I'll be voting on Thursday in the Euro elections, and I'm about 80% decided who I'll be voting for. I think I'd argue that Christians have a responsibility to vote, that passive abstention is not an option. If we believe God loves this world and wants to bless, heal and remake it, then we have no business opting out of the way it's governed.
It wouldn't take much to get me arguing that everyone should vote, but then someone will start complaining that that's judgmental and coercive and everyone should be free to make their own decisions (because remember there is no such thing as society, citizenship, duty and so on, just individual free choice) etc. etc. So I'll leave that one for now.
Having said all that, it's not a great choice this year:
- A party which wants to cut foreign aid and green policies (though see this)
- A party which says the EU is great but claims in its election leaflet that we have to 'fight' for favours from it. If it is that great, what's with the fighting talk?
- A party which hasn't said a thing about Europe during the election campaign, and has focused it's main guns on belittling politicians from other parties (literally) and the NHS. Last time I looked, the NHS wasn't run from Brussels, or by local councils, the General Election is next year Ed.
- A party which has been in government for 4 years, and kicks the can down the road for a further 3
- A party whose leaflet consisted entirely of policies applicable to the EU, and contained no personal attacks whatsoever.
Hmm. But if the choices aren't great then I know what to do. And it's not to abstain and walk away.
(thanks to Dave Walker for the brilliant cartoon)
For something more in depth, try this from Ian Paul.
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