Election embarrassment

As a blogger, I mostly stay away from politics. That’s because I usually think that discussing affairs of state takes away from the message of the gospel. It’s hard for me to read a politically charged piece from another theological blogger and not lose myself in the politics of the post. Pretty soon, I’m mad at someone for something and have totally forgotten what the point is. Jesus was certainly a political figure, and I bet he would have a lot to say about local, regional, national, and international politics if he were around today. But, as bumper stickers will proclaim, Jesus wasn’t a Republican or a Democrat, yet even suggesting that self-evident point is to invite criticism and a long rabbit chase.

But there’s something on my mind that I need to say.

Today is election day. In Alabama, most of our statewide offices are elected during the national election cycle that is dubbed “midterm elections.” Today we will go to the polls to elect a governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, state auditor, state treasurer, one of our two U.S. Senators, an equivocation of representatives (yes, that’s one of the acceptable collective nouns for politicians—one of the nicer ones) at the state and national levels, a sentence of judges (yes, that’s one of the acceptable collective nouns for judges), and one particular office that I can’t seem to get away from: our state’s attorney general.