Not Voting is a Vote

You have to vote.

Just vote.

It's your duty to vote.

It's my duty to not vote. There I said it. I should be clear, I'm not talking about not voting at all, I'm talking about not voting for anyone I expect to see on the presidential ballot. I have some senatorial candidates and all that I will be voting for, but as of right now I refuse to vote for anyone on the ballot.

I'm not voting Hillary or Trump. No way. Lewis Black was not lying when he said we have a party of no ideas and a party of bad ideas. I've read plenty of blogs and news editorials on why I should vote for one of these two and most of them boil down to "you gotta vote for Hillary because if Trump wins we will become a fascist state" or "Anybody but Hillary."  If the best argument for your candidate is s/he is not the other candidate your candidate is unworthy of my vote. That tactic has failed. So interestingly has the "this candidate is not as bad as they've been painted" tactic because even they have done little to show me anything particularly likeable in their candidate. My analysis, comments, and reasons for refusing to vote for either were so negative, I had to delete them before publishing this post because I did not feel I could post them without violating the Commandment to not bear false witness against my neighbor, since it would be hardly interpreting their actions in the best possible light and in case I was inaccurate at all, I felt it would be wrong to state them. But when you literally have to invoke the "if you can't say nothing nice" clause it's a problem.

I was seriously considering Johnson for a while. I may be extremely pro-life and not happy with his pro-choice status, but I get the Libertarian philosophy behind it, and there are at least other areas I would like to see that philosophy at work. The thing that did me in for Johnson was not his brain fart when it came to naming world leaders but his fiscal plan of budget and tax reform. I am on board with making it law that the budget must be balanced. That makes sense. I am not on board with out and out 40+% spending cuts. That's unrealistic, and the poorest, oldest, and weakest among our nation would likely suffer. I know we need to increase spending in things like senior care and education, not decrease it. I think that can be done while being more fiscally responsible as a nation, I don't think it can be done with the kind of cuts he's proposing. And I looked very briefly at Jill Stein's platform, but it didn't take me long to consider it unrealistic and fiscally irresponsible and it more than any political pitch I have ever heard or read looked like a thousand empty promises hoping you will buy one of them. Of the options out there Johnson is in my view the best. But he has not won my vote.


And of course I've heard all the "3rd party vote is a wasted vote" or "you're taking votes away from Trump/Hillary who needs those votes to beat Hillary/Trump." That is a failed tactic too. For one,  giving increased place to a third party impacts its place in future holdings and is fundamental towards the march of breaking down our two-party system that has handcuffed our government and turned checks and balances from a checking of each branch of the government to a means of battling the opposing political party. And I am sick of it. It is still tempting to vote third party for that fact, and if the outcome changes who wins the election, then maybe the two parties will learn to put out a candidate who people aren't going out of their way to not vote for. Additionally, voting for anyone you believe in is not a wasted vote. That is the purpose of voting: getting to cast your voice.

This brings me to my case for not voting for any of them. In short, contrary to everything you have been taught, not voting is a vote. It's the one thing that people have missed for years, but this current election - especially the campaigns of Trump and Sanders - illustrated: many people who don't vote will if they find a candidate that resonates with them. Simply put, the parties and political climate they created have alienated a large portion of the population. It was outside the box candidates that posed a real threat to the existing party's current state that brought new voters out in droves. A non-vote is a way of saying to the parties "Do better next time", it is the means by which people say "I refuse to be complicit in either of these people's election". As one who sits on all sorts of boards that vote for various things, when someone abstains from a vote (especially when multiple people do), there usually is a reason. The best thing we can do is show up to vote, and when it comes to the part of president leave it blank. I refuse to settle for the choices left me. And frankly, if a large number of the population intentionally left that blank, you know in the next election the number one question out there will be "how do we get those people's votes?"

Before you say that simply makes me complicit in the election of so-and-so because I won't vote for your person, consider this: if I voted I would not vote for your person either way. So no, my vote by non-vote is not helping Trump or Hillary win, it is the opposite: it is refusing to help either of them win. Because at the end of the day, I have to live with who I voted for. It has brought me to one of three choices: a third party vote in hopes it boosts the party's presence in future elections, a vote for a candidate I hoped would've won the primaries in hopes it spurns that person onward to run in the future, or to leave the president section intentionally blank so that when the numbers are crunched they see the amount of ballots cast and times voted don't match. I have been wavering between the options and am currently leaning towards the third. This is my explanation. Not that it is needed, because in the end it is none of your business who I vote for, but because I think someone needs to express why there are people like myself considering action by inaction. And how your arguments to have me choose the lesser of two evils is not working and I would appreciate if you stop them.

I should also state something else. In the end, I will pray for whoever wins. I will pray for him/her, offer support, and even thank God for him/her. Because that is a job I don't want and am ill qualified for. And because we do need our government, and while I have beliefs on how the government should be run, even ones run by people I didn't vote for has yet to cause doomsday. I expect the same here. I do not believe Hillary or Trump will utterly ruin the country or start a fascist state. Along with not being enthralled in our two-party system or buying into the "you have to vote for our candidate" argument because the other candidate is literally the devil, I don't buy into the apocalyptic rhetoric both sides continually espouse. This isn't a belief that I would be complicit in destroying America if I vote for one of them, it's simply the belief that even if it isn't the end of the world we can do better.

5 Ezekiel Passages to Read

After concluding (finally) my reading of Ezekiel, I walked away realizing just how good this book of the Bible is and saddened that most lectionary-based churches give it rather little overall value, as it rarely is featured in the lectionary and therefore is rarely featured for many preachers and hearers. But the book is worth the read. It is the perfect example of a book that is full of wrath and judgment and yet maintaining God's desire for the people and God's mercy and doing so in some really beautiful ways. So for those who can only think of the Valley of Dry Bones when reading Ezekiel, here are some other passages to turn to:

Ezekiel's Call Ch 2-3 You can definitely expand this if you want. For example, chapter 1 includes the acid-tripping, alien abduction vision of God's glory Ezekiel has (and no I don't actually think he was on acid or it was aliens, all I'm saying is it sure sounds a lot like a guy on acid meeting an alien). But for me, chapters two and three are the ones to make sure you catch. They feature words every preacher should hear about preaching even to the stubborn and hard-hearted (2:4-7) and a delicious diet of literally living not on bread alone but every word that proceeds from the mouth of God when he eats a scroll (2:9-3:9). Talk about being given words to share!

God's Exit from the Temple Ch 10-11 This really begins all the way back in chapter 8 when they journey to Jerusalem, but the heart of the activity are in these chapters where the key explanation of the defeat of Jerusalem and destruction of the temple come in Ezekiel. God's glory leaves the temple and in fact heads east out of Jerusalem, right to where the enemy army is coming from and the exiles have been taken to! In short, God was not defeated by the Babylonians and their gods, he had already moved out because he was so fed up with Israel's practices. As a symbol of hope, and receiving honorable mention for important passages in Ezekiel to look up, in his later visions of a new temple he sees the glory of the Lord returning in chapter 43:1-9. This earlier section of God's exit however already hints at God's return and Israel's restoration in a passage that includes a promise quite similar to the new covenant in Jeremiah 31. Ezekiel 11:17-21 includes promises of return from exile, internal renewal of heart and spirit, new obedience, and the Bible's oft-repeated graceful biblical declaration "they will be my people and I will be their God".

Parable of the Adulterous Wife Ch 16 I'm sure some won't like the image, seeing it as vilifying the woman or sounding morbid, but it is worth the read. In what may be the longest clear parable of the Bible (and I say clear parable so those arguing things like Jonah don't even try to object since whatever case one makes for it as a parabolic story, it was not written "clearly" as a parable) Ezekiel is to explain to Jerusalem the experience God has suffered of their practices through a parable of the people as a woman rescued by God, loved, married, and lavished with good things who loses it all because she acts like a prostitute. But as he notes, a prostitute is paid, instead she is paying to betray her husband (God) for other nations/gods. Therefore, God says all the lovers are going to come calling, take everything, and humiliate them, bringing their sin on their own head. There are so many wonderful parts to this parable and its explanation. It begins so intimately. It conveys betrayal because it conveys God's love. When no one cared for Israel, it said God had compassion on her in an almost parable of the Good Samaritan fashion, finding her bloody and abandoned. It also has this interesting note of hypocrisy that is very common even today: he notes how they saw Sodom as an object of scorn before their own wickedness was exposed. It's that two-faced nature to judge in a very looking-down fashion until we ourselves fall. For all its judgment it also ends with a promise of a new and everlasting covenant to be established (again, very Jeremiah-y).

Oracles Against the Nations Ch 28-31 Again, the oracles against the nations are actually longer than this, but the ones covered in 28-31 are by far the most intriguing theologically. What is so interesting is the development and use of Sheol and the pit as a place of judgment and the imagery of Eden used in these passages. The interpretation of the story of the garden of Eden, which usually resides primarily on individuals of its story (Adam and Eve) becomes different when nations are talked about in language as trees of God's garden. Eden is used here in comparing glory and in referring to the establishment/creation of nations. It to me is fascinating in the way these oracles use the garden to help us in our own interpreting and applying the garden story to our origins today. Yet sadly, I never in these discussions see Ezekiel's use and descriptions used to talk about how we look at the Garden of Eden narrative.

God's Judgment and Mercy Ch 33-34 These chapters really have it all. It has a clear command to call out sin. In fact, God warns Ezekiel that he is like a watchman with a responsibility to call out danger when he sees it or else he is accountable. Thus in 33:8 is a word every preacher better take to heart: "If I say to the wicked, 'Wicked one, you will surely die,' but you do not speak out to warn him about his way, that wicked person will die for his iniquity, yet I will hold you responsible for his blood." It is, you might say, the darker side of Paul's words in Romans "But how can they call on him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about Him? And how can they hear without a preacher? And how can they preach unless they are sent?" Well, if you are sent like Ezekiel was, it is a responsibility. That's a hard word to hear as a pastor. That's just the beginning of this section. It also tells us we can't be saved by works, as the righteous man's acts will not save them from judgment for their transgressions. It conversely tells us, however, that God wants none to perish, all to turn to him and live, and the one who is wicked but turns away back to the Lord will be spared. So you have clear law and gospel. You even have God's response to those who don't like Law and Gospel in 33:17-20 beginning with a poignant judgment upon human judgment, "But your people say, 'The Lord's way isn't fair,' even though it is their own way that isn't fair." As the passage goes on there is a clear statement about God's concern for justice and faithfulness. Take verses 25-26 "This is what the Lord GOD says: You eat meat with blood in it, raise your eyes to your idols, and shed blood. Should you then receive possession of the land? You have relied on you swords, you have committed detestable acts, and each of you as defiled his neighbor's wife. Should you then receive possession of the land?" But the richness of these passages is not through yet. There is a great passage about the deaf ear syndrome again (see Ezekiel's call) to which at one point it is said to them the prophet is like a singer of love songs with a beautiful voice. They just love to listen. What preacher has never felt that way before? Then comes chapter 34, which lectionary readers will be acquainted with thanks to Good Shepherd Sunday. Here God condemns the leadership that has scattered his flock and led them astray, then promises to be their shepherd, to gather them, lie them down in good pasture separate rams from the goats, separate the fat sheep from lean sheep, appoint a single shepherd from the house of David, make a covenant of peace with them, and break the bonds of their yoke. It is a super-Jesus-y.

Last Verse Ch 48 As a bit of honorable mention, I will also throw this out there. The last many chapters are dedicated to a new temple in Jerusalem and the division of the land among the tribes. Along with the central theme phrase of Ezekiel "then you will know that I am the LORD" the major movement is first why did God leave Jerusalem. So upon visions of his return it is a powerful thing to end with the phrase: "The perimeter of the city will be six miles and the name of the city from that day on will be: The LORD Is There."