What is a Christian voter called upon to do when elections roll around?  We have just had our most recent round of local elections, and I hear that there are some national elections coming up in November?  The term, “Christian voter” has probably been co-opted and abused so many times that we even hesitate to identify as such.  When pundits speak of the Christian vote they usually mean the Evangelical vote, failing to remember that there are millions of mainline and other Christian voters out there who do not identify themselves that way.  But to what extent does or should our Christian faith influence what happens when we stand in front of the electronic voting machines and cast our ballots?  The answer is, of course, a lot.

We may forget, but those who choose to follow Jesus are Christians above any other designation we may also have.  Our Christian identity trumps (no pun intended) our familial relationships, our nationalism, our partisanship, and any other designation we can think of.  Everything we do and say, in theory, is filtered through our Gospel eyes and ears.  Ideally, when we act, we do so aligned as closely with what Jesus would want us to do as we can.  This is what it means to be a disciple of The Risen Lord.  One problem with the political arena is that it is one of the areas in which most of us are still blatantly self-serving and self-centered.

Politicians typically appeal to our self-interests with facts and fears.  If they can convince us why a vote for them helps us, or a vote for their opponent hurts us, they are much more likely to actually get our votes. (When compared to the success rate of convincing us to vote for what’s good for our neighbor.)  They’ve become quite good at it at the national level.  When we listen to top national candidates, we hear about all the great things they can do for us.  We also hear about all the bad things they can save us from.  This round of national elections is also focusing on our personal anger and disappointments.  It’s been common in this election cycle to witness the manipulation of the populace around “us vs. them” arguments in even greater measure than normal.  Such arguments assume an ability to see ourselves as being somehow apart from the other.

I get it.  We’re the land of personal freedoms (for which I am

grateful beyond measure).  We have built our dreams upon personal achievement and accumulation  (I claim that one, too).  We live in a consumer culture that feeds our egos and our appetites, (I certainly have a healthy ego and appetites to match), and we don’t take it well when we don’t get our way; less and less so, in fact.  We are less likely to support policies that help large numbers of people, if it costs us personally in the end.  This is, I suppose, why they say all politics is local.

Our Judeo-Christian teaching is unequivocally clear about where self-interest falls on the continuum of being more or less in line with God’s vision for the world as expressed by Jesus and others.  Jesus does place a value on the love we have for ourselves, but only so that we have a measuring stick when loving others.  The second of the great commandments that we hear in church services says we should “love our neighbor as we love ourselves,” (the first being to love God).  Of course we love ourselves – and similarly we should love others just as much.  As I’ve said before in homilies, loving neighbor means wanting for your neighbor the things you want for yourself.

Saint Paul is also quite clear about self-motivated action.  He has quite a lot to say about it in his writings.  He told the Philippians, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.  Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”  (Philippians 2:3-4)  To the Corinthians he said, “No one should seek their own good, but the good of others,” (1 Corinthians 10:24), while he warned the Romans, “…for those who are self-seeking and who obey not the truth but wickedness, there will be wrath and fury.”  (Romans 2:8)

We are to be other-focused, even to our own detriment, because that’s what Jesus did, and what he calls us to do: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24)  Taking up that cross may very well cost us our life, but such is the way of the Lord in which we follow.  Fortunately, it is unlikely that our faith will cost us that much in our current culture and time, but that doesn’t mean it should cost us nothing.  It is the stance we take in all areas of our lives, even in politics.

I wish it were easier than it is to determine how we might best vote as an act of faith.  There is no clear party of faith; both parties seem to have captured their own aspects of faithful Christian living.  I don’t know any thoughtful Christians who would claim that their party’s platform is in total alignment with the worldview Jesus was trying to show us.  It just doesn’t work that way.  About the best that we can do is to be prayerful and discerning about our votes and how they will benefit our neighbors, and hopefully ourselves in the process (the latter being a secondary concern).  Perhaps if Jesus were standing outside our polling place campaigning for something, he’d say, “Vote for your neighbor’s best interests as you’d vote for your own.”

Tom+

Holy God, throughout the ages you have called men and women to serve you in various ways, giving them gifts for the task to which they were called and strengthening and guiding them in the fulfillment of their calling; in this free land you share with us that great responsibility and enable us to choose those who will serve you in positions of leadership in various offices of government.  Help us in so choosing to seek those who have an understanding of your will for us, a commitment to justice, a concern for those in greatest need, a love of truth and a deep humility before you; send your Spirit among us that we may be guided in the choices we make that so your will may be done on earth as it is in heaven.  Amen.