Election Season

Good News! It’s Election Season! It is the time of year when everyone becomes supremely confident that she holds the key to fix all the world’s ills.

Political process in America in four, simple steps:

1) Pick a candidate to vote for based on his or her party affiliation
2) Listen to a bunch of the chosen candidate’s sound bytes condemning an oversimplified, unfair version of the opponent’s plan.
3) Convince others (and yourself) that this unfair caricature is the opposition’s actual plan and that you have rationally evaluated both candidates (Proceed to step four if religious).
4) Convince yourself that God agrees with you and that the opposing candidate would greatly reduce morality in America, thus bringing on His judgment.

In all seriousness, I don’t care who you vote for. I really don’t. I think there are good, Christian reasons to vote for either candidate in this election.

This election season, I ask that we try to remember a few things:

1) Evaluate the actual plans of the candidates, laid out on their websites
2) Hold opinions with humility, not allowing yourself to become convinced that you fully know the mind of God.
3) Remember that, while the power structure is important, it is not the primary way that change takes root. The pattern of change is to become weak and humble, not strong and powerful.