Voting For...
Tomorrow is voting day. The day when we can all vote for the individuals who'll use their power to force what we want on others. It seems like most Americans anticipate this with great excitement. Why shouldn't they? They've got to make sure they've got the right people in office to crack heads. Even though many will decry the lack of voter turnout, there could be as many as 100 million visiting polling places to vote for their leaders.
That’s a lot of people. How great is that, you get to pick. Are you into fighting wars against those who hate the American way? You can vote for the guy who will keep doing that. Are you into fighting against those fighting wars against those who hate the American way (but don’t really know it, of course)? Then you may vote for the guy who will do that.
In the Government class I teach, we always take some time to talk about the history of suffrage, or how a group has struggled in history to secure their right to vote. The interesting thing is that most people think that women, for instance, got the right to vote in 1920 with the passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Nah.
Women have always had the right to vote.
It just wasn’t guaranteed before that time. In other words, a woman could go up to the polling place, declare her intention to vote, and be turned away without contention. Did she have the right to vote? Of course she did. Was she able to actually vote over the protests of more powerful societal forces? Of course not.
Some may say, “Oh but if she couldn’t actually vote in practice then what difference does it make?”
The problem is that not only does every individual have the right to vote, but he or she can’t help but vote. Any time you take any action at any time, you’re voting.
“Oh, but that’s misusing the definition of voting,” you may retort. “The term refers to something very specific, namely casting a ballot in an election for a political officer or public issue. Just choosing something doesn’t make it a vote."
The problem there is one that has many people confused, or at least misinformed about the nature of political reality. The unequivocal fact is that you are a political being, subject to the dictates of the potentate whoever that may be. Whatever it is that you do, you are indeed influencing what the governing authority itself does. That’s a vote.
If you decide not to vote in a given particular official election, you are voting for not deciding to vote in that particular official election. The potentate sees that, and will act accordingly. The issue in this instance is not who or what your voting for but which election are voting to vote in to begin with. People of the World can't get this because they can only conceive of one election.
Many evangelicals will screech that it is our God-given right to vote. Yes, that's true! God not only wants us to vote, but we can't help but. The question is, which are you voting for? Are you voting for the Kingdom, or are you going into a polling booth tomorrow to cast a ballot for Caesar's administrative staff?
If you vote for the Kingdom, you will necessarily abandon the World System and its selection of vetted political operatives. You will forego all the benefits and privileges it offers, which entails nothing less than terminating your incorporated obligations, standing on your true tax liability, and as such manifesting the bountiful gifts God has given you to provide phenomenal abundance in your family and community. Are you indeed voting in the “election” in which you’ve made Jesus Christ your authority in all matters?
Or, are you voting in the election for rulers of evil, in which any vote you formally cast is for a preeminent evildoer assigned the task of whacking other evildoers? Don't get me wrong, God said this is not necessarily a bad thing, this the legion of condemnation.
But if you vote for the Kingdom you’re doing something very different. You are engaging in reconciliation— a far better thing to God.
The latest Newsweek magazine features a story about an identity crisis in the evangelical movement. Über-minister Ted Haggard had just been summarily defrocked over sexual improprieties, and this only adds fire to the question on the newsweekly’s cover: “Sexual Morality or Social Justice?” No wonder everyone thinks the church is obsessed with sex and doesn’t give a rip about social justice.
They see it is extraordinarily hypocritical. Too many evangelicals fail to see this. When you hock gobs of spiritual violence as an adjunct division of the Roman Catholic World System out of one side of your mouth, but then insist you’re following Jesus out of the other, then there is only one possible truth here:
You are following another Jesus. (I think I remember His word saying something about two kinds of water cannot come out of the same fountain-- anybody else remember that?...)
When you actively cast ballots in Caesar’s elections, you are behaving as someone who wants to stay enveloped in the law as the manager of your sinfulness. You are immersing yourself in a wickedly perverted whirlwind of sinning-condemnation-deceit-absolution-catharsis-sinning yet again-more condemnation-more deceit-more absolution… Just look at the Ted Haggard situation! What a body of death!
Look at Proposition 85 on the California ballot. Every evangelical says “Vote for it!” I have to say that I want to shake them! Don’t they know that voting for this means you are making the state the administrator of your daughter’s reproductive faculties! In other words, they’ll pray, “Jesus, be Lord over my daughter,” but when they step into that voting booth they mean “I award the state lordship over my daughter.”
This is insane. I can’t say it any differently. It is just insane.
But, yeah. What do I have to say? If you don't have Christ, making the state the lord over yourself and your family is what you must do. That's cool. God put Caesar there for a purpose. So, yeah.
I will be praying tomorrow. That’s all I can do.
Oh, I know I can say a lot too. I am doing that, right here in this blog.
The sad thing about that is that when anyone says to the one who says he follows Christ, “Hey, do you know what voting in Caesar’s elections really means?” he just doesn't seem to want to listen.
I imagine I’ll be weeping a bit tomorrow too.
That’s how it is, though.
A bit more on the Culture War is here.
That’s a lot of people. How great is that, you get to pick. Are you into fighting wars against those who hate the American way? You can vote for the guy who will keep doing that. Are you into fighting against those fighting wars against those who hate the American way (but don’t really know it, of course)? Then you may vote for the guy who will do that.
In the Government class I teach, we always take some time to talk about the history of suffrage, or how a group has struggled in history to secure their right to vote. The interesting thing is that most people think that women, for instance, got the right to vote in 1920 with the passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Nah.
Women have always had the right to vote.
It just wasn’t guaranteed before that time. In other words, a woman could go up to the polling place, declare her intention to vote, and be turned away without contention. Did she have the right to vote? Of course she did. Was she able to actually vote over the protests of more powerful societal forces? Of course not.
Some may say, “Oh but if she couldn’t actually vote in practice then what difference does it make?”
The problem is that not only does every individual have the right to vote, but he or she can’t help but vote. Any time you take any action at any time, you’re voting.
“Oh, but that’s misusing the definition of voting,” you may retort. “The term refers to something very specific, namely casting a ballot in an election for a political officer or public issue. Just choosing something doesn’t make it a vote."
The problem there is one that has many people confused, or at least misinformed about the nature of political reality. The unequivocal fact is that you are a political being, subject to the dictates of the potentate whoever that may be. Whatever it is that you do, you are indeed influencing what the governing authority itself does. That’s a vote.
If you decide not to vote in a given particular official election, you are voting for not deciding to vote in that particular official election. The potentate sees that, and will act accordingly. The issue in this instance is not who or what your voting for but which election are voting to vote in to begin with. People of the World can't get this because they can only conceive of one election.
Many evangelicals will screech that it is our God-given right to vote. Yes, that's true! God not only wants us to vote, but we can't help but. The question is, which are you voting for? Are you voting for the Kingdom, or are you going into a polling booth tomorrow to cast a ballot for Caesar's administrative staff?
If you vote for the Kingdom, you will necessarily abandon the World System and its selection of vetted political operatives. You will forego all the benefits and privileges it offers, which entails nothing less than terminating your incorporated obligations, standing on your true tax liability, and as such manifesting the bountiful gifts God has given you to provide phenomenal abundance in your family and community. Are you indeed voting in the “election” in which you’ve made Jesus Christ your authority in all matters?
Or, are you voting in the election for rulers of evil, in which any vote you formally cast is for a preeminent evildoer assigned the task of whacking other evildoers? Don't get me wrong, God said this is not necessarily a bad thing, this the legion of condemnation.
But if you vote for the Kingdom you’re doing something very different. You are engaging in reconciliation— a far better thing to God.
The latest Newsweek magazine features a story about an identity crisis in the evangelical movement. Über-minister Ted Haggard had just been summarily defrocked over sexual improprieties, and this only adds fire to the question on the newsweekly’s cover: “Sexual Morality or Social Justice?” No wonder everyone thinks the church is obsessed with sex and doesn’t give a rip about social justice.
They see it is extraordinarily hypocritical. Too many evangelicals fail to see this. When you hock gobs of spiritual violence as an adjunct division of the Roman Catholic World System out of one side of your mouth, but then insist you’re following Jesus out of the other, then there is only one possible truth here:
You are following another Jesus. (I think I remember His word saying something about two kinds of water cannot come out of the same fountain-- anybody else remember that?...)
When you actively cast ballots in Caesar’s elections, you are behaving as someone who wants to stay enveloped in the law as the manager of your sinfulness. You are immersing yourself in a wickedly perverted whirlwind of sinning-condemnation-deceit-absolution-catharsis-sinning yet again-more condemnation-more deceit-more absolution… Just look at the Ted Haggard situation! What a body of death!
Look at Proposition 85 on the California ballot. Every evangelical says “Vote for it!” I have to say that I want to shake them! Don’t they know that voting for this means you are making the state the administrator of your daughter’s reproductive faculties! In other words, they’ll pray, “Jesus, be Lord over my daughter,” but when they step into that voting booth they mean “I award the state lordship over my daughter.”
This is insane. I can’t say it any differently. It is just insane.
But, yeah. What do I have to say? If you don't have Christ, making the state the lord over yourself and your family is what you must do. That's cool. God put Caesar there for a purpose. So, yeah.
I will be praying tomorrow. That’s all I can do.
Oh, I know I can say a lot too. I am doing that, right here in this blog.
The sad thing about that is that when anyone says to the one who says he follows Christ, “Hey, do you know what voting in Caesar’s elections really means?” he just doesn't seem to want to listen.
I imagine I’ll be weeping a bit tomorrow too.
That’s how it is, though.
A bit more on the Culture War is here.
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