Election countdown

At the risk of stating what the world knows already, there is one week to go until the presidential election.

It's been fascinating being here during the election campaign.  What has impressed me the most is how the entire country (the entire world, it seems), is switched on to what is happening.  It looks as if there will be a huge turnout of voters, and almost certainly a much higher percentage of people, particularly young people, will vote than the numbers we get at home.  Everyone is talking about it.  I passed two fifteen year-olds in a small Massachusetts town discussing the election (well, the fact that someone's Obama poster had been set fire to).

Since Connecticut is a solid Democrat state, we have not been subject to the 

vast campaigning which is being waged in "swing states."  This means that I have probably not seen any more publicity than most people in the UK will have been able to follow, except for the "Obama/Biden" sign which adorns the corner of the road which I pass on the way to morning prayer.  I have seen the occasional marketing spin-off from the election, including Candidate dog-treats (see picture above) and a storage company advertisement based on the Republican Vice-Presidential candidate (right).

It's also been interesting to watch the reaction of the churches.  In a

country where the battle for the "religious vote" is paramount, some churches are preaching politics from the pulpit, telling their parishioners that as Christians, they must be voting for a particular candidate.  But in the churches I have been to (perhaps since, as I said, this is a fairly well-defined voting area), the preaching has been more nuanced.  Over the last month I have heard the election come up in the intercessions on Sunday, with the priest praying that "in this remaining time, all the candidates will conduct themselves with integrity and fairness."  On Sunday, the gospel reading was love your neighbour.  The priest challenged us to love those whom we find difficult, in particular the presidential candidates.  She encouraged us to take the candidate whom we like the least, and to pray for that person over the coming week.  Not just to pray about them and how much they annoy us (although a little of that was allowed), not that they might win (or lose!) but for them in this time that we may learn to love as Christ commands us.