You! American Political Dialog! To the corner right now young man!

    As November looms large upon us I cannot help but feel the need to address the elephant in the room.  Now, if you know me, you know that I am not a particularly partisan fellow.  I don’t think of myself as either Republican or Democrat...my loyalties lie, somewhat less divided, with the Kingdom of God.  I vote my conscience based on what I feel that Christ would have me do and I cannot help but feel that a vast majority of my fellow Christians do likewise.  For this reason I never engage in partisan political discussion with my congregation as I know you each are doing your best, and always have done, to vote for whatever candidate you have prayerfully decided best serves your understanding of the calling of the Holy Spirit.  I am not about to reverse that trend now, but I do certainly have something to say about this election in general.
     I know that many of you, like myself, will go to the polls to cast the best vote you can based on your prayerful reflection (or maybe that reflection will lead you not to vote), but I also know that  a vast majority of you will cast the vote with one hand while holding your nose with the other.  Frankly,  this whole election cycle stinks. And I think more than the candidates or the issues the discussion I want to have with you isn’t about WHAT we are discussing as a nation and more about HOW we are discussing it.  It is OK to disagree. Some of my favorite people in the world hold distinctly different opinions than me. What is not OK is how  we have disagreed as a nation.
    I would love to point my finger at our two warring political parties and say, “THEM! They’re the problem, they brought this ugliness on us!”  But I think if we are honest they are nothing more than an end result of what is wrong.  I suppose we could point to the press and say, “It’s those muckrakers who only care about their ratings!” But again I think they are simply the most outward symptom of what is wrong.
    What I think is wrong is that we have forgotten how much of a responsibility each of us have to stand up for decency and humility in our dialog.  I don’t know when it became socially OK for us to treat children like adults and allow adults to act like children but it is time for society’s real adults to stand up and shout “enough!”.  It is time to send the childish dialog of name calling, lying, scare tactics, and stubborn stiff-necked un-listening ignorance to the corner for a time out.  It begins with each of us realizing that as much as the matters we discuss are important,  it  matters just as much  that we discuss them in a way that is civil, thoughtful, humble, and most important: prayerful.  If those who speak for us in the public  eye won’t behave we need to rise up and speak louder for ourselves.  I pray that this year we all learn a lesson about the power of behaving like reasonable adults in the midst of disagreement.  Because our leaders need our leadership.