A friend commented on one of my posts on Facebook. She said that the choice for the presidential election is difficult this time for a Christian. I agree. I also believe it should be difficult for anyone of any system of belief for every election. Candidates often want you to believe that their positions are based on religious morals. Often they are looking to garner the support of a certain block of voters. Political parties are the same way. If you look at the party platforms and compare them to what actually gets done, there is often a big difference. Also, most religions, especially Christianity, have many different groups with many different beliefs and morals. So is there any standard that we can use to make our choices? The following is based on my belief system which has been influenced by growing up as a Lutheran Christian. Jesus had problems with the Jewish leaders of his time. They were part of the reason he was crucified. The problems stemmed from the leader’s concern with the law, the morals that they decided were important. They followed their rules, but had little regard for other people’s needs. They also thought they were better than others because most people couldn’t keep all their rules, while the leaders spent all their time following their rules and didn’t worry about much else. Jesus looked at the law differently. He in fact purposely broke some of the laws to make his point. One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath? The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. The Law was made for man, not man for the Law. And below is what Jesus says about the greatest Laws. One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” ![]() The law is based on love and is not fixed. The laws and policies we enact must reflect love for our neighbor. When we are faced with a moral question, we must ask what is the loving and unselfish thing to do. The difficulty that faces us is that the answer may be different in different situations. Which politicians come closest to understanding this and endorsing policies that will support this. I used the word “closest” because like all of us, politicians are all human and sinful. This is why we should not base our decision based on party loyalty or what is best for us. We must always ask the question, “Who will show love to our neighbors?”, knowing that, as we can read in the story of the Good Samaritan, even our enemies are our neighbors.
1 Comment
Karen L. Garner
8/16/2016 08:31:01 am
Thanks for the post. It has given me something to think about.
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