Faith Priorities for this Election

My Faith Priorities for this Election

While many pastors, denominations and organizations are producing “voter guides” for this election, I will not. I have seen several “Christian” guides and all of them have been very partisan and actually had outright lies and propaganda on them that I found offensive (especially with a “Christian” label on the top!).

Instead of a voter guide, I am developing my “Faith Priorities” for this election. These are the priorities that I feel are Biblical issues that go beyond a “left” or “right” label. This year there is no clear “Christian” vote (I don’t think there ever really has been!). I have found it ironic that the usual voting blocs are not necessarily finding their usual party’s candidate lining up with their usual priorities and party lines. Let’s face it, voting for Jesus is not really an option in the election, so we are faced with an imperfect choice.

As I make my imperfect choice, here are the Faith Priorities I will be looking at.

1) The Bible is clear that humans are made in the image of God so I will choose candidates (and issues) that will protect human rights and human dignity. This includes issues such as torture and immigration. How we handle the “stranger” is indicative of how we value the Image of God in all of us. I also want to see a candidate that will work to end some of the horrific practices such as sex trafficking and slave trading (economic slavery is becoming a global issue).

2) A strong value of “life” is vital to any leader’s ability to strengthen our society and culture. I believe life is precious enough to God that He was willing to sacrifice His own Son on our behalf. So I will vote for candidates and issues that value life. This means more than spouting the polarized legal debate of “pro-life” and “pro-choice.” Rather, I want to see leaders

• who will value the unborn by reducing the number of abortions in America,
• who will value the newly born by working to stop the daily deaths of 30,000 children around the globe because of malnutrition related disease,
• who will value the young by working to provide affordable health care for every person in America, and…
• who will value the old by caring for those who have lived a long life and are in need of “end-of-life care and dignity.”
  

3) With our culture’s constant assault on the morality of our families, I will look for a leader who understands his or her role in exemplifying and articulating strong family values. Our leaders need to use their position to speak of sexual integrity and restraint, marital fidelity, strong parenting and putting our values and character over economic gain.

4) War rages around the world. I know that we will never have a true pacifist President, but I am looking for a leader who will always make violence a last resort. I want our country (and the world) to be a safe place to live, but I would hope that America, with our President leading the way, could exemplify peace and reconciliation rather than Imperialism and destruction. Our security is not only based on how many weapons we have; other people’s security and having their own needs met also plays a major role in how secure we are. I want a leader who can work toward helping every one meet their needs so that we don’t have to build bigger walls and bigger barns to hoard and protect our “stuff.”

5) Jesus says that the poor will always be with you. I feel they will always be with us to see if we are owned by our stuff and greed or if we are able to look out for those around us. While I do not think that we can truly wipe out poverty, I do want a leader who will help me learn to value people over my bank account and will therefore lead the way in wiping out extreme poverty wherever we can. The Bible is clear (2000+ verses deal with how we treat the poor and oppressed!) that we are to help. I will look at the candidates and see which one demonstrates a clear record of helping the oppressed, the poor, and those suffering from injustice. We are the richest nation in the world. We ought to be the most generous.

These are the faith priorities I will be thinking about as I enter the polling booth next week. You do not have to agree with me, but I do want you to know what is going through my head as I process my choices. I will apply these faith priorities to all elections – from the Presidential race to the County Commissioners to the issues on the ballot. I hope you will join me by developing your own set of Faith Priorities.

Under the Mercy,
Jason

PS. I want to acknowledge Jim Wallis of Sojo.net and Sojourners Magazine for the idea of doing a faith priorities letter.