Voting

Is there a right way to vote as a Christian? If Jesus were here (which I know he is) and on the electoral roll (which I know he isn't) how would he cast his solitary vote? Here is the dual nature of Christ for all to see: down here, it'd be just one man, one vote. Up there, as The Word, it's much less democratic. There is only one man, and what he says goes. Still, assuming that he put aside his omnipotence and was happy to cast a single ballot, what would it be? Would he vote? As a civic minded chap I'd like to think he would, but who knows.
I used to think I knew. For a long time I was a socialist, because that political philosophy came closest to the idea of looking after everybody. Anyone more right wing than me clearly didn't want to look after people and was therefore evil. Yup, I thought all Tories were sinful, selfish and wrong. How Christianity in the USA ever came to be most strongly associated with the Republican party baffled me, but I wrote that off as Americans not being smart enough to see what I could.

This persisted until I was 20 when I lost my faith. Then Tories lost the sinful badge and became simply selfish and wrong.

Jonathan Aitkin brought tings into focus when I saw him speak at Church. This man was clearly now walking his life with Jesus. The question I wanted to ask him but never got the chance was "Are you still a Tory now you're a Christian." I now thought it was possible for Tories to be saved, but did their salvation have to include a change in political leaning?

These days I'm much more open-minded. I've met Christians who vote Tory, scumbags who vote Labour and good folk of sound moral character who don't vote at all. I still think it's right to vote, and hope my friends will do so, but I believe it's perfectly possible for well-thought Christians to vote for almost any party, and I'm even making progress on not judging them too much. The older I get, the more aware I am of how unlikely I am to be right about everything, or even anything.

How would Jesus vote? That's probably the question we should all ask ourselves as we make our mark. As for me, like Gordon said; I agree with Nick.

Psalms read this week; about half of what I was aiming for. Speeding this week; some slight. I'm off to crack my bible now.