On November 5, I hope to be remembering that I am (still) among God’s many adopted children on this earth, people with many different skin colors, countries of origins and deeply held beliefs. As a Christian, I believe I am here to be open to God transforming me more and more into the character of God’s son, Jesus Christ. This is what mattered to me yesterday, matters to me today and will matter to me tomorrow.

What I know of God comes from Biblical narratives, God’s spirit embodied in people on earth and glimpses in my own spiritual life. What I know of Jesus comes from the Biblical narratives. Overarching scriptural themes for me include Old Testament words from the prophets, such as: “[God has] made it plain how to live, what to do, what God is looking for in men and women. It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor; be compassionate and loyal in your love, and don’t take yourself too seriously — take God seriously” (Micah 6:8, The Message). From the New Testament is Jesus’ response about the most important of God’s commands: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.” (Matt. 22:37-40, The Message)

In regards to the political aspects of life, I am hopefully less of an anomaly among people of faith in my continuing beliefs that:

• The money and resources I “have” are not only for me and my family, but are God’s resources entrusted to me for helping meet the needs of other members of God’s family - neighbors close at hand and farther away.
• Everyone, no matter their income level or parentage or skin color, deserves basic health care and food and housing. Those whose skin color and parentage and work situation bring them higher levels of income can be reasonably expected to “pay back” in taxes that are at a higher percentage rate than those with less.
• It doesn’t matter whether someone is a citizen of the U.S. for them to be part of God’s family and deserving of life’s basic necessities.
• My allegiance to God, God’s word and God’s family supersedes any duties on my part toward the nation I happen to be living in at the time.

If Sen. John McCain is elected president on Nov. 4, I will continue to speak out on behalf of lower income Americans for decent health care and a living wage. (Neither candidate has spoken much publicly about lower-income Americans, who are always living on the edge and reap the worst when prices rise as they have been). I will speak out on behalf of human rights of pastors, community workers and labor unions in Colombia where our Plan Colombia keeps sending military dollars to a country with a rotten record of caring for its own people. This year showed 40 percent more displaced people than the year before. I will also voice my concern about the incredible financial and human cost of the war in Iraq, with the harvest there of more “terrorist activity” in that country than ever existed before.

If Sen. Barack Obama is elected president on Nov. 4, I will continue to speak out on behalf of the human rights of Palestinians in the West Bank, second class citizens in a “democracy” where they have no voice. I will encourage the U.S. policy toward Israel to acknowledge the multiple United Nations resolutions that Israel violates, having to do with continued building of settlements, occupying territory and building walls that follow no respected boundaries and separate civilians from their land and livelihoods. 

On behalf of human life, I will also continue to encourage policies that will decrease the use of abortion. Just as prohibition did not end alcohol use and abuse, and in fact created unintended harmful side effects, I don’t see how outlawing abortion will bring about more healthy babies and mothers. Given human tendencies for centuries, I’m afraid abortion will continue as a form of “birth control” by desperate people. In favor of shalom (God’s visions of well-being and justice for all), I support age-appropriate sexuality education in schools, along with the availability of birth control for those who decide to engage in sex and are not prepared to parent. I would urge a minimum living wage so that women who bear children will know they will be able to afford to raise them outside of poverty, maternity/paternity leave so a parent can bond with his/her children and give the best possible care for them, preventive health care so that the children and pregnant mothers will receive all that is needed for optimum health in those crucial early years, and an assurance of education — even in the poorest districts — for children that would match what children currently receive in the best public schools.

On Nov. 5, God will still be God. God’s people will still be a global family, and Jesus will still be calling us to nonviolently work on behalf of those marginalized in our society and around the world.