Who are you Voting For?

I recently wrote a blog about how even an atheist can go to church to find scriptural relevance in their life and someone wrote back to me with the opinion that bible stories are totally irrelevant to our daily lives.  Not true.  One just needs to listen and do the homework of application in order to gleam insight.

I have friends who are firmly rooted in the camps of all the presidential candidates.  Likewise, there are many who despise each of the candidates.  We live in a democracy, well, democracy means "rule by the people" but in fact, we live under the rule of the vocal minority.  Since not everyone engages in their right to vote and communicate with their elected officials, only those who do vote get to pick the people who shape our future and control our present. Only those who voice their opinions to their elected officials get to make the rules.  If you don't like a law, have you voiced your opinion in opposition to it? If not, not to act is to act.

If I write my elected officials telling that marijuana, for instance, is a devil drug which causes white women to have sex with black men resulting in syphilis (Harry Anslinger said this), and you don't write to counter that opinion (Fiorello LaGuardia did but the pharmaceutical, alcohol, tobacco and timber lobbies were too strong), all the politician knows is what I, their constituent and the lobby opines to them.

Gillibrand once admitted to authoring and voting for bills and laws that she knew nothing about.  She was asked to vote for them by peers or lobbyists so, she did. That is not a rule by the people but by the vocal minority. Gillibrand co-authored the PIPA law then admitted that she never even read it nor knew of the ramifications of it becoming law.  This is our fault that poor leadership like this is allowed to happen and it happens more often then not.

We shouldn't vote for a candidate because they are the incumbent, or they are smart, good looking, rich, entertaining, a politician, a member of a party, religious or a good businessmen.  We have to vote for someone who will lead by the will of the people.  We need someone who doesn't hate a particular religion, gender, sexual orientation, color or nationality. Surely, that criteria alone reduces the playing field down to one or two.

I would not use religion to force someone to live by my religious views and laws.  Most people would not allow themselves to be forced to live by the laws of a religion that they didn't beleive in such as  Christian, Muslim, Jew or Spaghetti Monster. What may be a law for one may be an asinine outlook for another.  But, there are many good lessons that can be found in all scripture which may also be used to inspire us or help us look at an issue differently. For instance, the response of Samuel and God to the Israelite's.  The people wanted a king to rule, judge and reign over them because they didn't trust themselves, Samuel nor God to rule them. God's response was to outline the cost of a king to rule over them; He will take your sons and wage war with them.  He will appoint for himself commanders of thousands.  He will take your daughters for perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and give them to his servants. He will take your profits and give them to his officers and to his servants. Then you will cry out because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves.  This is exactly what our country has done for the past 300 years and why we are currently asleep at the wheel.  We do we put these people in charge then allow them to screw it up? 

So choose wisely.  Choose not the person or party who will rule over you but, that you rule.  Or, don't vote at all and let your neighbor choose the person who makes all the laws and decisions that you will have to live by.  Worse yet, vote for the person who won't listen to you at all and rule over you to their benefit and that of their friends. It's all in the bible.