The U.S. Election: How should we feel?

I understand that some of you will be interested in following the U.S. election tomorrow evening, so ,rather than have our study at Starbucks, I will be posting some selected scripture readings for you, which we will then discuss next week. If you have taken an interest in the election, then please read on...

Tomorrow we will witness a historic presidential election south of the border. The United States of America will elect either their first biracial (black/white) President, or their first female Vice-President. As people pick sides and buy into the campaign of either McCain or Obama, it is important that we keep a level head and avoid being pulled into the undignified, emotional frenzy of obsessively exalting one candidate and his campaign, and/or pulling down the other. I'm not saying that we should not have strong feelings about any issues, in fact, there are some issues at stake that I feel strongly about. However, we should view each issue individually, based on conviction and good sense, and not on parties, personalities, media, and the like. (And, as far as our conviction goes, as Christians, that should be derived from the ultimate authority on good and evil - the Bible.) Nor am I saying that we should not be attracted to, or prefer, a particular candidate over another. However, our preference should not be based on personal chemistry, rather it should be based on principles. And, if we are objective, it is not likely that any one candidate would adequately line up with all of our convictions and good sense. Thus, we must figure out what principles are most important to us as Christians (i.e. what is most important to God). From there, we must recognize the good and bad in each of the campaigns and place our preference on the candidate that comes closest to representing that which is most fundamentally important to us. Having established that preference, we must maintain a christian dignity and respect in our conversation about all candidates involved, which includes abstaining from personal attacks. Lastly, remember that, in the greater reality, we are citizens of Heaven and Jesus Christ is our Commander in Chief, thus, our main concern should be with the kingdom of Heaven, not earthly kingdoms.