Election Year Crap and Christian Civility

I don’t know about you, but I have about had it with this election, and it’s only September.  We have two months of this stuff to go before it’s over, and even then, who knows?   We may have a repeat of 2000 on our hands. 

Whether it’s the flagrant sexism hurled toward Hilary Clinton and now Sarah Palin, or the thinly veiled racism and hatred shown Obama, I have had enough.  And that, my friends, is saying a lot since I love politics and the political process in general.  At one time in my life I even had a desire to run for elected office and serve my nation in that capacity.  But things have gotten ugly, real ugly.  Instead of focusing on issues and concerns or any merit, Obama is being called the new antichrist and is being slurred by vicious emails sent out indiscriminately to thousands and perhaps millions of people by the far right crazies.  And the recent furor over Palin’s nomination as VP has been just as bad, with rumors that her last pregnancy was a cover-up for her oldest daughter being pregnant and now the flurry of innuendo over her daughter’s actual pregnancy and ensuing marriage making the far left wing-nuts giddy.

If you want to talk about policies or platforms or political ideology, great.  I am all for it.  But if your sole desire is to smear a candidate on some personal level, be they Democrat or Republican or anything else, please, just shut up.  There is nothing constructive in tearing down a person and killing their reputation with, let’s be honest here, nothing more than shitty slurs and personal attacks.  It belittles everyone concerned, as well as the democratic process.

Yes, I know that this kind of character assassination has been going on since the very first election was held eons ago, but that does not, nor will it ever, make it right.  And yes, I am all for humorous and funny jabs at candidates at times, as witnessed by some of the posts on this blog, but it is not all that hard to know how far to take these things and to know that there are lines that should not be crossed.  If you want to argue that Obama supports a woman’s right to choose and that is why you cannot vote for him, fine.  But to label him a “baby-killer” is not.  If you want to debate Palin’s position on sex education, great, but there is no need to take a family matter (her daughter’s pregnancy outside of wedlock) and use it to attack her personally.

Do you see what I mean? 

And I think this goes double for those of us claiming to follow Jesus, those of us the world looks to as examples of Christ’s love and grace.  My god, we can be a contentious, ornery, and just plain hateful bunch of people. It makes me want to throw up. 

This past week Jim Wallis, on his blog, wrote a post about “Barack Obama’s historic acceptance speech of a major party’s nomination to the highest office in the country–the first African-American to have achieved that American milestone.”  He states that “the post was about the historical significance of that event and speech, especially on the very day of the 45^th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s most remembered "I Have A Dream" speech at the 1963 March on Washington.”  The man didn’t even comment on the content of the speech, and yet many Christians let Wallis have it with both barrels blazing.  I have seen the same vitriol on some of my posts here.

After reflection, Wallis wrote out what he called "Five Rules of Christian Civility."*

1. We Christians should be in the pocket of no political party; but should evaluate both candidates and parties by our biblically based moral compass.
2. We don’t vote on only one issue, but see biblical foundations for our concerns over many issues.
3. We advocate a consistent ethic of life from womb to tomb, and one that challenges the selective moralities of both the left and the right.
4. We will respect the integrity of our Christian brothers and sisters in their sincere efforts to apply Christian commitments to the important decisions of this election; knowing that people of faith and conscience will be voting both ways in this election year.
5. We will not attack our fellow Christians as Democratic or Republican partisans, but rather will expect and respect the practice of putting our faith first in this election year; even if we reach different conclusions.

I, for one, think these rules are a good starting point, though I would also add a sixth: No personal attacks and slurs.

*See Obama, Perkins, Palin, and a Plea for Christian Civility (by Jim Wallis) in God’s Politics, published Monday 01 September 2008.