donate your vote

I voted in 2004. I waited in line like the rest of America. When I got to the booth, I wrote in my choice. I voted for a Nazarene. I never heard his name announced on the news, nor did I find his total tally of votes in any newspaper.

This year brings another election and another chance to cast a ballot. I have to imagine that most people vote for the issues that are most important to them, whether that is taxes or the environment or unemployment or foreign policy. I have to imagine that God's issues are more important than mine.

So, what issues matter most to God? Which candidate stands against injustice and champions the "least of these"? Which candidate gives an African child a better chance of survival? Which candidate gives an Iranian family a better chance at peace? Which candidate gives a Mexican woman a better shot at dignity? Which candidate loves his neighbor simply because he is a neighbor and not because he has something we want? (I almost made a joke about which candidate knows how many neighbors he has, but that would have required that each candidate knows how many houses he has...I guess I made it anyway, huh?)

What if we watched the candidates in the debates and watched with a different set of eyes? Would we vote with a different set of values? We are told to take care of the least of these. What if we voted for them? What if we gave them a voice? What if we sacrificed our own interests (of wealth and security and the American dream) in order to breathe life into the dreams of the billions of starving and diseased people in this world that need America to be less powerful and more graceful.

Love. Joy. Peace. Patience. Kindness. Goodness. Faithfulness. Gentleness. Self-Control.

Which candidate better represents those attributes?

I imagine that I might again go to the polls in protest. I might again write in the name of a King, in a land where our monarchy (did you think it was a democracy?) has given us 20 years of someone either named Bush or Clinton.

Or, this year, I might donate my vote. Will you donate your vote with me?

If you will, stand and be counted:
Donate Your Vote: Donate Your Vote.