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Mercedes Draffin

Website Designer and Project Coordinator

A little about me... I'm a recently divorced, IT professional, with 5 children.. Yes, 5 (all mine, all the result of a college sweetheart marriage of 14 years). I live in the Atlanta 'burbs, but I grew up in South Georgia. I'm learning to be me again, 'living my unused life', and attempting to rai...

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The spirituality of my vote...

I’ve been torn, for a quite a while, as to who to vote for in the upcoming elections.For a myriad of reasons, I couldn’t make up my mind.Mainly because, to me, neither candidate was appealing enough to sway me in one direction or the other.

I was very firmly in the Obama camp until he picked Joe Biden as his running mate.I mean really, experience aside; to me there were a multitude of other people that could have filled that position in a much better fashion (with less bias in the area of Internet Neutrality). There are bigger issues at stake here than Biden’s stance on ‘net neutrality, but given that I make my living from internet media, well, it’s a big issue for me.

I was never really in the McCain camp, but some (very little) of what he said made sense to me. Along with the experience he garnered, he was an option, albeit not a very good one.And then he had to go and pick Palin as his running mate.

Sigh. Really?Let me say this.As a feminist, I was ardently offended by the choice of an opinionated woman just for the sake of garnering female votes, and that’s all it was.Some pundit behind the scenes at the GOP decided that it would be a grand idea to ‘replace’ Hillary in the scene with someone like her, but different.Now, I don’t like Hillary either, but to me, even she was more palatable than Palin.While I was whole-heartedly discomforted by how many women jumped on the bandwagon to drag her through the mud because of her seemingly backward beliefs, I was very afraid of her.She represents to me the anathema of what feminism is.But then, feminism represents different things to different people and her choice to believe what she believes in, and to stand so adamantly behind all of those things, on the Vice-Presidential platform nonetheless, is obviously her view of feminism.It’s all about choice.I just don’t want to see mine, or my daughters, taken away because she feels her views are superior to mine.

Truth be told, I’ve been a Libertarian for a long time. I truly do believe in laissez-faire government and letting people live their own lives.So, any elections, but most importantly Presidential elections are always a time of gut wrenching political turmoil for me.I hardly ever see my views, my beliefs, on a widely supported ticket.Let’s face it, most 3^rd party candidates don’t ever get a fair shake as far as room on the national stage, so every 4 years I’ve been stuck (in my mind) picking between the lesser of the 2 evils.

As I’ve made mention to on multiple occasions, I am a Pagan. My beliefs/practices are best described as eclectic.You can rest assured my spiritual beliefs are NEVER addressed on a national stage, except in the diminutive.Except to be hounded and belittled. (sorry, disengaging from rant mode).

So, last night, my mind was made up for me.I was sent the following links and text.I was THRILLED.

http://blog.dailyatheistquote.com/post/Obama-Stands-up-for-Atheists.aspx

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid353515028?bctid=416343938

“For one, they need to understand the critical role that the separation of church and state has played in preserving not only our democracy, but the robustness of our religious practice. Folks tend to forget that during our founding, it wasn't the atheists or the civil libertarians who were the most effective champions of the First Amendment. It was the persecuted minorities, it was Baptists like John Leland who didn't want the established churches to impose their views on folks who were getting happy out in the fields and teaching the scripture to slaves. It was the forbearers of the evangelicals who were the most adamant about not mingling government with religious, because they did not want state-sponsored religion hindering their ability to practice their faith as they understood it.

Moreover, given the increasing diversity of America's population, the dangers of sectarianism have never been greater. Whatever we once were, we are no longer just a Christian nation; we are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers.

And even if we did have only Christians in our midst, if we expelled every non-Christian from the United States of America, whose Christianity would we teach in the schools? Would we go with James Dobson's, or Al Sharpton's? Which passages of Scripture should guide our public policy? Should we go with Leviticus, which suggests slavery is ok and that eating shellfish is abomination? How about Deuteronomy, which suggests stoning your child if he strays from the faith? Or should we just stick to the Sermon on the Mount - a passage that is so radical that it's doubtful that our own Defense Department would survive its application? So before we get carried away, let's read our bibles. Folks haven't been reading their bibles.

This brings me to my second point. Democracy demands that the religiously motivated translate their concerns into universal, rather than religion-specific, values. It requires that their proposals be subject to argument, and amenable to reason. I may be opposed to abortion for religious reasons, but if I seek to pass a law banning the practice, I cannot simply point to the teachings of my church or evoke God's will. I have to explain why abortion violates some principle that is accessible to people of all faiths, including those with no faith at all.”

Can I get an AMEN?!?!?!

Finally… FINALLY a mainstream politician has publicly expressed that yes, there are more people here than just Christians. We are a melting pot of a nation.We have every ethnicity, every nationality, every sexual preference (although it still bothers that neither major candidate supports gay marriage), and yes, every kind of spiritual and religious belief. I don’t pander my spirituality to those around me.Nor do I hide who I am and what I believe. I’m not going to stick fliers under your windshield wipers to come to my Hunter’s Moon ritual, nor am I gonna go all Hare Krishna on you at the airport either. But, my opinion, my values, my voice needn’t be quieted because I’m not a Christian.

I am Pagan, and I vote.And this quadrennial cycle, I’m voting for Obama.