Why I'm Voting for Obama --OR-- The Parable of the Symbolic Leader
Over the last few posts, I've talked about how little the issue of electing the next president has to do with our vocation and mission as disciples of the Living Lord of the World. But I've also mentioned that I'm going to be voting for Barack Obama. I've engaged in discussion with some who are angry or confused as to how I can bring myself to support a candidate whose views on certain issues are so different from my own. Once again, the short answer is that I don't believe my support of a particular presidential candidate has much, if anything, to do with what I am called to do or not do vis-a-vis my conviction on particular issues. But I do think it is incumbent (no pun intended) upon me to explain why I am supporting a particular candidate for president, in this case Obama. And I think the best answer can be given by way of a parable. Like all parables, its not the type of answer you would give to a question like "what is 4 plus 7," but like Someone I truly love and worship believed, it is sometimes the most appropriate answer to give to a "why are you doing this" type of question. So here it goes.
The Parable of the Symbolic Leader
Once upon a time, there was an organization that, in principle, thought of itself as the embodiment of love in the world. For centuries, though, it had failed in countless ways to live up to that vocation. Its leaders throughout that time, all well-intentioned and good people, but all sharing the same (or similar) ethnic background, had failed to cause defining instances of love to come to fruition in the world. At that same time, there were a proud group of people whose nation had been held captive by a strong monster that lived to their east, subduing that people's sense of hope, as well as that of many other neighboring peoples and countries, for many years.
One day, there came a time for this organization to elect a new leader. There were many strong candidates available, most with the same ethnic background as those that had been the organization's leaders for those past centuries. But there was one candidate who hailed from that particular country ravaged by hopelessness because of the great eastern monster. The organization chose that candidate as its new leader. During his inauguration, when tradition dictated that his subordinates were to kneel before him to take their vows and kiss his ring, this new leader stood up as the subordinate from his ancestral country knelt down, stopped him from kissing the ring and hugged him instead.
The people of the new leader's country were instilled with a fresh dose of hope, a hope that came from knowing that they were not forgotten, that though they were in the grips of the monster, one of their own had attained this great position of leadership. This hope was infectious, slowly at first, but it eventually reached a critical mass, and the people of this country began to fight the monster, not with violence, but with the love that the aforementioned organization had always tried, but often failed, to embody. The monster could not withstand such a powerful force, and some years later, the central symbol of its reign was destroyed by ordinary men and women armed with an irresistible hope, and sledgehammers.
If you have ears, then hear.
Grace and Peace,
Raffi
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