The program for last evenings LCM Dinner involved Political Science Professor Laura Olsen. She came to help us think about the involvement of young adults in the upcoming election cycle. One of the reasons she gave for encouraging young persons to vote is that it begins to establish a habit in your life. If you vote once, you are more likely to vote twice. If you vote twice...... She went on to say that establishing good habits is what we are continually doing, in campus ministry. And she was right.
I confessed that my interest in having her come for our program is that I want to encourage the habit of integrating your political life with your life of faith.
Over the past fifty years, the "religoius vote" has shifted from political party to political party. Somewhere along the way, pundits realized that religious persons tend to be socially active and that they have firm convictions - which makes them likely voters.
You will sometimes hear assumptions that persons of faith will vote with a particular political party - which party they are assumed to vote with differs depending on the part of the country where they live.
I want to prod you to be involved politically. Not because I assume you will vote for any particular candidate or with any specific party, but because I think persons of faith can do much to bring civility and respect back into the political process. Being ever ready to acknowledge our own sinfulness, we are less likely to pounce upon others and find ways to tear them apart. Persons of faith know what it means to be gracious, and patient, and understanding.
We live in a polarized world. Way too many persons are trying to convince us that some are right and others are wrong. The truth is found somewhere in the middle. Christians ought to be able to lead the whole of society in understanding this.
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