How are you voting?

Article from World magazine I was reading last night...


In praise of single-issue voting
Perhaps less compromise on my part will yield more commitment on theirs Tony Woodlief



I have become something I once reviled: a single-issue voter. I used to think that a wise voter tries to discern each candidate's intentions on major issues, and then casts his vote based on an assessment of who will do the greatest overall good—or the least evil. I thought those voters who support a candidate based on a single issue—whether he will increase school funding, say, or lower taxes—were shirking their duty to consider the full ramifications of putting someone in office. What good is electing someone who is "right" on one thing, I thought, if he gets everything else disastrously wrong? This was the reasoning I used as I congratulated myself for wisely apportioning my votes based on utilitarian calculations.
Now I suspect this sort of calculation misses something. I've become convinced that a nation which sanctions the extinguishing of unborn children, and further, the outright execution of near-term infants, doesn't deserve admiration even if it gets every other policy right.

I used to include abortion as part of my voting calculus, mind you, but only a part. What if a candidate is pro-life, for example, but favors disastrous tax and trade policies that would consign people to lower living standards? Or what if he wants to use our military in pursuit of ill-defined foreign policy goals? Shouldn't these things factor into my equation?

Those other issues certainly affect a country's safety, prosperity, and greatness. But I've come to believe that a nation that tolerates destruction of innocents deserves neither safety nor prosperity nor greatness. We've descended into barbarism, and it poisons how we treat the elderly, the incapacitated, even ourselves. We shouldn't be surprised, having made life a utilitarian calculation, that more and more humans become inconvenient.

It's certainly true that there are other issues that ought to concern Christians, like the sanctity of marriage, and how we treat the mentally ill, the elderly, and children who have been born. But abortion is, in my view, the touchstone. Get this one wrong and your moral compass can guide you in nothing else.

There are complications. Does it really matter, for example, if a county supervisor is pro-life? Maybe so. Years ago the late-term abortionist George Tiller expanded his murderous facility in Wichita, Kan., with little trouble, even as local authorities harassed pro-life groups. The battle over abortion is being waged locally, and it makes all the difference in the world whether officials welcome abortionists with open arms, gutlessly tolerate them for fear of legal trouble, or actually get down to the business of scrutinizing their activities with a fine-toothed comb.

Even worse in the Wichita case, the city's mayor during this period advertised himself as pro-life. Hence an additional problem for the single-minded voter: Many candidates claim this label, yet they have no intention of taking action. The ones who will act, meanwhile, may be far less electable. Voters who don't care about abortion can tolerate a candidate who pays lip-service to the Bible-thumpers. But there's a danger they'll write him off as a nut if he devotes significant energy to the cause once in office.

There's also the challenge that a genuine and committed opponent of abortion may win office, work to end this abomination, and simultaneously arm regimes that slaughter innocents in other countries. If we oppose the murder of unborn infants not because they are cute, but because the execution of innocents is evil, then we have to apply this standard throughout our politics. I always thought the single-issue voter didn't have to think, but maybe that's not the case. There are indeed complications.

Yet there is also painful clarity that comes with single-mindedness. Jobs, highways, schools, economic growth—none of these matter if we're willing to sanction murder to get them. Perhaps my mentality is a recipe for political isolation for Christians, for the losing of elections, and maybe even a loss of national greatness. I worry that the alternative, however, is to lose something far greater, which is our ability to discern good from evil, and to act accordingly.

Pray

Friends

There are only a few in a lifetime (if you are lucky) with whom you laugh until you cry, you toot in front of, and no secrets are allowed because with these women you are vulnerable, hiding nothing, trusting them to handle with care who you really are ... knowing that they have journeyed with you for over twenty years and in a variety of ways have played a significant role in the story.

Who knows the name of your second grade teacher?

or that dork of a boy that always had his pants unzipped in the sixth grade?

or the fact that your parents drove a car that looked like a spaceship?

Who used to help you chase boys and hold them down on the playground then take turns kissing their cheeks?

Who knows who your first kiss was and even had the same one!!??

Who was at your wedding and has held your children????

Only a few, if you're lucky.

The Fam

My brothers give a girl something to be proud of for sure... you guys were born wearing white coats!!

Beautiful lookout where you can see three states at once (Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee). How great Thou Art!!!

The kids had a blast running around and playing at Uncle Justin's house...gave him a good appreciation for the quiet that typically resides there.

Prisoners

Somewhere between the cotton fields and acres of barbed wire
exists a strip mine of human dignity
A hamster wheel
A treadmill
A path to nowhere
Many different extremes of heart pliability under the same oppressive roof
Though all were created in the image of the One who is true and pure
Who chooses to be cast into a world where your mother cares more about her crack fix than you and you've never looked into your father's eyes?
Sure, at some point everyone must take responsibility
A lifetime of bad decisions can't be blamed on circumstances alone
Yet, aren't those words coming from a mouth whose feet have never walked down anything but a privileged path?
The answer escapes me but the words that keep resounding in my head are ones like
MERCY
and
REDEMPTION
I hear things like justice and consequences too, but they are more of a whisper now
As obligation the gesture is diminished in value, but as an act coming directly from the heart,
Not based on worthiness,
Love becomes a soothing balm
An adhesive that mends all the little pieces of broken hearts
A reminder that you are not this number stamped on all of your clothes,
that has replaced your name
but You are someone worthy
because Love has made it so.

Boston and Vermont

Ths most unusal thing about this post will be that there aren't any pictures of children. Damien and I had the most amazing blessing of being able to leave our little darlings for a week and enjoy each other without any distractions... though we missed them terribly, it was mostly blissful.



This is Boston's Public Library, the first in America, and it is AMAZING. I don't think I would actually read anything in there because I wouldn't be able to stop looking around.


My dearest friend and most incredible hostess at one of her favorite spots in the park.
A haunting and deeply moving memorial for the Holocaust victims.





Damien and his "you get what you pay for" lobster haha.



One of the most photographed streets in Boston.





Vermont... yes, there's plenty of cheese and syrup but oh this state and its beauty sang some of my favorite songs.

Some precious sisters from Brooklyn we met at the monastary we visited... where the peace was palpable.




Here we are with our ultimate tour guides at the incredible public gardens.
How cool is this...perfect little postcards that I saw with my own eyes.