Does God vote?

 

I’m going to go on a little bit of a rant right now, because a couple of things are really setting me off.  There are multiple groups, sites, etc., that want to directly inject religion into American politics.  These groups are stating that their particular political philosophy is the one God ‘supports’ (who knew God was a special interest group?)  I am not trying to single out any one group on this (although this phenomenon does seem to exist more on one side than the other), it’s just that for me this whole thing is starting to cross over into the silly.

I have a difficult time with those who want to bring politics and religion together.  I am NOT being critical of those whose faith is a major factor in their political philosophy and decision making processes.  If their faith is a major factor in their life, I would expect it to be this way.  If one were to go digging through history, we would find multiple instances where politics and religion were made mutually exclusive.  On the individual level, this is difficult at best, and more probably impossible.  But for as diverse a country as this one, it is a necessity.  People were worried when John F. Kennedy was running for President, because he was a Roman Catholic.  (The Pope would be influencing American policy was one expressed concern) and this wasn’t the first time the situation presented itself (Alfred E. Smith in the election of 1920 was another time the Roman Catholic religion was an issue in American politics). 

One aspect of this that’s really grating on me right now are people who say Christians should support only one party.  To me, it’s insane to say that being a good baptist, catholic, etc. means you should only support party x.  In my view, not only is this insane (despite those who can give extensive theses to the contrary) it borders, if not completely goes over the line into judging other people.  I’ve already made my thoughts known about that issue, so I won’t rehash.  Suffice to say, it’s not something we should be doing (I know, I know, I’m doing what I say we shouldn’t, but I’m not judging these people’s salvation, just their sanity).

I believe a person’s faith is ultimately an individual matter.  How we express our faith and how we interact with others is something each individual has to work out on their own.  How one votes, or believes the government’s priorities should be, is really not a reflection of that person’s faith.   Everyone has their struggles, or issues where what their heart and head believe differ greatly, and create major internal conflict.  Or, it may be a case where they have accepted something that, on the surface, appears to be in conflict with the faith, but if you talk and listen to the person’s reasons, it is in complete agreement with that faith.  It would be a far better use of our time to focus on our own faith and issues instead of trying to get everyone else to think like us.  Or have we all decided to try and be like the Borg ‘resistance is futile’.  Well, I’ll resist as long as I can.