Coming Out of the Closet

Today was a long day. These happen once every week or so – brutal, lengthy days full of classes, studying, and thrift store work. Sociology at 8 am is followed by an hour and a half of studying, then U.S. History and then English to wrap up the academic portion of the day. Then it’s onward to work. Today was a little different. It was Constitution Day at Jeff State, and for extra credit in both of my history classes I skipped English to attend a talk by Alabama Congressman Artur Davis about the constitution. After this was over I left campus and drove to work to perform my part-time thrift store duties.

And that’s when it happened.

I knew it would happen eventually, and I’m actually surprised it took this long. It is something I wasn’t looking forward to. It was inevitable, especially since we are getting closer and closer to November. Well, today, September 4, 2008, it happened.

“Hey Matt! Have you been keeping up with the conventions?”

“Uh… yes.”

“Did you see it last night? Sarah Palin was amazing!”

“Oh, was she? I didn’t see it.”

“Oh yeah she did so great.”

And then someone else heard what we were talking about and joined in on the conversation.

“Yeah I watched that. I thought she did real good!”

“Did you hear how those liberal Democrats tried to attack her? And the media? She really showed them, didn’t she?

“Yeah, and did you see Fred Thompson the night before, when he was talking about the buckets? I really liked that!”

And so on…

You have to understand that as a guy who is going against the grain and voting Democrat in the upcoming election, I am a rare breed working at a Christian non-profit located in the heart of Alabama. This is a place where WDJC is played all the time, and I mean ALL the time. Harry Potter books are not allowed to be sold. The majority of workers in the store are churchgoers who are Republican, and I think that because of this everybody just assumes I am that way too.

I have never been very vocal about my political views at work. The subject hasn’t even come up much at all. But I knew that one day, as the election got closer and closer, I was going to get caught in a situation where it would come up. The lady I was talking to today, let’s just call her Faye, is an intense conservative. I have used her as an example in a few blogs before, simply to demonstrate our contrasting viewpoints. I like Faye because she is an extremely nice person who is very passionate and serious about what she believes in. She is very informed about the election, although I think she is mainly informed by those who support her viewpoint, but nevertheless she is informed. We get along very well, but today I think we may have strained our relationship a tad bit.

About 10 or 15 minutes into the conversation (which was more of a monologue by her, I couldn’t get a word in), after some Palin praising, Obama bashing, and comments about how liberal the media is, I had to tell her. I finally had to drop the bomb.

“Would you hate me if I told you I was voting for Obama?”

Once, Faye told a fellow employee at the store that she thinks Barack Obama is the anti-Christ. Oh, snap. Did I just say what I think I said?

“Faye, would you hate me if I told you I was voting for the anti-Christ?”

Was it stupid? Was it brave and courageous? Was it the right thing to do? I haven’t figured that out yet. Still, I said it. And I’m glad I did.

Tensely and carefully Faye replied, “No I don’t hate you but I don’t see why you would want to vote for someone who supports killing babies.”

And so tomorrow, the entire body of workers at Bargain Center #2 is going to know that I’m “voting for a baby-killer.”

This is what we talked about, after I dropped the bomb. Abortion, abortion, abortion. How can I vote for somebody who is pro-choice?

Well, I think that there are a few reasonable points that need to be made on the subject of abortion. One is that most Christians think that the only way to deal with this problem is to win a “moral victory” by outlawing abortion completely. We have been going at this for about 20 or 30 years and nothing has happened. Even with a Republican president who opposes abortion and has been in office for 8 years, what has been done to actually outlaw abortion? How much closer are we now than we were 8 years ago? And what in the world makes anyone think John McCain, who is not as right-wing as many voters would like, is going to do anything about it? I know that Sarah Palin is intensely pro-life, which is great, but the Vice President doesn’t have as much power as we might think. And I’m not at all convinced that she wasn’t picked as VP just for political reasons – to try to get the female Hillary Clinton supporters, and to counter the excitement over Barack Obama’s historical run for the White House.

Today I was talking to a friend about this, and she reminded me that before Roe vs. Wade, when abortion was illegal, women were still finding ways to get it done. Even on the slim chance that abortion is outlawed, it’s still not going to stop abortions from happening. Granted, it would significantly reduce the number of abortions, but girls would still be seeking this procedure in ways that are a lot more dangerous and harmful than we have now.

I think that Obama’s got it right when he says he wants to find ways to reduce the number of unplanned pregnancies and work to help women who are impregnated because of rape. If it’s easier to support these children, then we can significantly reduce the number of abortions happening every year. I heard once that the least amount of abortions took place while Bill Clinton was in office. Why? Because Bill Clinton worked to help programs that provide support for people in this situation. Maybe, if we can quit spending $10 billion a month on this ridiculous war we’re in and actually focus our tax money on things that are happening inside this country, problems like this can be helped. They won’t be eradicated or abolished, but they will be significantly helped.

Whenever I let someone know that I’m voting for Barack Obama this November, the abortion issue always comes up. And while abortion is a very important issue, it is also important that we remember that it’s not the only issue we are dealing with here. During the election in 2004 we picked a president who opposes abortion but also wants to legalize torture. Do you see the double-standard here? We can’t just key in on one or two issues and then ignore the whole picture. There is more to deal with here than abortion and gay marriage. We have 2 wars going on, the economy, health care, the environment, immigration, and those are only a few. Are there very serious moral implications for how we deal with the war in Iraq? Absolutely. Is it important for us to consider the poor when we elect a president? Of course it is, and on these issues I don’t side with John McCain. I side with Barack Obama.

That conversation I had with Faye was tame, but tense at the same time. We agreed to disagree and I had to go back to work because we had been going at it for about half an hour and my assistant manager was right there. The presidential race is heating up and I think everyone is getting more and more passionate about it, including me. I don’t think that it will ever divide me against the people that I see every day, as long as the conversations stay tame and don’t become personal. I just think our country could do better, and I think that Barack Obama would be great in leading us that way. Tomorrow, when I go to work and everybody knows that thing about me that hasn’t been revealed until today; I guess I’m going to have to defend that belief.

This just gets more fun every day.