(Ir)religiosity

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It’s getting close to the election and since I received a few emails from readers about my personal biases I thought I would once again try to clear things up.  Or maybe make them more murky, whichever.

Unless the radical anarchist in me takes over at the last minute in the voting booth and I vote for Nader or register a blank ballot, I will be voting for Barack Obama.  But I do so with guarded and cautious realism.  I am a registered  independent.  I refuse to play the rules of our two-party — or one party, however you see it — system and I reject that standard being placed upon me. I do this for two reason.

First of all, as a Christian my first and deepest allegiance is to the kin-dom¹ of God and I believe that no political party — least of all the two pathetic excuses we have in America — unilaterally represents that alternate reality.  Some choices are noticeably better than others, but none of the choices will ever be good enough because that’s not how the kin-dom operates.  It’s not top down, it’s bottom up.  It’s not centralized, it’s decentralized.  It’s not hierarchical or patriarchal, it’s egalitarian.  It’s ethos is not based on power and greed, but on love and justice.  Barack Obama doesn’t represent it; John McCain doesn’t represent it; Joe Biden doesn’t represent it, and Sarah Palin doesn’t represent it.  A crucified God, executed by the established order, who stood for justice, subverted the status quo and forgave those who murdered him represents and defines the kin-dom. And that’s something of which no politician can ever claim to have exclusive rights.  Ever.

Second, I am, as are many, sick and tired of the partisan, divisive, nature of political discourse in this country.  Both parties are deeply symbolic of unneeded politicization and a false dichotomy that is no more prototypical of the American people than the imposed form of government comprised of “career politicians” that is — at least in theory — supposed to be representative of the country at large.  I think this country needs reconciliation, healing, and hope.  We’ve been getting strife, division, and despair. And both the Democrats and the Republicans are to blame — and at any given time one party happens to become especially visible as the culprit.  Right now, it happens to be the Republicans.  Big deal.  That can change real quick.

So while I may have political leanings that might align me with a certain party — that at least tells me publicly that I might identify with their “platform” and then privately perpetrates the status quo — I will never jump in bed with either group.  I just won’t.  I refuse to allow myself to be limited to those two options alone.  For that matter I look forward to the day when a third-party candidate actually stands a fighting chance.

I will likely vote for Obama on November 4th but I will do so as a realist who doesn’t place any messianic hope in him or in the entire American political system — in short, I think it is healthy to maintain a certain amount of prophetic distance from politicians and the established order.  So I will vote — it does matter who the President is after all — but I dare not reduce my political action to the simply marking of a ballot every four years; in addition, I will continue to participate in the God’s kin-dom, an alternate reality of justice and equality that lives under the very noses of the Barack Obamas and the John McCains of America’s government.  And, in the meantime, since I am human, my personal leanings and biases will come to the surface as I’m sure everyone’s do, but behind all of that lie these larger convictions.

1. Using kin-dom rather than kingdom is a new idea I’ve been toying with.  More about that later.  For now, suffice it to say that I am using it as a means of intentional subversion and liberation of both patriarchy and hierarchy [↩]