Have you decided yet? We are less than a week away from crucial general elections in our country and I’m still wavering about who to vote for! I don’t know who to trust. Now, our political choices must be informed by our Christian convictions (which however is not at all to say that all Christians should vote for the same party!), so in the spirit of WWJD, who would Jesus vote for? :)

Here are some thoughts from an article written by Val Anderson (published on the website of the Warehouse - www.warehouse.org.za – a Cape Town based NGO which partners with local churches in addressing poverty and injustice). Anderson writes that as she prepares to vote, she has been grappling with the following questions:

• What might the political and economic acts and teachings of a Carpenter-Rabbi to a Hebrew nation under the violent Roman Empire in occupied territory, have to teach me in a constitutional, post-apartheid democracy?
• Where, how and for whom is my vote entrenching power / shifting power / creating space for the marginalized to have voice in spaces of power?
• Am I voting out of vested interest, fear or pain (either my own or those I seek to stand in solidarity with)?
• On those issues which my conscience and my reading of scripture teach me are immutable, what am I doing tangibly beyond my vote?

Challenging questions – they may make for a great conversation in your home group :)

May God guide you as you exercise this important responsibility on Wednesday and may God bless our nation during this critical period for South Africa.