Nobama from a Christian perspective

During the 2000 election, I asked a friend of mine at church who she was voting for. She said "Al Gore". I was shocked. She is a godly woman, faithful in her attendance but also in her life in general. She and her husband are the equivalent of a load-bearing wall for that congregation. Although we didn't discuss details I'm quite confident she holds the same views on moral issues as other conservative Christians. I asked her why she was voting for Al Gore. Her answer?

"I think he would be better for us black folks."

I didn't challenge her on her choice, because I got the distinct impression she was uncomfortable discussing it. But it has bothered me since then. Why would any Christian make a political decision on any basis other than the extent to which the candidate's moral and policy positions are in line with God's Word?

Today I received a copy of an email written by Huntley Brown, a concert musician who wrote the email in response to friends who asked him to vote for Obama. I checked the story on Snopes.com, as I always do for forwarded emails, and found that he had added comments there. He did not mean for his email to be sent out generally, and he's gotten a lot of flack for it. I'm sorry for that, but not surprised, because his attitude flies in the face of liberal identity politics. His message, in short: He votes for a candidate based on Christian principles, not because of the candidate's race.

I encourage you to read both the original email and his further comments.

Then ask yourself whether you make choices based on God's principles for us, or on earthly aspects of your physical self and context. In God's kingdom there is neither Jew nor Greek, rich or poor, black or white, Ethnicity 1 or Ethnicity 2.

As a side note, I'm not saying that in this election John McCain is a sterling example of a perfect candidate. He's not. The Republicans continue to slide away from Christian values in the party's platform. And in areas where the principles are not specifically addressed by God, the Republicans continue to shift toward more spending and more government, neither of which are politically conservative values. I'm disgusted with them. But the Democrats have put forward a candidate whose liberal and socialist creditentials are terrifying, and the Obama/Democrat platform is in many instances starkly unChristian. We need to reshape the Republican party. I just hope we don't have to do it in the very hostile environment a Dem presidency will foster, rather than the conparatively more open environment McCain would allow.