How would Jesus vote?

For a time there, people really loved the hell out of the WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?) fad. I’m sure many still do, and they’re probably the same folks who still have Garfield plush toys with suction cups on the feet attached to their rear car windows.

So, in this interesting season of presidential campaigning (wherein John McCain seemed dead in the water at the start of the primary campaigns and somehow is the only one standing, and where the Democrats are currently witnessing a historic battle between a woman and a black man for the chance to be president), how would Jesus vote?

He wouldn’t.

At least, I don’t think he would. Fortunately, Jesus didn’t have to wrestle with whether voting Republican or Democrat would mess up his sinless record with his Father in Heaven. He didn’t live in a democracy. And even if he had been in Greece, he still wouldn’t be voting because you had to be at least modestly wealthy to have a say in anything there.

But if he were here today, he wouldn’t vote, I suspect…at least not very often, and almost never for anyone in the major parties. Because frankly, with very few exceptions in politics, the men and women don’t really represent God. And Jesus was a pretty uncompromising guy—choosing the lesser of two evils wasn’t his style. Politicians typically represent the desires of the world, and no matter how idealistic they are, it rarely springs to their mind to serve God’s will. To use God to bolster their agendas at times or push something through, yes…but rarely does God come first.

Because if God did come first, this nation would look a heck of a lot different. Beginning with the fact we’d have taken care of the discarded people in this country long before we would have started trying to “fix” everyone else.

So, every political party (and every sports team, too, while we’re at it) should stop thinking it’s God’s favorite. God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit don’t join clubs and they don’t hold affiliations.

(Image: “Coat of Many Colors” by Thomas Blackshear II)

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