So, as we saw in the last posting, the question of even trying to find a candidate who matches my beliefs, particularly those for a Christian (though I would imagine the same thoughts come out for a Hindu, a Jew, a Muslim or an Atheist), is a very difficult issue. If your faith believes in peace and yet you know no matter who you vote for, war will be a part of the issue (has been in US national life since 1950), then can you vote?

As far as voting goes, the issue is really about being a Christian in a non-Christian world. If we take the notion that as a Christian, I can’t vote because there are no clear “Christian” guidelines or clear “Christian” politicians—that those politicians will make decisions (like war) that may cut against my sense of being a real Christian—if we take that as true—then we find ourselves stuck in a world in which we cannot operate. In other words, we find ourselves retreating back to the notion of the “Christian ghetto.” We end up in the same place where, to quote Steve Taylor again, “I’ll only drink milk from a Christian cow.”

Every day, ultimately, we all make compromises between the strictness of our faith and the reality of where we live. I think this is part of the “in the world, but not of it” statement that has confounded Christians (including me) for centuries. For instance, I have to leave my children and family every day to work in order to eat. It takes up about 7-10 hours of my day—time I could be praying or serving the poor or ministering to the lost. I don’t really want to choose to do it, but I do anyway because I have to compromise in order to eat. Or, to get to work, I have to drive something. I could choose to ride my bicycle, but I do not. Thus, regardless of how much I believe or don’t believe about Global warming, “the crisis of our times” (and I don’t believe that propaganda phrase), clearly the act of driving does add some pollution to the air, something a Christian would not wish to do if they could avoid it. Or, I often go shopping at places like Publix or Target (and some of you go to Wal-Mart); we buy things from big businesses like Microsoft, Coke, Nike and The Gap—we know instinctively that all of these places and things are part of making certain people rich, keeping others poor and some of these places have even been clearly guilty of bad labor practices around the world and here at home. Yet, knowing this, we shop there still. We could, if we chose, make our own clothes and grow our own food, maybe even make our own electronic equipment, but we don’t.

These simple illustrations are merely to point out how we consistently make compromises between our faith and our need to be “in the world.” I think voting falls into this same category. Or maybe better to just say politics. But even if I don’t vote (and for now, I am not certain who I will vote for though I have voted in every election I could since Reagan), a “non-vote” IS A VOTE, so I really can’t say “I didn’t vote.” Moreover, if I really look, I know that there will be plenty of candidates to vote for come November. Come November, I am certain there will be over 10 different candidates that I can vote for. I think the Florida ballot now has 12 different parties as a part of my choices.

In other words, if I know that I already make compromises between the strictness of my faith and the everyday-ness of life, then I don’t see how I can take the moral high road and declare that I won’t vote due to my faith.

So, if that is true, “how do I decide about voting?” That’s a good question that I will address in the next pos