Photo by Element5I live in a county that is 75/25 one way. For issues like state representatives, local officials and representatives of our district, if you’re on the “wrong” side, it’s hard to “win.” I guess it could be a little discouraging even on the “right” side. I mean,.does my vote matter?
Laura and I were the first to vote today, number one and number two. So for about 5 minutes at least, everything in Atchison County, MO was going our way. Somewhere around 1980 we got a little mixed up about politics. Because of their fear, Evangelical Christians decided the goal was to be in control. That is not why I vote.
The reason that I vote is because I can.
It is one of the ways I use my voice to speak up about things like who should represent us, who should be retained as a judge, and should marijuana be legalized in Missouri. Sometimes the election goes the way I want it to, and sometimes it doesn’t. But the system allows me to cast my vote.
For similar reasons, I cast my vote about what I see in the world, including organized religion. If I thought the way home was to control the world, then I would probably still be an evangelical. Fear and control are not the ways to accomplish anything noble. It only does what it has done–create trauma.
Almost everyday I speak up by starting discussions, writing a blog, or even liking a post on social media. I can’t control the world and I probably can’t even control my individual life, if I were to be honest. But I can cast my vote.
In the long run, it doesn’t really matter how many people agree with us or if we win every contest. The important thing is that we authentically casts our vote based on her values and integrity, not based on whether we will “win.”
It was a little scary to publish our new book, Out Into the Desert, because we knew a lot of people with vested interest in religion wouldn’t like it or agree with us. But, to the best of our ability, we spoke from our values and integrity and presented a transparent and authentic “vote” for what we see, what we understand, and what we hope for.
Allegiance to groups has been overrated. I have yet to find an individual person or group of people that I totally agree with. And if I am doing this thing right, then as I grow, my beliefs and understanding of things should change and evolve.
Politics have been toxic since the 1980s when Christians like Jerry Falwell decided that winning elections and gaining power was more important than integrity and values and authenticity. The end of the story is the story of his son crashing and burning along with supporting a man with no values or integrity that almost destroyed our right to vote and our democracy. Churches are free falling toward non-existence and irrelevance.
Even in the local church, there is almost no right to “vote.” Even in congregational leadership, trust me, most of it is organized to go a certain way. With Roe v Wade, Christians may feel like they have won and gained control. But to a larger degree, the church and America have been badly damaged by their crusades.
So, what do we do now?
We do what we have always done. We get up early and vote. We speak up when we have the right opportunity. We let our integrity and our values guide us, not our political parties or even our religious institutions.
I hope you voted today and every day based on your inner voice. When you do this, the world begins to change for the better.
Be where you are,
Be who you are,
Karl Forehand
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