Choose Wisely

There's a scene in "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" in which the movie's characters enter a chamber guarded by a knight (the Knights Templar, who else?) where there are myriads of "grails" (for us, "chalices"), only one of which is the true cup used by Christ at the Last Supper.  The true cup (in the movie) was to bring eternal life to the one who selected it and drank from it.  As the movie's villain enters the room, he's confronted with a choice, and he asks the knight, "Which one is it?"  The knight replies, "You must choose, but choose wisely, for the true cup brings life, but any false one brings death."

We're confronted with a choice in a short month (roughly) from now.  And there are many tempting alternatives.  Here in Ohio, our ballot will include five names of candidates.  And we will have the freedom to choose from any of the five.

But we all recognize that there are only one of two who can be or will be elected.  And so, we must hear the words of the knight echo in our heads - "Choose wisely."

We write this not to influence anyone's personal decisions per se.  Rather, we write to encourage all to ponder carefully their votes.

This is important!  This can and will determine your lives for the next four years minimally, and with ramifications on the judicial fronts, it will determine much about the lives of our children and even grandchildren.

Using a vote on one of the non-mainstream candidates may make us feel really good that we've not simply acquiesced to the poor choices that the two political parties have offered us.  And yet, in feeling good about such a choice, we will have abdicated our weightier moral responsibility of voting for a candidate to whom we've been led not by peer pressure, not by what we're told by any media (right or left), but by PRAYERFUL consideration of the histories, the moralities, and the evidences we can find that lead us to our selection, however unpalatable that choice may be for us.

This isn't easy!  But it's a choice that we MUST make - PRAYERFULLY - if we are to be able to look back at this year and say, "I tried, Lord."  Let's not find ourselves in the position of the movie's villain, who after picking the shiniest cup and drinking from it, dies in a pile of dust in a corner, only to hear the knight say wistfully, "He chose poorly...."