Months ago I spoke with a Kerry organizer about organizing a prayer day for Kerry. We talked about what the prayer requests would be and it was stuff like, for Kerry's health and strength, for wisdom for Kerry and his team, for a decent election debate, you get the gist. We never once considered it appropriate that we pray God that Kerry win, but rather that God's will be done.

Not so on the other side. It is with no small measure of amusement that I see CatholicsforBush invoking Our Lady of Victory for a George Bush win.

Another illustration of the difference in thought processes between left and right. On the left, we think too much and try to be as considerate of everyone and fuss over the big picture. For us, wanting Kerry to win is not the same as demanding of God that Kerry wins. On the right, it's simple. George Bush good, Kerry and Democrats evil, Oh God, George Bush must win or else .. .

Jesus gives us a good model of prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. The moment had come to face death. It was time for him to embrace his fate. (quick pet peve/soapbox) Jesus did not ask for the cup of death and suffering to pass from him because he was afraid or doubting, rather Jesus was God incarnate and his reaction is God's reaction to the evil of death in sin. Just as God hates death through sin, Jesus recoiled from it showing how God felt about death. Jesus, God incarnate, was about to experience evil, and his righteous nature was revolted by it. Nonetheless, in that moment in which he was right to recoil from death, he overcame that moment by saying, "not my will but thine."

In prayer, our most innate stand is always the acceptance of God's will.
In this election, our primary concern should be not if God is on our side , but if we are on God's. It is simply unChristian to demand that God check the ballot box of our choice, rather we should ask humbly for wisdom, that we check the box of God's choice. (Of course liberals would echo the Psalmists and St Paul that we are not privy to the deep counsels of God, while GWB Catholics know exactly what God is thinking.)

Our GWB arch-conservative Catholic friends remind me of Jonah. Jonah was a self righteous type who felt the he was fine with God and couldn't be much bothered about others. But one thing about Jonah that people fail to realize [this is not one of his characteristics that I attribute to GWB conservative Catholics:)] is that Jonah knew God very well. When God told him to up and go to Nineveh and preach fire and brimstone and destruction, something our GWB arch conservative opponents would probably not bristle at because, after all, these people were bad, Jonah knew it was a shallow threat. He knew that God fundamentally does not condemn, rather God is love. And basically, all this God talk about fire and brimstone was useless, because all God had to see from the Babylonians was a hint of repentance and the floodgates of mercy would burst open.

Jonah fled God because he'd rather deliver a message of fiery justice and condemnation than one of mercy and hope. These people were evil and deserved nothing but the worst. But at the end of all his experiences, he learned that God is the Father of all, of both the righteous and the sinner and it is not God's will that any should perish, but all should come to repentance.

If you listened to the George Bush arch-conservatives, you would think God hates or at best tolerates everyone but the Republican Bush supporters. But we are all God's children and God's desire is to create a better world for all of us (thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven). Such a change can only come structurally, i.e., through political means. So God does have an interest, so to speak, in the affairs of the world. It is his desire that we have a world that is more just, more peaceful, and more like heaven. God will lead us there, to that world, if we trust him.

This election, like non before, will result in a fundamental shift in the way the world does business. In my opinion and that of other Kerry supporters, four more years of Bush will lead to nothing but more wars, more poverty, more injustice, more destruction of the international world order, and more violence. On the other hand, a vote for Kerry is a vote to offer a hopeful and positive vision to the world. It is a vote for justice, for healthcare, for rising out of poverty, for respect, strength and diplomacy in the world, it is a vote for a forward looking future and not a future of fear.

God said to his children in Jeremiah 29, "I know the thoughts that I think towards you, thoughts of hope not of fear, to give you a future full of hope." In 1 Tim 2:1-4, Paul says to pray for leaders and for peace. Hope and peace are the message of the Kerry and Edwards team, fear and war is that of the Bush Cheney team. At least on this front, we know that Kerry and Edwards are more reflective of the hope of structural change that needs to occur for a more peaceful and hopeful world that we pray about every sunday in the Lord's prayer.

I don't pray that John Kerry wins, although I want him to win and can't imagine otherwise. However, I simply pray that as a nation, God gives us wisdom to make the right choice. Not our will but thine, O Lord.