This I Vote: Awakened
My political consciousness was awakened after the repeated revelations of the previous/current administration’s mishandling of the Iraq war, relationships with oil companies, and incompetence and/or dishonesty regarding intelligence agencies and ‘special’ prisons, to name a few. It took this big of a shaking for me to go out and read God’s Politics by Jim Wallis. The central idea I learned from those two experiences was that God and faith cannot be monopolized by a political party. And furthermore, morality in the public sphere can not be limited or narrowed to the platforms of the religious right, namely, those dealing with sex – abortion, gay marriage. On the contrary, how we treat the poor is a moral issue; how we justify war is a moral issue; how we care for the sick and aging is a moral issue, just to name a few.
While I believe it is unethical for a professional minister to formally endorse a political party or political candidate, I do believe Christian leaders should promote honest dialogue and truth-seeking about the many social, civil, and moral issues that affect our country, and encourage people to exercise the civil right to vote. While we do believe in the coming eschatological Kingdom and the soon return of Jesus Christ, that does not exempt us from praying and working for the principles of God’s Kingdom to come here on earth before that Day.
Billy is an Adventist Pastor in Merced, California.
