Politics...my two cents

I have purposely stayed away from blogging about my political persuasions this season. However, I just read a post on someone else's blog that made me so angry I felt I needed to say something. We are moderate for the most part. While we do affiliate with a certain political party, we are really more libertarian than anything else. However, we did choose a certain candidate to support in the election. I do not think he is a perfect man. I do not think that he is going to be a perfect president. We do not agree with him on all issues, but we evaluated the issues that we felt were most important this election, and we made our decisions after much prayer and evaluation. 

What bothers me most about this election season and the conservative backlash after Obama's victory is the notion that all Christians must be conservative Republicans who voted for McCain. I consider myself to be conservative as a person, but not politically. After living in the 16th poorest city in the country for the past two years and witnessing the effects of systemic poverty, I have found more in common with my "liberal" brothers and sisters than I ever thought. Living in Waco has caused me to re-evaluate the way I look at charity, welfare and government "handouts" as well as the way that I look at the war and more importantly, violence in general. 

I voted with much prayer and plenty of information about the candidates. I am happy with the choice I made. What offends me is reading posts from fellow brothers and sisters in Christ who lament the choice of president and glorify the Republican candidate stating that choosing McCain would have been a true return to Christian values. 

I think that McCain is a good man who fought hard for our country. However, I do not think that we should depend on any one person to bring America back to some sort of idealistic world where Christianity reigns supreme. For one, I do not think it is realistic to expect any one person to do that. I also do not personally believe it is possible to come back to that sort of idealistic world - if, indeed, we were ever there.

This all came to a head for me when I turned on nationally syndicated Christian radio on Wednesday morning and heard the announcer sarcastically congratulate "Barack Hussein Obama," I was honestly ashamed to be associated with that community. 

Please hear me - this is not meant to demonize conservative Christians (after all, I am related to quite a few, and I love them very much), there have been plenty of equally annoying liberal Christians that have made me crazy over the last week. What I desire is to see Christians of all political persuasions come together and pray for the future of our beloved country... TOGETHER. We cannot act as though we all come from one political party, but we can choose to focus on the things we all value--life, freedom and the choice to vote our convictions.

Fred, my friend from Kenya, recently emailed me. He was thankful that Americans had not allowed the time after the elections to become violent. My only thought was that he would be so sad to see that American Christians were being divided by frustrations over the election. 

So here it is. I am a Christian and I voted for Barack Obama...BECAUSE of my convictions, not in spite of them. If you voted for McCain because of your convictions, I am happy. Voting for your convictions makes America the beautiful country it is. But blogging world, please don't place all Christians in one box.