Why I Will Vote for Obama

I must admit my patience is beginning to wean a bit with right-wing, Christian conservatism. If anyone is confused about how I could be frustrated at such a movement, then please feel free to read the article about the Christian Right attacking Obama: Christian right steps up attacks on Obama - Barack Obama News- msnbc.com.

I will vote for Obama this year not as the less of two evils, or not because I am trying to do the opposite of what many followers of Christ (I no longer say most, because I believe there are a lot of progressive, young thinkers who will actually read and stay current on what is going on enough to be able to decipher through all of the Christian, Rush Limbaugh garbage) do. But, I will vote for Obama this year as a way of expressing how pissed off I am at the incessant failings of the Republican ideologies and how short the rants against abortion and homosexual marriage have fallen.

For example, any intelligently informed individual can see that the Republicans have failed to lead the way in social justice in our country. As a chaplain to many homeless, I am infuriated at the notion that all or most of homeless people are lazy or stupid. I listen to their stories everyday and it begins to frustrate me when people make mindless comments about them or those who are supported by government benefits. I am sorry if a person who grows up in generational poverty is tempted with crack and marijuana when they are 12 and don’t have the decisiveness to say no, and become a product of the system that we all hate. I guess we should just shut off all of the benefits to these people and say, “Get with it”, just like we allegedly had to. I think it is a moral crisis for the Christians in our country to be pissed off at our welfare program not doing enough to make people work, when they are not doing enough to offset it with programs and generosity to aid people. I think many of the so-called bible belt of the US has become enamored with its diamond belt buckle and pretty much ignored the poor who live right under their noses. Why is it that the prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures and Jesus Christ Himself spoke more about greed and selfishness and oppression of the poor than they did anything else? Perhaps it is because God is concerned about social justice, but when Republicans talk about things like this, their concern is never helping and relieving the plight of the poor; it is only griping about how the poor has received too much from the government. This brings me to my next point.

Abortion in this nation is an epidemic that I don’t believe anyone in this country wants, even the so-called Anti-Christ Obama. Despite what misinformation circulates about this issue regarding this (and I have read quite a bit), Obama is against partial-birth abortions and late-term abortions, which I think we can all agree morally are clearly wrong. The exception he makes is an exception I would make which is if the life of the mother is in danger. What is constructive, however, is an open conversation about solutions to reduce the number of abortions, since in many cases this is not black and white. One conservative blogger wrote the other day that this would be a ridiculous proposal, and compared this issue with that of slavery. He surmised how absurd it would have been if people in favor of abolishing slavery would have cooperated those who were only interested in reducing the number of slaves. Really? Comparing a not fully developed human living inside of his or her mother with the value of a life outside of the womb? This doesn’t seem to be congruent with what people really think, unless we really do believe it is the exact same thing as murdering a fully developed person and a mother who commits an abortion should either be put to death through lethal injection or live out the entirety of her life in prison, regardless of whether she was raped by a family member or not. I don’t mean to say that I don’t think abortion is unimportant, because I profoundly do, but I think this issue has been clouded by an either-or polarization from the right and the left, but it does seem that many on the left are at least willing to talk about dealing with some of the symptoms that lead to abortions, which ironically would be poverty and poor education. The Republicans are very concerned with providing good vouchers for our middle-class families to be able to go to good schools while at the same time saying “to hell with the public school system”. What would be good is if we came to the agreement that we want to eliminate national poverty (as well as global) and improve our school systems. That is not to say we want to teach Christianity (or at least our form of it) in the public school system, but to say we want to provide our kids with the best and most fully comprehensive education available to them in today’s world, as well as talking to them about alternatives to unprotected sex (abstinence, yes, but contraceptives also). This also brings up another issue: health care.

When are we going to get past the rhetoric of “socialized medicine” and realize that all human beings (even children of dead-beat parents) deserve to have good health care? Never mind that they will take it for granted or not be grateful; they should have that opportunity as image-bearers of God. Did not Jesus heal people medically who were ungrateful (remember the story of the 10 lepers)? I think it is a tragedy that 46 million people in the richest country in the world do not have health care. Many of those are not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid, but they don’t make enough to purchase good insurance. Even many who have insurance possess deductibles that are out of the roof financially and may only receive benefits if they incur a sickness that exceeds $10,000.00 or greater. And the reason this is connected to the abortion issue is that the number 1 reason why women get abortions is that they can’t afford to raise another kid.

Forgive me for seeming to be irritated, but the Christians who are attacking Obama have really worn me out. It would be nice if Christians would hold to the model in Romans 14 and truly vote their conscience while at the same time believing that it is possible for others who vote their conscience to disagree with them. Sadly, instead those who are not married to their right-wing, ultra-conservative, this-is-the-only-way-to-look-at-this, perspective are demonized by the right and made out to be unchristian. It would be nice if there was actually a country where people can respectfully disagree instead of being so alarmist about everything by painting the other candidate as the anti-Christ. I know there are those who will read this perhaps and look past all of what I have actually said and make assumptions that I have been deceived by the so-called “liberal media”, and that is fine for anyone to think that. But I can say the same thing about the mass conservative media that still controls and circulates throughout this country on websites and through e-mails and sadly even through some pulpits in churches. I would say that this bias is what many believers are locked into, and no matter how many times I refute plainly erroneous accusations from right-wing conspirators, they don’t say, “thanks for clearing that up”. They only go on to the next line of attack. I thought followers of Christ were supposed to be “lovers of the truth”, and yet we have abandoned the truth for the sake of supporting our own candidate.

Finally, let me say a couple of things to clarify. I do not think McCain is the devil on the converse of everything else. In fact, there are quite a few things I do like about McCain. Quite frankly the biggest problem I have with McCain is his “more of the same” perspective that ironically is connected in many ways with George W., who I admit I voted for, but who I think made some monumental judgment calls and it has cost us dearly. I believe that we do need someone with new ideas, and I believe Obama is that person. I don’t have an idealistic, pie-in-the-sky, belief that he is going to fix it all, nor do I think he will be THE ANSWER to all of our problems. I do not agree with all that he says, and he is a man who will make mistakes, but I believe he will lead us generally in the right direction. There is much more I could say about all of this, but I will rest my keyboard for now.