Election Day: What Would Jesus Do?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\""It seems as though all pretense of civility in our nation is evaporating in the heat and light of an increasingly divisive atmosphere fueled by a rabid 24\/7 media. As a person of faith, I join in the chorus of those who call us all to a higher ideal. I believe we can be better than this." Peter Wallace from Day1.org on following the call of Jesus into the voting booth.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Election Day: What Would Jesus Do?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\""It seems as though all pretense of civility in our nation is evaporating in the heat and light of an increasingly divisive atmosphere fueled by a rabid 24\/7 media. As a person of faith, I join in the chorus of those who call us all to a higher ideal. I believe we can be better than this." Peter Wallace from Day1.org on following the call of Jesus into the voting booth.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/2010\/11\/election-day-what-would-jesus-do\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Faith Forward\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-11-02T17:42:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Deborah Arca\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Deborah Arca\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/2010\/11\/election-day-what-would-jesus-do\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/2010\/11\/election-day-what-would-jesus-do\/\",\"name\":\"Election Day: What Would Jesus Do?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-11-02T17:42:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-11-02T17:42:09+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/#\/schema\/person\/f9a622c83c6f34ff7abb06463e51081c\"},\"description\":\"\\\"It seems as though all pretense of civility in our nation is evaporating in the heat and light of an increasingly divisive atmosphere fueled by a rabid 24\/7 media. As a person of faith, I join in the chorus of those who call us all to a higher ideal. I believe we can be better than this.\\\" Peter Wallace from Day1.org on following the call of Jesus into the voting booth.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/2010\/11\/election-day-what-would-jesus-do\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/2010\/11\/election-day-what-would-jesus-do\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/2010\/11\/election-day-what-would-jesus-do\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Election Day: What Would Jesus Do?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/\",\"name\":\"Faith Forward\",\"description\":\"Voices from the Mainline, Progressive and Emerging Church\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/#\/schema\/person\/f9a622c83c6f34ff7abb06463e51081c\",\"name\":\"Deborah Arca\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/45ef5b3bd5e9465897c2c3f973e0d324?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/45ef5b3bd5e9465897c2c3f973e0d324?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Deborah Arca\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/author\/debarca\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Election Day: What Would Jesus Do?","description":"\"It seems as though all pretense of civility in our nation is evaporating in the heat and light of an increasingly divisive atmosphere fueled by a rabid 24\/7 media. As a person of faith, I join in the chorus of those who call us all to a higher ideal. I believe we can be better than this.\" Peter Wallace from Day1.org on following the call of Jesus into the voting booth.","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Election Day: What Would Jesus Do?","og_description":"\"It seems as though all pretense of civility in our nation is evaporating in the heat and light of an increasingly divisive atmosphere fueled by a rabid 24\/7 media. As a person of faith, I join in the chorus of those who call us all to a higher ideal. I believe we can be better than this.\" Peter Wallace from Day1.org on following the call of Jesus into the voting booth.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/2010\/11\/election-day-what-would-jesus-do\/","og_site_name":"Faith Forward","article_published_time":"2010-11-02T17:42:09+00:00","author":"Deborah Arca","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Deborah Arca","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/2010\/11\/election-day-what-would-jesus-do\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/2010\/11\/election-day-what-would-jesus-do\/","name":"Election Day: What Would Jesus Do?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-11-02T17:42:09+00:00","dateModified":"2010-11-02T17:42:09+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/#\/schema\/person\/f9a622c83c6f34ff7abb06463e51081c"},"description":"\"It seems as though all pretense of civility in our nation is evaporating in the heat and light of an increasingly divisive atmosphere fueled by a rabid 24\/7 media. As a person of faith, I join in the chorus of those who call us all to a higher ideal. I believe we can be better than this.\" Peter Wallace from Day1.org on following the call of Jesus into the voting booth.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/2010\/11\/election-day-what-would-jesus-do\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/2010\/11\/election-day-what-would-jesus-do\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/2010\/11\/election-day-what-would-jesus-do\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Election Day: What Would Jesus Do?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/","name":"Faith Forward","description":"Voices from the Mainline, Progressive and Emerging Church","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/#\/schema\/person\/f9a622c83c6f34ff7abb06463e51081c","name":"Deborah Arca","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/45ef5b3bd5e9465897c2c3f973e0d324?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/45ef5b3bd5e9465897c2c3f973e0d324?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Deborah Arca"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/author\/debarca\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1568\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":1568,"date":"2010-11-02T11:42:09","date_gmt":"2010-11-02T17:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/mainlineportal\/?p=1568"},"modified":"2010-11-02T11:42:09","modified_gmt":"2010-11-02T17:42:09","slug":"election-day-what-would-jesus-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/2010\/11\/election-day-what-would-jesus-do\/","title":{"rendered":"Election Day: What Would Jesus Do?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

On this Election Day, I was extremely moved by this post from <\/em>Peter Wallace<\/em><\/strong>, Executive Director of <\/em>Day1.org<\/em><\/a>, \u201cthe voice of the mainline Protestant churches.\u201d \u00a0 \u00a0I share a few paragraphs below, and encourage you to follow the link to his full post. \u00a0 It\u2019s a call we all need to hear today.<\/em><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve just gotten through Halloween, and the mask of sanity and civility seems to be slipping, revealing a horrifyingly ugly reality underneath.<\/p>\n

In the wake of several heart-breaking young gay suicides comes an\u00a0Arkansas school board member<\/a> whose epithet-laced, grammatically mutilated Facebook posts essentially encouraged gay youths to kill themselves. (He has resigned with an apology.)<\/p>\n

That\u2019s horrific enough, especially given this person\u2019s educational responsibilities. But then the leader of one of the major conservative Christian organizations\u00a0 proclaims that gay suicides are only natural since homosexuality is \u201cabnormal\u201d and therefore leads them to despair<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the last few days of the midterm election campaign got really ugly in a number of places.\u00a0 Witness the attack by one conservative candidate\u2019s supporters on a progressive protestor.<\/a> The victim was set upon by several folks, including one man who stepped on her head (giving her a concussion) and a rather large woman who walked right over her midsection.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s the man who was taken down by several Virginia police officers \u2014 while videotaped by his powerless son \u2014 because he was\u00a0 protesting at another conservative rally.<\/a><\/p>\n

More generally, it\u2019s become blazingly apparent that extreme political views that wouldn\u2019t even have been whispered just a few years ago have become proud campaign slogans. And as a result the poor, the oppressed and the marginalized are maligned and threatened.<\/p>\n

It almost seems as though all pretense of civility in our nation is evaporating in the heat and light of an increasingly divisive atmosphere fueled by a rabid 24\/7 media.<\/p>\n

So does all this mark the start of a malicious new world order, or is it the last barking snarl of a dying corpse?<\/p>\n

As our society under God continues to progress in its acceptance, and even celebration, of one another \u2014 despite our race, our gender, our orientation, our religion or even our politics \u2014 those who hope to maintain their \u201csuperiority\u201d feel threatened and fearful. They are losing in the grand scheme of things, and with their backs against the wall they are fighting for their way no matter what.<\/p>\n

As a person of faith, I join in the chorus of those who call us all to a higher ideal. I believe we can be better than this.<\/p>\n

I admit I get caught up in it all, and my righteous indignation flares. But then some of Jesus\u2019 words beckon to me, and I realize the great responsibility that people of faith \u2014 those who are involved in churches, synagogues, mosques \u2014 must bear in this situation.<\/p>\n

Read the rest of this post here.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"