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I've voted for candidates that I don't "like" but they were who I though would do the better job. But in this case I like Obama and Biden and what little change McCain had to turn my vote....Sarah has blown it.
angel_luv...There is an interesting article in Relevant Magazine regarding Christians and voting. I found it really hit home with me as it reflects a lot about how I have been feeling as a Christian towards our leaders. Heres the link...
http://www.relevantmagazine.com/life...le.php?id=7616
I've voted for candidates that I don't "like" but they were who I though would do the better job. But in this case I like Obama and Biden and what little change McCain had to turn my vote....Sarah has blown it.
Plus, as a Spurs fan, I cannot support anything "Maverick"
Thanks! I'll read it.
Do you support comprehensive sex-ed or abstinence-only sex-ed?
Do you support programs like Head Start?
This is where my confusion comes in...
My family has a LONG history of military service, so I've always felt compelled to vote no matter what.
But my own father, who served 20 years, said in the beginning that, if McCain was picked to represent the Rep. party, he would not vote.
He has since changed his mind, but now I'm there.
It's not that I dislike McCain. I have a lot of respect for him and all that he's been through and accomplished. But I feel like I'd be voting more against Obama than for McCain.
Either way, they're politicians, and I don't think I truly trust either side.
As my grandpa says, "They're all a bunch of crooks!"
I also find myself asking if they support capital punishment. If they do, they either don't care about the severe inadequacies of the judicial system in convicting the actual perpetrator of the crime or they really don't know about it and choose to focus on abortion instead. It's really interesting to see people's responses.
So you believe that dinosaurs and humans roamed the earth together a mere 5000 years ago?
I can respect a pro-life point of view if it is accompanied by opposition to the death penalty and support for policies that would actually result in fewer unplanned pregnancies. I'll give pro-life supporters somewhat of a pass on support for the Iraq War because some may misguidedly believe it was a necessary conflict.
Lengthy but excellent article. These were my favorite parts:Thanks! I'll read it.
http://www.relevantmagazine.com/life...le.php?id=7616
Campolo agrees. “My contention is that if anybody asks if you’re a Democrat or a Republican, the answer should be, ‘Please name the issue,’” he says. “On certain issues, I’m going to come across as someone who likes what the Republicans say, and on other issues I will come across as saying what the Democrats say.”In fact, Campolo became so disenchanted with the politicization of evangelical Christianity that he and a group of Christian authors and thinkers have chosen all themselves Red Letter Christians, a reference to the words of Christ being printed in red in some Bibles. Campolo hopes to break the stereotype that one political party has a monopoly on Christianity.For us, the litmus test for whether we’re a Christian nation is, does it look like Jesus?
Haw adds that the idea of nationalism is often theologically unsound. He says that being “born again” should mean, from a theological standpoint, that Christians have a new and different citizenship. “Theologically, born again didn’t just mean that you have a spiritual at ude to your life. It literally meant that you’re joining into this people of Abraham that are a holy nation, set apart. There seems to be evidence all over the Bible that this is a very concrete people. You’re latching yourself onto this other nation. Now when you use the word we or our, your iden y is connected to a different group of people, a diasporic people. That’s not just linguistic gymnastics. It’s biblical realism. Without that, our nationalism is misguided.”Claiborne says that this was a concept understood well by the early Church. In a time when allegiance to Rome was not only expected, but required, early Christians maintained a peculiarity and at ude set apart from the empire in which they lived. “The early Christians said a Christian could only be emperor if he decided not to be a Christian,” Claiborne says. “There was a deep collision of iden ies between your citizenship on earth and your citizenship in heaven.”Thus, say Claiborne and Haw, Christians should belong to a citizenship that is transnational. “What does it mean to be born again?” Claiborne asks. “For Christians, there’s got to be a sense that there’s something that runs deeper than what’s born of the flesh—my biology, my ethnicity, my nation-state. Our central iden y is in this reborn people of God that’s transnational.”
In this context, patriotism can seem like a vice. However, Claiborne and Haw believe it’s all about keeping an appropriate perspective. “A love for our own people is not a bad thing, but it’s a love that doesn’t stop at the border,” Claiborne says.Claiborne believes Christians can celebrate the good in America without falling prey to the idea that the United States, rather than Christ, is the hope of the world. “We want to celebrate the things that America and leaders of this country do well and right,” he says. “There’s plenty of them, but there’s also plenty of things historically and currently that don’t look like Jesus. That’s why it’s so important to differentiate them. Our hope and what we’re called to is to remind the world of Jesus, to be like Jesus, to take the words of Jesus seriously. We will applaud people when they do that, and we will interrupt and prophesy when they don’t.”With this in mind, how can we chart a new course? How can we see society transformed when we have to be wary of involvement in the system? Claiborne and Haw believe that the importance lies in keeping our perspective. “There are a lot of models in Scripture,” Claiborne says. “There are prophets who are on the margins. There are prophets in the royal court. There are people who are engaged in a lot of different ways. One of the tricky things is to maintain the peculiarity and the distinctiveness of being a Christian.”“For those of us working legislatively, we can’t compromise on things like, ‘We’re going to beat our swords into plowshares,’” he says. “That’s what we’re called to, and to bless the poor and meek. If we don’t hear any of these parties saying something that embodies that, then we don’t put our hand in with it. There are a number of ways you can call that. You can work for the Kingdom of God and align yourself with whatever seems to move us closer to that. It’s possible to say we’re also going to interrupt with grace and humility whatever seems to be standing in the way of the reign of God. One way of looking at voting is that it’s damage control. We’re in a sense voting against whatever is going to do the worst damage.”Part of the beauty of it is saying, ‘We’re going to trust that the Spirit is at work in different people’s hearts in different ways.’ Ultimately, [we hope] whatever they do is seeking first the Kingdom of God and embodying their politics with their lives rather than just trusting in a single candidate or a single politician to change the world for them.”
Haw adds that action on the part of Christians far eclipses their party affiliation. “What is more important than how we vote on Nov. 4 is how we live on Nov. 3 and Nov. 5,” he says.So, how should Christians engage the political arena? That is the question. If Claiborne and Haw are any indication, the choice is up to the individual. No matter what that individual decides, though, they must realize that true change will never happen through legislation alone. And, no matter what the individual chooses to do, they must realize that they are already voting through the way they choose to live.
“We vote every day with our lives,” Claiborne says. “We vote every day with our feet, our hands, our lips and our wallets. We vote for the poor. We vote for the peacemakers. We vote for the marginalized, the oppressed, the most vulnerable of our society. Ultimate change does not just happen one day every four years.”
Personally, I'm pro-life, but I also don't feel it's the government's place to tell women what we can and can't do with our bodies.
I know this doesn't exactly fit with many other Christians' views, but I have a problem with government having too much say in our personal lives. Abortion is one of those ways.
As far as the death penalty goes...
I think it's human nature to want to see some vile human being suffer for their heinous crimes...an eye for an eye mentality.
BUT...once I get past that initial reaction, I don't think I could ever sentence someone to death, regardless of their crimes.
As a Christian, I just don't think it's my place to decide when and how someone's life ends.
Fair take. Do you have any opinions on the current system?
My question for those who supported Bush because of his abortion stance.
What did he do to stop abortions? They are still legal. Roe v. Wade is nowhere close to ever being overturned. Abstinence only education has outright failed. In short nothing has really changed.
There is so much more to your vote than just abortion. Don't be so close minded.
People on both sides of that issue that make it their top priority don't seem to realize that the status quo is what both parties want.
Grandpa is wise!This is where my confusion comes in...
My family has a LONG history of military service, so I've always felt compelled to vote no matter what.
But my own father, who served 20 years, said in the beginning that, if McCain was picked to represent the Rep. party, he would not vote.
He has since changed his mind, but now I'm there.
It's not that I dislike McCain. I have a lot of respect for him and all that he's been through and accomplished. But I feel like I'd be voting more against Obama than for McCain.
Either way, they're politicians, and I don't think I truly trust either side.
As my grandpa says, "They're all a bunch of crooks!"
I wish the death penalty was abolished, but I highly doubt that will ever happen.
It is very likely there have been many innocent people found guilty and put to death...and some who have been found guilty but exonerated before it was too late.
Obama because Sarah Palin is a dip
Obama for soooo many reasons, but mostly because of his initial opposition to the illegal Iraq war....but also to help bring America back from the abyss the Bush administration has put us in fiscally and morally....
That's admirable. Do you think it's a greater tragedy when a guilty man goes free or when an innocent man is punished?
Haven't gotten around to responding in here, yet.
My biggest issues in this election (and, for the most part, in general) are gay rights, reproductive justice, the economy, the Iraq ugliness, and the environment. Not in that order. In all five of those areas, Obama's policies are more in line with my own beliefs, so I'm going with Obama.
Furthermore, I LIKE that he's well spoken, polished, and well educated. I tend to think that "elitist" is more a positive than a negative, especially when it comes to giving someone the job of running my country. And especially after eight years of having the village idiot in control.
I did not, however, wholly support Obama before he earned the nomination, as I have concerns about his lack of experience. I've always liked him, and I've always been pretty sure that I would be voting a Democratic ticket in this election, but he wasn't my favorite swimmer in the pool a year ago. In short, I will be voting for Obama, but I do not think he is the Messiah.
Bump for DR
I guess we can continue this here... quoted is DR's post
McCain is clueless when it comes to the economy and isn't articulate enough to persuade the democrats to draft any meaningful reform. Palin is too much of an unknown for me. She's charismatic and seems to have potential, but she needs way more time to hone her skill.
Obama is as far left as I have ever seen in national politics. His spread the wealth comment scares me. What's scarier is that we will see censorship against the right in the form of the fairness doctrine. Obama takes our country in a very dangerous direction. Biden is a clown and will be told to take a 4 year vacation.
These are the two most imperfect choices I have ever been given.
The best thing for this country is for the republicans to regroup and bring some strong principled talent to the table next time. The real change this country needs is within the Republican Party IMO, but the GOP is too far off course to make a difference now.
So I'm torn, do I vote for the better of two candidates or do I vote for the better of two projected outcomes?
I'm going to vote for ________? I still haven't decided, but I'm leaning Bob Barr.
Obama.
McCain/Palin scare me. Seriously.
why do they scare you?
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