My sister called me up this morning from her ultra-left enclave called Seattle.  She wanted to respond to colleagues that were supporting McCain because of their religious views on Abortion and Marriage.  Here is my response.  It got a good response, so I figured I’d post it here as well.  Perhaps in these last hours before the election this may help some people with their voting decision.

To live a religious life in this country requires that we vote along with our beliefs.  But our elections aren’t that clean.  Our politicians don’t represent a single moral standard through all of the relevant issues.  What they represent is a model of thinking that we choose to vote for, an approach to creating and managing public policy.  The question before us is whether a single answer on a single issue represents hope for our country forming morally acceptable policies.  Does John McCain represent the kind of thinking that will encourage peace among our citizenship, renewed respect for faith in our country, and a moral fortitude that leaves room for all people to practice their beliefs, respect each other’s decisions, and debate these difficult issues?

The right to offer and take communion in this country is part of the same right to believe it’s all hogwash.  A president that vows to use any single set of religiously founded beliefs as policy is not a president that can engender harmony.  I expect that any leader will use their faith for guidance.  I require it of them, for if they don’t they are dishonest about their faith.  But I expect great leaders to know the difference between learning from their experience in faith, and imposing their faith on others.

It is a difficult thing to accept that abortion is legal if one believes it is murder.  And one should take that belief to the debating floor.  But it is far more important that the ultimate commitment in this country is to believing that our process can produce a higher good that benefits all of our faiths.

Lots of Love and Hope on this eve of the election,
Gabriel

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