O, those elections are here again. . .

I wonder what it was like to listen to Lincoln and Douglas debate with one another. I know I can’t go back to those days because we are media-fed with what will ‘sell news.’ I have listened to some speeches given by candidates running for Congress, and even those try to say things that everybody wants to hear. Some people who are cynical about the political process suggest elections in the United States are really beauty contests run smoothly by public relations firms. It certainly takes a lot of money to run a political campaign.

Even with my misgivings, I believe it is still a good system of selecting folks whom we consider to be worthy of our vote to administer our public lives. I do have a couple of suggestions to make to the candidates to help me decide whether to vote for them or not.

First, don’t always assume that I am interested in voting only for someone who wants to serve only my needs. I get a little tired of hearing promises that I will get what they feel is due to me and my family. What about the other people of the world who need a lot more help than I do? There are people all over the world suffering with poverty, the lack of housing, health care and a dozen other things. I want to hear some speeches on how my government is going to help this world be a better place for all people, not just me and my family. Why do the speeches have to be crafted to be so self-serving of the wants of those listening? Do the candidates think we don’t care about others in our world? Maybe they’re right, we don’t care enough about others, but shouldn’t that prompt them to show some leadership to encourage us to care about our larger world community?

A second suggestion I would like to make to those running for office is, don’t turn your faith in God into a public relations opportunity. I have read over the years a number of biographies and autobiographies of American presidents. These men (and by the way, isn’t it time we had a woman president?) seemed to have moments when they had no other place to turn in their struggle with leadership than to their faith in a higher being. Like Abe Lincoln, some used different words for this higher being that I call God, but they seemed to discover that only their faith in God held them together for the tough times.

I am interested in candidates’ religious views on issues, but I am more interested in whether the person really ‘trusts’ in a God that will be there with them no matter what happens. I encourage the candidates not only to go to church and have their pictures taken but also to share with the American people the answer to this question: ‘To whom do you finally trust your life? Is it the political polls that guide your decisions so that you can run for a second term, or is God your final answer?’

I know I won’t get answers to my suggestions, but I sure would like to hear some ideas that would be give me a clue how to vote. Of course, the same suggestions go to all those running for office, not just for president. Richard Fox wrote in his biography of Reinhold Niebuhr, one of the sons of our church, that ‘Niebuhr believed that theology and politics stood and fell together, he felt that it took a transcendent Judge, in whose eyes human beings were pretentious but precious, to prompt men to genuine contrition.’

I suspect you have your own suggestions about this fall’s ‘political games.’ Let’s pray that we shall be wise as voters in discerning the best persons that God would have us choose at this time. Please vote; it’s important!