Unvocal Minority

I'm just going to come out and say it....I'm an oppressed minority. For weeks, months even, I've been hearing and viewing attack ads on television from a variety of candidates for local, county, state, and national office. Seldom have I heard or read any advertisement that stated the candidates views; more often than not, I simply heard how the other opponent would be a horrible choice, without stating their own position or concrete solutions to the "problems" their opponent caused, or would cause, should they be elected.

I was unsure how to go about finding out what these candidates truly stood for. At the same time, social networking demonstrated to me that there are several whom I count as friends, colleagues, and/or parishoners who are, at the least more outspoken than me about politics - to the point of being ideological on the left or the right. Because I do not side with one camp, I feel ostracized; because I do not stand with the other camp, I feel left out in the cold.

Today is election day for midterm elections in the United States. All day long, what I've heard is "exercise your right to vote - then you have the right to complain if your candidates aren't elected!" Exercise my right vote? Really? When I can't figure out which candidates stand for what, and wondering if my relationships with people are strong enough to stand if I vote for a different candidate than them, should I really be voting? Besides, I strongly believe that our system is broken, and that no candidate from either side can fix it.

I expect to be chided for not voting. After all, it is my civic duty, right? But is it better to vote for someone just to have participated in the process? If I truly don't know what a person stands for, why should I vote for them? Because they go to the same church as me? Because they have "conservative values?" Because they will repeal "Don't ask, don't tell?"

Here's what bothers me most - and now I'm not an unvocal minority - at least I'm expressing my opinion: what about the billions and billions of dollars candidates have spent to get elected? Mudslinging ads, transportation, leaflets, yard signs - all amount to a huge amount of money that could have been used to combat homelessness or hunger; or, it could have simply been used to reduce state and federal deficits. If I don't vote, am I contributing to the problem? Maybe; maybe not - but if I do vote, am I also saying that the mudslinging and vast amounts of wasteful spending on campaign finances is okay?

I may be in the unvocal minority on this issue, but at least I've finally written my thoughts down on paper. As a pastor, I do not feel I can inflict my political opinion on others; but at least I can blog about it. My political opinions are complex; sometimes conservative, sometimes liberal, sometimes neither. I can't be forced to fit into a mold of ideology, nor can I go to the poll in a primary and vote strictly down party lines. There's too much at stake for ideology to take the lead (we simply have to look at the Pharisees to note how that works out).

So, to all who think I'm abandoning my civic duty; I am not. I am very much a part of the political process, and I'm choosing to vote with my absence, because I cannot support candidates who tear one another down, when I'm called to build people up in love. And, I will not be one of the people who complains two years later about those in office; but I will voice my concern regarding our broken system of government. As a pastor, I must 1) pray for wisdom for my elected leaders, and 2) seek for God's will do be done, and not my own.