I hate election season.

 

I hate election season. I know who you’re going to vote for. Your friends know, your family knows, we all know who you plan on voting for! You’ve posted who you are going to vote for 1,000 times already. I don’t mind the pictures with little quotes. “Pick me because this. Pick me because that”. I don’t mind the info-graphics with numbers taken from polls or studies that show what you want them to. (Oh, by the way, that poll or study was done by another group of people, and guess what? They got the opposite outcome!) But let me tell you what I do mind…

I mind those hateful pictures and blog posts that say if you don’t believe what I believe, if you don’t vote the way I vote, if you don’t think the way I think, then you’re stupid. I look at these posts and I think, “boy that changed my mind!”. NOT! Do you really think insulting someone’s intelligence is going to make them change their mind? Do you think saying mean and hurtful things to them will make them join your side? It seems to me that you actually want to push them away and you actually make their loyalty to their choice even stronger.

As I write this, I am reminded of a prevalent struggle. Facing people who have been hurt by fake Christians. The same concept can be applied here. If you are going to hurt and belittle someone, is that going to win them over to God’s kingdom? How much more difficult is to help bring someone to salvation who carries the weight of the evil things that have been said or done to them in the name of religion?

 

“Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.”

    Taken from Wikipedia- “The Hebrew לא תשא לשוא is translated as “thou shalt not take in vain”. The word here translated as “in vain” is שוא shav’ “emptiness, vanity; emptiness of speech, lying”, while “take” is נשא nasa’ “to lift, carry, bear, take, take away” (appearing in the second person as תשא ). The expression “to take in vain” is also translated less literally as “to misuse” or variants.”

My impression of this commandment? If you bear the name of God with emptiness or lying you will be held accountable! There is no excuse! This is for televangelists, hateful “Christians”, and anyone else who claims to have a relationship with God, but shows otherwise. Why does God say this is excusable? Because you push people away from Him. Just the same way that hate-filled people sharing posts calling me an idiot for believing in my presidential hopeful push me away from even considering theirs.

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