but I think I know anyway, and think he would never in a million years vote for the guy I voted for.
This disunity that gets put in crass containers like "Republican" and "Democrat" or "liberal" and "conservative" rings so true for so many people not because of a single act (like voting)--it's because, within a few minutes of meeting Richard or reading his blog, I get the sense that he is probably one of "those people" that I'm deeply tempted to look down on, and that I'm one of "those people" he is deeply tempted to look down on. All before the vote is cast.Yet I am comforted to know that he prayed (I think) for the guy I voted for--and that matters. In prayer, in communion, in resisting temptation, unity can be achieved.
As an expat living in Britain - "You mean Canada?" as a JFK limo-driver said to me last month when I told him where I'd flown from - you know, the country against which the nascent US fought its first unjust war (starting as it meant to go on) - I suggest turning to Psalm 44:14 if you want to know how even UK conservatives will view a Romney victory. If you're going to vote, take Amos with you into booth, for Christ's sake.
I voted this morning, and I wrestled with whether or not to, and how to vote. This year, for national positions, I wrote in "Jesus Christ". For the local elections, I made selections from the options presented. (I can't say I will always choose this route, but given my recent move to this theological view, this is the route I chose.) Our new monastic community is having a communion service tonight as well. Hopefully, as our world wrestles inside a fallen system, we will proclaim that Jesus is our Way. (Though, I will still want to watch the results tonight.) Another new monastic community in our town is doing their dinner/communion, but they are asking everyone to avoid discussing the election.
I voted today, in a church. Which felt awkward, because one of the candidates for President was so clearly a shady, opportunistic manipulator who has as much chance of entering the Kingdom as a camel could fit through the eye of a needle. And the other one reinforces the canard of a woman's "right to choose" (to kill). So I still voted, but I was really there more for the local candidates. The ones that, in a free country, ought to make the most difference. Change begins at home.
I read with interest your post on David Lipscomb. While I can see the point of not voting, I tend to think that voting is a case of 'giving to Caesar what is Caesar's' - we live in a democracy and one of the obligations is to vote. Though I will say, that I don't think that following politics as closely as I do normally is doing anything good for my soul. I appreciate your attitude in the voting booth. Maybe things in our country would be better if we all approached it - with humility - the way that you did.
I'm Australian so please forgive my ignorance of your system there in the USA. But observing from afar it doesn't seem that whether believers vote or not is really that problematic. Again, just observing from a distance, the tendency among many in your country to try and mesh together church and state seems to be much more worrying. The whole 'one nation under God' and the idea of the US being a 'Chritian nation' is something that would seem to require much greater searching of hearts and prayer. Just this morning I read a quote from Walter Wink on why the Christus Victor view fell out of favour in the church after the conversion of Constantine- 'Society was assumed to be Christian, so the idea that the work of Christ entails the RADICAL CRITIQUE OF SOCIETY, was largely abandoned'