It occurred to me last night that if you were a Christian pacifist, you should never vote for a Christian candidate for President.

If pacifism is taught in the Bible– that is, if war is always wrong in all circumstances– then a Christian should not, in good conscience, be able to take the presidential oath of office. That oath affirms that the President will “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.” The Constitution stipulates, “The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States.” It doesn’t seem like a pacifist should be willing to take on that role. And if you think all Christians should be pacifists, then it seems like you certainly would not want to put a brother (or sister) in that position.

There’s a reason I was thinking about this, but it’s not interesting enough to explain.

*****

The radio show this morning was really fun. I’ll point you to the archived version when it’s up. We didn’t really get to much spiritual stuff, but the political topics were interesting. And of course, the whole spiritual/secular distinction isn’t legit, blah blah blah. I found out afterward that the host had really wanted to talk about evolution, but we ran out of time. Maybe they’ll have me back on.

My favorite Jake moment was a shout-out to Mike Kruger, as I blurted out while the host was trying to close up, “neutrality is a myth!” You’ll have to listen to get the context.