Published: April 29, 2008 07:40 pm         

LION AND THE LAMB: May the best person win this election

After the last meeting of Democracy for Cumberland County, a friend allowed that it was about time for another of my articles to appear.

To which I suggested that he give me a topic.

"Write about religion and politics," was the reply.

I agreed, but since there were other "Lion and the Lamb" columns in the pipeline, I thought I would have enough time to think up a piece on the subject.

Since then I have mulled over the topic with some frustration. Surely by now everything has been written or spoken on the topic, and when I write I try to have something fresh to say. But my deadline is fast approaching and I must do what I can.

Forty-eight years ago I was a pastor in Toledo's inner city. One of my parishioners was a Latino named Alex. Alex had some years earlier become angry at his Roman Catholic church, and Catholicism in general. He never tired of fulminating against that faith, its members and its hierarchy.

Alex was a loyal member of his labor union. He was a Democrat. And his anti-faith came into conflict with his liberalism that year.

Forty-eight years ago Richard Nixon and Jack Kennedy were presidential candidates, locked in a fierce election campaign.

And Kennedy was a Catholic.

Alex, no doubt after some soul searching, announced for Kennedy. "Sometimes you have to do what's right, even if it goes against your faith," said Alex.

Another incident from the more distant past. Evangelist Dwight L. Moody was walking down a Chicago street, one election day, when he met a member of his church. "Where are you going in such a hurry?" she inquired.

"I'm going to vote," came the reply.

"Why Doctor Moody, don't you know that your citizenship is in heaven?"

"My citizenship may be in heaven, but I pay taxes in Chicago," the preacher replied. (One thinks that he, this year, might cast his vote for McCain.)

Herein is our dilemma. We may be devoutly Christian and sing that we'd die for Jesus. But we are also citizens whose sons are being sent to die for a misbegotten war. And few if any of us are really asked to suffer and die for our faith.

Some Christians, especially in the Middle East, are suffering for their faith. Some are being killed. But it isn't happening here.

So I think that politics trumps faith, almost every time. Back in the days when I would argue, I challenged Republican preachers to tell me whether they had ever voted for a Democrat for president. I never got a yes answer. To which I would respond that I, a Democrat, had voted for a Republican.

During the Truman-Dewey contest, all the papers and all the commentators agreed that Truman's defeat was certain. And I believed that all the wise men were correct. It was my first election, and I, being 21 at the time, decided that I would not "waste" my vote. So I voted for Dewey and rejoiced when Harry Truman won the election.

My high school principal once remarked that he always voted for the man. But, of course, the man was always a Republican.

Since then I have forsaken my party's choice on two occasions. In the 1980 election I voted for John Anderson, independent. And in 1996 I wrote in Ralph Nader's name, protesting against Clinton. (The voting machine never counted my vote.)

This year there's Obama's pastor being pilloried in the press for his call for God to damn America for our sins against the little people, including the black people. Obama responded with a masterful speech about racism in our country, a speech that has been described as Lincolnesque. This year one of McCain's supporters, a slick little preacher in San Antonio, a virulent anti-Catholic, is also totally pro-Israel. And he is calling for "a preemptive military strike against Iran."

John Hagee is a "Christian Zionist" who believes, or at least preaches, that America needs to start another war, in the hope that it will bring about the Third World War, which will culminate in the Battle of Armageddon. The outcome of that battle is predetermined. Christ will return, the millennium will happen, there will be a thousand year time for Christians to be blest and for unbelievers to repent. And if the Jews do not convert, they too, along with all unbelievers, will go to hell.

(The Israelis cheerfully accept Christian Zionist support, unworried, it seems, about their eternal destination.)

Dear reader, I am quite sure who will get my vote in this fall's election. I think I will be happy with the outcome when all the votes are counted. And, should all the votes not be counted, as has happened before, and my candidate loses, I plan not to be bitter. I plan to be my usual cheerful self, even if there's disaster this fall.

And should my candidate win, I plan to be friendly and cheerful to all the Republicans I encounter. After all, we are citizens of a great country. We believe, I trust, in Democracy. And may the best person win.