The John Wesley Vote
“Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which one of these two you have chosen.” And they cast lots... ”
Best I recall, the 1960 presidential elections, the year I was 12, the Biblical age of accountability, I became vaguely aware of the emotional roller coaster of these quadrennial campaigns.
The BIG deal as I recall was the issue that John F. Kennedy was Roman Catholic. Somehow this meant, so some said, that a Kennedy election would make the Pope the shadow president. For various reasons, some considered Catholics suspicious characters.
At the time, the only Catholic I knew, besides a couple of kids at school, was my Uncle Walter who was married to my mother's sister. Uncle Walter was a good guy, so I wasn't clear, what the problem was.
Anyhow... Presidential elections often fix on some alleged big deal that makes a candidate the gateway to all things dark and demonic, at least to the other side. You will be pleased to know that I will not attempt here to psychologize, and for sure not 'pontificate' about this emotional baggage that always infuses our so-called rational process.
I am not sure what the hot button issues were in the British elections of 1774, but here are some wise words from our Methodist movement founder John Wesley. I get the drift that we are not the first to be heated up - to consider taking people off our Christmas card list if they don't agree with or vote like us.
"I met those of our society who had votes in the ensuing election, and advised them:
1. To vote without fee or reward, for the person they judged most worthy.
2. To speak no evil of the person they voted against.
3. To take care their spirits were not sharpened against those who voted on the other side."
God, of us all, forgive us and deliver us from the sheer meanness exchanged among and between us. Transform our anger and passion into energy and compassion, so that we will empower whoever our president to represent our best and not our worst. Amen.