Rambling 'bout the election -- just like everybody else.

No one at church has said explicitly "real Christians will vote for Bush."  It's just been an atmospheric sense.  Not just at church, though:  everywhere.  Everywhere in this part of "the Bible Belt," at least.  Real Christians here vote for Bush -- because he's anti-gay marriage, pro-life and willing to continue bombing Iraq.  At least, those are the only reasons that come up when anyone asks why.

I think "real Christians" are going to vote (if they vote) for the person who or party that most accurately represents their views on government -- kind of like "real people" will.  Seriously:  not all "real Christians" believe that the government should be used as a vehicle for achieving Christian ideals.  Regardless of what I think about that, I don't believe that a person's opinion on it determines his or her Christianity.  Not all "real Christians" think that choosing a pro-life candidate is all that important in light of other issues.  Not all "real Christians" are for (or against) the war in Iraq.  Not all "real Christians" are even going to vote.  And some may vote for Nader or any number of other third party candidates, write-in or otherwise.  Because real Christians are real people and when Christ was calling followers, he wasn't calling them to a political party:  he called them to a way of life.

Does that way of life impact how one votes?  Of course.  It'd be stupid to say otherwise.  But I'm no more a Christian if I vote for Bush and no less a Christian if I become an expatriate and cast off everything that makes me an American.  Because at some point, some of us got the idea that to be Christian in the U.S. and to be a patriotic American are inextricably linked.  I dunno.  I don't think it was necessarily the Christian's duty to be a patriotic Roman in the first century.  A responsible citizen, sure, of wherever one happens to reside -- but patriotism, while it can be a nice attribute, should hardly be binding as a matter of faith.  Sometimes it's my Christian conviction that makes me a lousy patriot -- and sometimes it's the Christian conviction of others that lead them to be very patriotic. 

Last time I checked, though, "real Christians" were those who really belong to Christ.