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Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Election Season


I love that we have elections. I love the opportunity we have to vote for representatives in this country, some of whom actually turn out to be leaders. I have seldom missed an opportunity to exercise that voting privilege since I was 18 and voted in the Nixon / McGovern election. That has remained true even for me when I had to hold my nose while I voted. If you study our nation's history, you will see that "election season" has always been, shall we say, less than civil. Sometimes in the 1800's it was ugly and downright mean in ways that far surpass what we see in our era of attacking another person while remaining politically correct in our word choice.

That being said, I really dislike the 6 solid months of posturing by men/women of power seeking the one thing that men/women of power have always sought . . . more power. Issues are raised and ignored, on pretenses quite often, when in reality most often it appears it is just about getting elected.

In an attempt to view this from a theological perspective, I pose the following question  for personal pondering: Are we seeing ourselves played out before our eyes? Are we simultaneously seeing both the image of God that is in all of humanity and the depravity of humanity that comes from what sin has done to all of us on display in a very public manner?