Shane part 2 (children)

There is a lot I could say about Claiborne and probably more important things, but let me post this.

I tend to be the instigator in my family. Not because I’m wildly revolutionary or even smarter than anyone in my family, but perhaps, from time to time a bit more curious about why we ended up believing what we believe, which most of the time I’m complete agreement with.

During my last couple of visits home, I have tried to be this person in the political conversation. My family is almost entirely republican. So at the apex of one of our last discussion my dad, who tends to tease like I do half jokingly asked me, “Do you think Jesus would vote democrat or republican?”

I wanted to say democratic, but I didn’t and still don’t really know enough about politics to defend myself. I only know what we hear in the broad scope of things. I don’t actually look at voting records and political platforms.* So trying to think about how Jesus would overcome the abortion issue and cast a vote for the donkeys I realized I didn’t have a response.

I was pretty sure that Jesus would be disenchanted with the American political system and not be excited about voting at all, but I didn’t try and make that case. I just dropped it.

Here is one story Claiborne shares that hit me square in the face. He talks about a rally/convention…something that they had in the Bahamas. It was about low wages and working conditions for children in countries that supply products for some of our American multinationals. Instead of having the Bonos and the Oprahs speak they had the children that work in these factories. One of the children shared his story. In his speech he pointed to a scar on his face and shared that he got it when an armed guard hit him in the face for not working hard enough. The guard then torn between needing the child to work and not wanting the blood from the new cut on his face to get on the fabric pulled out a lighter and burned the cut shut. The child told that he got this scar from “making your stuff.”

Now again let me say that I’m not a political guy. So I don’t really know that by casting a republican vote if I empower mega corporations to continue this activity or if that is just a ploy that the left sells me. But regardless I think this should stop us in our tracks. I don’t mean to upset anybody, but let me personalize this and list some names of people who these children might be close to. Imagine if these people have their faces cut open and then burned shut to produce products so we could buy them cheap.

Roy
Calla
Jack
Sam et all.
Kerstin
Shane/Hannah
Jude Sutton
Soren
Etc.

I’m not trying to be graphic, but I am saying this. Casting a vote for a republican sometimes makes us feel justified as we think about all the babies that we are trying to save. And don’t get me wrong, I think this is noble and though my political leanings change, this issue has never been made easy for me. People, not just babies die when we abort. But it seems less and less clear to me that any one political party really wants to save all the children.

Shane reminds me that they are all God’s children and if I’m going to participate in God’s kingdom they are all my children too. The Iraqi children, the Afghani children, the Darfur children, the democratic children, the republican children, Caesar’s children and the bin Laden children.

So vote and vote with conviction, but can we be bold enough to admit that our political parties aren’t the end all and that they are probably killing some children somewhere.

Grace for now, and find time to vote for the kingdom with your life.

* I try and be intentional about asking when I feel like I've run into someone who is passionate about their politics. Assuming that this much passion results in a good deal of research I'm continually disappointed by few who actually know much about their candidates.