Voting for a 3rd party candidate

I have posted a few things about Obama because I have felt very strongly convicted that Christians have no place voting for this man and some people are, in my opinion, not aware of all the issues, they don't care what the issues are, or they agree with Obama. I haven't joined in the discussion about McCain or voting for a 3rd party because I don't have time to write a whole bunch right now, but I did want to say this...

There are some Christians who will not vote at all because they believe that Christians are to be IN this world, but not OF this world. This is an interesting article on this topic and he raises a bunch of good points: http://www.cogwriter.com/vote.htm

There are people who will vote for Obama because they are unhappy in their own lives and they have fallen into Obama's trap of believing that he can "change" the world. Only when people turn from their sinful ways and seek the Lord will we see dramatic change in this world. We already have a savior. What we need now is a revival.

There are also people who are saying McCain supports this or that, but honestly, I have researched the man and his principles and I believe that he and Sarah Palin pass my "litmus" test. Did I believe there was a better option? Absolutely! Did I think that person could win? Not a chance. If we lived in a perfect world - or even a world where people let the Holy Spirit guide them on every choice or even a country where the majority of citizens were truly Christian believers, then we would not be having this discussion and both the Democrat and Republican candidates would be trailing someone else.

But then again, if we actually lived in a nation where people followed the word of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, we would live in a whole different world anyway. Sadly, we don't live in this kind of world.

It's kind of like when we go to someone's house to eat and they REALLY like junk food. At home, we normally only eat healthy food - veggies, meat occasionally, fruit, salad, organic when possible, home grown when possible, etc. When we go to someone else's house to eat and they only have what I consider "junk" food, I have a decision to make. I can - (1) not eat at all, (2) eat all the junk food I want, (3) ask the person to give me something more healthy with the likelihood that they don't have anything (remember, this person ONLY serves junk food in their home so they don't keep healthy food sitting around), or (4) eat a little bit of food to tide me over until I get home, when I can have a healthy meal.

I guess I kind of see the current elections like those choices. As Christians, we can either (1) not vote, (2) vote without discretion, (3) vote for the 3rd party who is very unlikely to win, or (4) vote for the lesser of two evils who I think would at least TRY to turn us back in the right direction until Christ comes back OR we have a revival in our nation.

So I speak for myself, but perhaps others remotely share the sentiment... Do I feel a little bit guilty for not voting for one of the 3rd party candidates? Yes, I do. I'll even admit that. Would I redo my vote if I had the chance? Well, probably not because I don't like "junk" food, but when the choices are a little bit of junk until you can find something better versus a LOT of junk that may be irreversible, I'll take a few potato chips any day of the week.

Sonya Haskins