Elections and backing off

With national elections in the US looming, and mud-slinging increasing, it can be refreshing to back off and find a spiritual viewpoint.

Here’s one that might offer some good ideas to you, as it did me.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1008/p19s01-hfcs.html

Saturday Night Live, and better

“Saturday Night Live” recently offered a presentation of Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton in a rare joint-appearance blasting sexism in the media.

It was a spoof, of course. The two actresses playing the politicians had a wonderful time. The barbed remarks balanced out, as near as I could tell, amid much cleverness and fun.

Intelligent silliness refreshes these pre-election weeks, while the real campaign ads unsubtly avoid discussing issues by attacking the opponents.

So where does this political muck leave you and me – average citizens chiefly interested in an honest government, in paying our bills and having something left over?

Too many Americans, soured by the mud-slinging, turn their backs on the political process and mentally walk away.

There is an alternative. It involves refusing to become cynical and turning instead to what Christ Jesus described as the Kingdom of heaven within us. He provoked his listeners with the startling statement that the Kingdom of heaven wasn’t out there someplace, but within consciousness.

Jesus lived when the Jewish community was occupied by no non-sense Roman troops. Yet he showed how we can find peace and stability in our lives through discovering God’s goodness and presence – despite economic slumps and political infighting.

Have you ever noticed how refusing to engage in debate, how mentally stepping back and listening for what the one infinite Mind is saying, often transforms or defuses heated words? It’s true.

Next time you encounter an emotional discussion, try mentally extricating yourself and turning to the Maker of the universe for good ideas. God gives us the ability to make this decision, and see more of His/Her present government already at hand.

For more ideas on how to pray about dealing with election exhaustion, click here.

Simple Politics

A rainy Super Tuesday

outside a local polling place

Super Tuesday in the United States has come and gone. This was the day when 22 states, including my own Illinois, held caucuses or primary elections.

The Presidential candidates all seemed pleased with the collective results.

And judges. Who can possibly know all the judges (or any of them) running for election, and which ones are qualified.

In recent years, state and city bar associations have created websites that rate the judicial candidates as Well qualified, Qualified, or Not qualified.

I was pleased to note in reading the brief comments about the Well qualified judicial candidates, that most were noted for their integrity, and were well respected by their peers.

These sheets can be printed out and taken with you into the voting booth. Choosing the Well qualified and the qualified helps keep good people in the judicial system.

Mary Baker Eddy -- whose life spanned the 19th and 20th centuries -- founded the Christian Science church, several magazines, an international daily newspaper; she was a popular teacher and author.

It's hard for us to realize today that there was a time when American women did not have the right to vote. Eddy passed on nine years before the passage of the 19th amendment granted this right.

Even so, such was her stature that in 1908 the Boston Post asked about her politics.

“Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy has always believed that those who are entitled to vote should do so, and she has also believed that in such matters no one should seek to dictate the acations of others.

In reply to a number of requests for an expression of her political views, she has given out this statement: --

I am asked, ‘What are your politics?’ I have none, in reality, other than to help support a righteous government; to love God supremely, and my neighbor as myself.”

That rather simplifies things, doesn’t it.