10.07.2008

Morality and the Vote

An old friend, and staunch Roman Catholic, recently included me in a thread discussing whether it is a mortal sin to vote for Barack Obama due to his stance on the abortion platform. Several of my ancient church youth group (KYRIOS/KAIROS) acquaintances and associates weighed in with different approaches ranging from strict adherence to the holy word of the USCCB to a relatively well-informed perspective on the current state of human dealings around the world. Before I reveal my meager attempt to address this question, I ask you: on what should a vote be based? On beliefs, on values, on politics, on money, on fear of going to Hell, on love of fetuses? With that in mind, here's what I think:

I should preface my entry in this discourse with a polite disclaimer: my opinion is not based on Church doctrine, dogma, or the like, but merely on a wholehearted belief that life is of the highest value. However I do not limit this belief to the value of American lives, nor even to HUMAN life, but rather to all living entities.

The inconceivably tragic condition of many other parts of the world weigh on my mind much more heavily than any domestic issues, moral, ethical or political. I immediately hurdle and ignore any implications my vote may have on my eternal soul, thinking only of the severe consequences my wrongful vote will have on millions of other poor, suffering souls around the planet that never had a chance or a voice as I have and as I do. More than that, I also recognize the heinous transgression our species has committed upon the planet that has fostered our life and survival. These considerations far outweigh any selfish desire for moral approbation that may trigger me to worry about (globally comparatively) rich old people who would have died without any help, or fetuses that would have been born to mothers who were willing and wanting to murder that child before they ever met it. Pardon my candor, but the greater horrors I choose not to mention would far supersede these.

I lived in a blind warm nest of isolation and ignorance for the formative years of my life. No longer can I ignore the injustice of my undeserved privilege. My votes will be cast (and always have been cast) to balance the equation, for the candidates who, to the greatest extent, share my respect for life, my valuation of true universal justice. It's quite honestly the least I can do to repay my Creator for placing me, in the grand perspective, in the very lap of luxury.

The beauty of this whole voting thing is that my opinion only counts as much as anyone else's. Consequently I am forced to evaluate everyone's opinions on equal ground because they all have the same weight.

That said, vote for whoever you want. This country's on its way down the tubes, mainly due to the crumbling integrity of values, due to selfishness, due to isolated, ignorant perspectives. It gives me hope to read all of your entries above, hope that some Americans do try to become informed on the true state of the world (which is quite obviously impossible but a valiant pursuit all the same). For only with real and complete information about the consequences of our actions, our votes, and our governments' actions, can we begin to evaluate the wrongness or rightness of something as minuscule as our vote for President. If you want to trust the Church to channel the infallible will of God in Three Persons into a political opinion, that is your choice. But it is a choice the effects of which the whole planet and all the beings on it will feel. I can only hope that I will not be counted with the goats that I condemn by my vote as an American citizen, because let's face it, people will die either way, it's really just a choice of who. The only way to truly be pro-life is not to vote at all.

Please understand that I am not making any personal attacks with my opinion, nor do I hope to change anyone's mind — that is something one must do for oneself. Nor am I qualified to evaluate anyone's decisions or votes. I doubt that any presidential candidate in the history of our country has been satisfactory by my standards. Have a lovely day, a wonderful week, and a fantastic fall. But please don't bother stopping to pass judgment until you've learned all there is to know.

Phew! Good things that's out of the way. Did I piss anyone off? Tell me about it. Did I get anyone nodding? Lemme hear it. Tell everybody with some delicious backtalk (link below).