(Ir)religiosity

Political action and democratic participation have been points of contention in the Christian community for quite some time.  Now, as the upcoming presidential election quickly approaches, the issue of voting and not voting as an act of resistance have been brought to the forefront — at least in the blogosphere.

An interesting observation is that the dying Christian Right and the new post-evangelical, or emerging movement converge on the issue of voting though they endorse opposite candidates.  Both seek to utilize the democratic process as a means to bring about justice, though they disagree vehemently as to what justice actually means or looks like.  This concerns me to an extent because I can see it leading to the formation new Christian Left, which in my mind is no better than its dwindling counterpart.  But that’s a different issue altogether.

A few months ago David Fitch, who blogs a Reclaiming the Mission, wrote a post advocating the notion of voting abstinence as an act of resistance in opposition to Empire and asserted the Hauerwasian claim that voting itself can and should be seen as an act of violence.  Fitch writes: Read the rest of this entry »