I like Barack Obama. Since his speech about faith and politics at Sojourners Call to Renewal I have been a “supporter” of Barack’s. Barack embodies a lot of things that are important to me. Things like his diverse cultural background, the way in which he’s in touch with life in Africa, his honesty about his faith and even his doubts and questions, his roots as a community organizer in Chicago. His values overlap with my own more than any other major candidate I’ve seen in my lifetime.
I really hope that Barack is elected president.
But I won’t be voting for him. I won’t be voting for him because I am tempted to really believe in him. I am tempted to put hope in Barack Obama. And it’s no mistake that Obama’s campaign has seized on this. They constantly use the words “believe” and “hope.” And if I was indignat about Bush hijacking Christian hymns for his own speeches I must deconstruct Obama’s use of the words “hope” and “believe” in light of what those words mean to us as followers of Christ.
But let’s be honest, we’ve become so cynical and polarized about politics in the US. People really do want someone/something to believe in. Obama’s vision really is a fresh drink of water in the midst of the desert this country is in with all our corruption, war-mongering and trampling on our poor. Plenty of people are desperate for change. I am one of them. But that’s just it – if I’m desperate for change there is but one king who can really bring about change. I’m talking about the king of kings. In all my political obsession I am so tempted to take my eyes of Christ and his project of radical change, his project of renewing creation and putting things right. I’m tempted to glance to the side and take notice of Barack Obama and maybe hope that he can change things. If I put my hope for change in Barack I’m committing idolatry. I’ve given up my hope in God to make things right and I’ve put them in Barack.
Now if I were a bit more politically detached I’d vote for him. But precisely because I am a political junkie and I am tempted to think “oh, if only Barack were president” that I cannot vote for him. For me it is a matter of spiritual discipline that I will abstain from voting in this election. My absence at the voting booth will be a tangible practice to remind me who’s really in charge, who my real king is.
Now, as I’ve said, I’d really like to see Obama become president. But let’s be honest, voting really is the laziest and smallest way to be politically active. If Barack and I are on the same page (and I hope we are) then I’ll do a lot more good by working for that kind of kingdom change than I will by voting for it.
Wow,from one political junkie to another, you’ve captured my sentiments exactly. I ought to be more detached and able to cast a vote with dispassionate wisdom and fortitude–especially sense I stinking live in Canada now. Brother Charlie, I appreciate the solitary.
Maybe we need to take in a 12 Step meeting.
Happy Wisconsin Primary Day,
Brian
Man, great post. I could write a ton in response because you’ve really gotten me thinking. As you know, we serve in very different contexts. My people are generally the types who buy into the anonymous chain emails that claim Obama is secretly a Muslim terrorist who wants to be sworn in on the Koran etc. But, at the end of your post, you still hit at the heart of something that’s bothered me for a while. Namely, it is sad that politics has become something many claim to be uninterested in, a few others claim to follow, but only the handful who make a career in our political system actually “do” politics.
We all “do” politics! But when we see voting as our only active role in politics, our politics suck.
Great thoughts Charlie. I also share your sentiments, though I think mine are much more strong. I do have to admit though, as Brian Postlewait said to me last year about Sojourners, “I do secretly hope they (in this case ‘he’ will win.” I still will not be surprised if somehow Jeb Bush gets the nomination! Many of my friends are drinking the Obama cool-aide, but I just can’t say I am. I do like him, but I think that I’ve truly given up on this system. Wallis told us that “we are the people we’ve been waiting for,” I’m convinced that it is only for Jesus that we must wait.
Don’t tell Obama though, he lives right across the street from me!
I too identify with this tension. I agree that we have greater power with our voice than with our vote, but that does not lead me to not vote. A vote in an election does not keep us from holding the elected one accountable following the election. One of the reasons I like Obama is that he has convinced me that this “new style of politics” means he will listen when I call the white house to make my views known. If he does not then in four years I will vote for someone else or abstain. The real problem becomes when we so intertwine our theology with an ideology or character that that the theology become diluted or distorted (this is what I believe has happened to some well-meaning evangelicals who were convinced by Republicans to be one-issue voters and were then used). My proposal is to vote for Barack on the second Tuesday in Nov., celebrate on Wednesday, become a concerned citizen who will voice concerns to any president or party on Thursday. Then on Sunday return to the politic that defines our Christian voice–worship.
I truly respect your optimism, Eric, but I ask in all sincerity, you really think “he’ll listen when you call?” How will you call, how will you get through? Who will you talk to? And how will your thoughts affect him more than his party, his donors and his other “influential” supporters?
He still will be getting shoulder massages from you though, won’t he?
Charlie,
This is such a great post, and has elicited such good and thoughtful response (Hi Eric, Rusty and Kaz)
Have you guys seen David Fitch’s post in the past couple of days? It’s right down this alley. Here
I’ve posted several things starting , most recently, here, and then backwards (use the links above each post to move back to the previous one) from there with a couple of posts responding directly to your post here.
I fall somewhere between You and Eric. I think Obama SEEMS more likely to listen, but not at all discounting the possibility that he is only slightly left of the status quo, and will just end up SEEMING to be listening while being ultimately unable or unwilling inthe end, to make good on some of this.
What I like about Fitch’s take is that he gives us Zizek’s suspicion that the “Obama energy” might actually be sapping energy or focus from the church as the true locus of change.
Dale
oh yeah, mkae sure you slide further back before my basketball post and the Jon Stewart CNN video back to here and the post before that to get my first couple of reactions
Charlie, I agree and am probably also with Rusty concerning just how strong my sentiments about this stuff is. I really can’t put any faith in this process anymore. I may be doing some voting in local election stuff (propositions and whatnot), but this national stage stuff is a bunch of smoke and mirrors and distracts so incredibly much from energies and desires that should be ordered toward Christ and Christ’s church (thus agreeing with Dave Fitch’s sentiment).
I won’t be voting for any of these peeps in the national election. I really don’t think my vote ’says’ anything to anybody on the national level, either cynically or as some sort of ’statement’. It’s kind of a really empty thing (what Fitch, following Zizek calls the ’signifier without a signifed’).
I think NT Wright said it well when he mentioned how unfortunate it is that the United States is going to be glued to the television for another year (on top of all last year) for these presidential politics stuff, telling ourselves that it is so important when there really are far more important things for us Christians to be worrying about.
[Also, although I know Charlie knows this because he is the blog moderator, but the eric listed above is not the same person as Eric Lee (myself).]
Peace,
Eric
Charlie,
David Fitch just linked to you in his comments on the post that I mentioned a couple days ago
Dale
I feel like this thinking was one of the ways that got me voting 3rd party candidates in the first place (yes, I’m a Nader fan). If my political convictions are being lived out and if the King of kings truly is the one in charge I should, and really do feel free to vote my conscience but I too hope Obama wins. Thanks for the thoughts they were really refreshing (as one more political junkie)
I agree with you that Barak’s adoption of religious language is in many ways reminiscent of Bush’s. I am surprised more people haven’t picked up on this given the all the criticism Bush has received for his misuse of religious language.
Hey Charlie. I have been thinking a lot about this election, too, but have not taken it as far as to not vote at all. I guess we all have our weak spots; I lost hope in the current government a long time ago. Yet, your insight that simply voting is the laziest means of political action, and that political action is better lived out by pushing for something rather than voting for it, has great merit.
During the election of 2000, I was in junior college and still a year away from encountering solid challenges to my fundamentalist upbringing. I, too voted for Bush, and can remember overhearing a conversation between two fellow quartet members at my church regarding Bush’s win “that we got the White House back,” meaning that the Christian candidate–G. W. Bush–had won. Like you, I really bought into the idea that a vote for him meant voting for Christian–favored policy (California had a proposition on the ballot to designate marriage as only between an male and a female, and I bought into this as THE Christian choice). My point here is that my voting choices will be with much reserve and skepticism like yours will be. Yet, I still feel that I am capable of voting without believing IN the system–and this is difference between us is okay.
One more thought that I thought I’d share with you is the matter my which the presidential election process is setup in the first place. During the last election that I could not vote in (1996) my high school history teacher admitted that while he planned to vote in the presidential election, he would not vote for either of the major candidates. A few years later during the 2000 election, a friend of mine admitted to me that “this is a two party system [and that is just the way it is].” I came to realize for the first time that if there were such a thing as a democratic election for the United States’ presidency, ours was definitely not it. I really believe that the electoral college just serves as a means by which two major parties can keep as much power within their reach as possible. If there were ever a third candidate (such as Ross Perot in 1992 and 1996) who could win one third of the states in the union our electoral college would never identify a winning candidate, and we would once again probably end up with a court making the decision for the people.
Yet, I should have you know that I will probably vote for a third party candidate if possible; it almost makes me irritable when I hear of Democrats or Republicans complain about third party candidates taking away their votes. As if to bluntly remind them that they are a joke and really don’t matter anyway. Hence, one way that I will be politically active, and not place my trust in the system as many do, will be to vote as if my vote were to count. And even though my punch next to the name of the Green Party (or, other) candidate will likely be of little help, I do believe that there is a place where politics and prophetic words come together to challenge the false belief IN things that dominant culture perceives to be possible (regardless of their likeliness). While I do put my trust in Christ the King for truly just and promising politics, I will vote in some fashion for a non-divine human whose politics are inevitable twisted in one way or another, so as to provide SOME hope of order to the chaotic world that we live in today.
Hey guys,
While I like the sentiment of Charlie’s post. I have to disagree with it. I think it’s a pretty privelaged (white, middle class, white collar?) perspective to say that one shouldn’t vote for Obama because of the risk of getting caught up (I know that’s not the whole argument, but for the sake of brevity that’s what I’m shortening it to). We have a responsibility–to others, to the earth, etc. to take their interests seriously. At the very least, we have to minimize the harm that comes to them. One way we do this is by making sure that war starting, environment destroying, pro-business/anti-labor jackasses stay out of the white house. We can’t limit it to that, but we certainly must include that. It sounds nice to say that we can’t get caught up, but what about the kids in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc? Do you think it matters to them? do you think they give a shit about the luxury of our high apolitical/post-political/christo-political moral stances? no. They care that cluster bombs aren’t dropped on their heads, and that mercenaries don’t shoot them. How different would the world be if Gore had won (he did)? Maybe he would’ve sold out. I don’t know. But I think we would have at least one less war, which is a lot of lives saved. So, what would Jesus do? make the choice that saves the most lives at election, then go save them on a daily basis. peace.
Josh, thanks for your comment. To be fair, I don’t think that we’re really that far apart here. I wasn’t suggesting that anyone other than me avoid voting for Obama. For me, it was a spiritual discipline to avoid putting Hope in Obama as I was very tempted to do at the time I wrote that post. That wasn’t to say that others shouldn’t vote, just that I needed to take a step back.
I didn’t end put “wasting” my vote though. I gave it away to someone who was closed out of the American political system and let them vote through me. Had they wished, I would have used that vote for McCain, but as it turned out they wanted to use it for Obama.
I thought that was a creative solution to my “privileged” situation. I was able to “abstain” and yet give a voice to someone who didn’t have one.