Category: Call to Action

Posted on

Vote and Pray: May the Odds Be Ever in Your Favor

Two critically important topics today: vote and pray.

(I couldn’t help myself with the dystopian line. Effie Trinket’s voice popped into my head the instant I woke up this morning and I find it very fitting. I digress… sort of.)

Vote

First, if you are an eligible voter in the United States and have not yet cast your ballot, please do so. It’s a civil duty that protects our voice as a people by also being a civil right.

A quick note about lines: expect them to be longer than usual because people are spacing out due to the coronavirus pandemic. Don’t let a line deter you. The line I was in seemed daunting, but I received my ballot in ten minutes.

Voting, vote, election, poll, polling place, patriotism, patriotic, ballot, line to cast, early, Buffalo, WNY, Tonawanda, school, gymnasium, civil rights, civil discourse
So many people are turning out to vote!

Pray

This has been on my heart a lot recently. There is so much unrest in our country, and people are concerned with who the next head of the federal executive branch will be and what that will mean for our country. Division is at an all-time high, and many of us are literally afraid to have open discourse with our neighbors because of fear of retribution for having an opinion someone dislikes. The presidential election will turn one way or another, and about half of the country will feel unwelcome here – though hopefully not for long. The American spirit has shown a fantastic ability to rebound and reconnect, and I hope and pray we can do so again.

Vigil

The church I attended is hosting a Eucharistic Adoration and prayer vigil today to pray for all candidates and our country as a whole. Regardless of who wins, we need to come back together an eschew this era of hatred and vitriol. What better way to do that than through the common cause of praying for our candidates and our nation? Someone will win, and we will want that person to do the best that they can for our country because that bodes well for the country and, in turn, bodes well for us.

If you can carve out the time and have a place to congregate with neighbors to pray for the candidates and the country, please do so. Pray without ceasing. Pray for the outcome to be God’s will, and for the strength to carry on whatever God’s will may be.

“But what if my candidate doesn’t win?”

I admit to being concerned about this myself. Specifically, between the riots and the cancel culture, I fear we are descending the depths into darkness. I had a t-shirt when I was a teenager that said: “THINK: it’s not illegal yet,” and I’m actually concerned about my physical safety due to the contentiousness of this election simply because I refuse to follow the narrative. I’ve spent the majority of my voting life stumping for a third-party (any third party) and third-party candidates because I realized that eventually we would end up in an over-the-top contentious situation and believed that a viable third party would be the best deterrent to it. Well, here we are: hiding in our little corners because we’re afraid of our neighbors.

Think about that.

I moved mid-pandemic for work, so I haven’t had much of an opportunity to meet my new neighbors. One of my neighbors has a very bark-y dog. I met her briefly, and she said his bark is worse than his bite (though it would be difficult for the bite to be much worse – that bark is fierce, let me tell you!). Another of my neighbors (the household, as there are several) generally doesn’t pay attention to what is going on in the world around them as their phones are way more interesting. Another of my neighbors is fabulous (we get along swimmingly and I am utterly blessed to know them). And of course, we had some trick-or-treaters for Halloween (though not many). I only have the most cursory look into the lives of the people around me, and they’re good, decent folks. So why are we demonizing each other?

The best thing about a federalist system is that, regardless of who wins a national election, the local authorities have the most say over our daily lives. If there is a problem, we can talk with our neighbors to solve it. We know that our neighbors are good people overall, so even though we haven’t met various people in distant states, we know that we can work with the people in our immediate vicinity.

The song is a brilliant reminder that God has brought me safe thus far, and He will see me home.

Trust in God’s Will

It is more vital than ever to appeal to God and ask for His will to be done and to pray for His help for us to want God’s will. That first one we do all the time, right? But that second one… Man, why can’t God just will what I want instead of making me seek Him, right?

I have been struggling with today’s election for months: who to vote for, what would happen if this candidate won or that candidate won, what I would have to change about my own day-to-day life in either situation. There are certain areas I avoid at work (generally, conversation topics that may be remotely tangentially related to politics) because I am afraid of losing my job for having an unpopular opinion. (I hold many opinions; some of them are bound to be unpopular.) As though life isn’t stressful enough!

When I catch anxiety rising, the best counter I have is a very simple prayer:

God, please help me to trust in Your will.

I found myself saying it some time ago when I was starting to have trouble breathing because of the scenarios playing out in my head. I don’t know where I heard it from originally, but I find great solace in it. Now, when my mind starts to take off on me about how bad the situation in the country will probably be under a certain candidate, I repeat this simple prayer asking God to trust Him and His will.

God wants what is best for us. God allows us to make decisions, and part and parcel to that is living with the consequences, but God wills the best for us. Sometimes you have to go through tumult and strife to become the best person you can be; if you are suffering, look to God and ask how it fits into the grand picture. Ultimately, God loves us dearly, and He acts accordingly. If God loves us more than we could possibly love ourselves, what have we to fear?

I want to leave you with a Bible verse. The first line I seek often, and the context of the following lines is all the more essential on days like today.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not rely on your own insight.
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
and He will make straight your paths.

– Proverbs 3:5-6

God bless you, and God bless America.

Posted on

No Mandatory Injections – Period

As the coronavirus pandemic starts to ebb, some are discussing a vaccine. It’s great that there’s a promising vaccine already! Absolutely phenomenal! If the vaccine that is currently being tested turns out to be effective, it will be the fastest developed vaccine in history. Seriously: the community has been working on it for less than six months and the expected turn-around time with a fire lit under the scientific community is in the realm of eighteen months. To be so close so quickly is an amazing show of human ingenuity.

I am a fan of vaccines. Vaccines have helped to effectively eradicate some of the most deadly diseases in history. Vaccines and medicines of that ilk make it relatively safe to travel to far-off lands with known widespread infections – or just those with water that the natives can handle but would otherwise be dangerous to foreigners. Modern medicine is a marvel.

But nobody should ever force medicine on a competent individual.

(For anyone wondering why that adjective “competent” is there, it’s because sometimes people aren’t capable of making decisions. I use the term “competent” in the legal sense – effectively, a person who is able to rationally consider decisions. Legally, to be competent, a person must have reached the age of majority and be free from any ailment preventing soundness of mind such as dementia or insanity. Anyone who is incompetent should have a guardian to either assist in the decision making or to make the decisions for them. For example, if a child refuses a vaccination against the flu but the child’s parents insist, the parents win and the child gets the flu shot.)

Some world leaders are making the rounds saying that people should be forcibly vaccinated. “Mandatory vaccinations for all!” Why would the government insist on putting a piece of metal in someone’s body, spill blood, and put a foreign substance in that person’s body? For the public welfare, comes the cry. But why would the government have that kind of right?

There are numerous reasons why someone might not be willing or able to be vaccinated. There are the stubborn people like me (healthy young individuals unafraid of taking the brunt of the virus); there are also many concerned with what else might be snuck in with the vaccine (such as bio-tracking devices which would allow corporations or governments to trace movements and also trace and potentially control various bodily functions). Moreover, there are conscientious objectors – the people who cannot accept a vaccine in good conscience because of how it was made (such as any pro-life activist accepting a vaccine made from aborted children). In addition, there are people for whom taking a vaccine could physically harm them, such as the immuno-compromised or people with allergies.

Regardless of which of these or other reasons someone might ascribe to, the dignity of being human demands that people be able to decide for themselves if they will be injected with something. No government has the right to force its population to endure a vaccination. Many of our leaders need reminding of this, though.

As such, there’s a petition making the rounds: No to mandatory vaccination for the coronavirus.

I highly recommend taking a look at it. If you are so inclined, please sign it, pass it along to friends and family, and even contact your local representatives. Anyone, regardless of where you are, may sign. If you’re in the United States, I highly encourage you to not only sign but to also call your local, state, and even federal representatives to point out that the Constitution does not permit mandatory vaccinations. Even if you’re not in the United States, there’s a very good chance that there is some government official you can call to air grievances about such a horrendous idea for mandate.

I’ll leave you with this for now: please consider signing the petition against mandatory vaccinations. Even if you intend to get vaccinated when it comes out, there’s no reason for the government to force it on anyone. Please consider the consequences of the simple act of not acting in this circumstance. If we fail to protect our individual liberties at this stage, what next? This is a literal invasion of the body, the piece of creation that God gifted to each of us as individuals. If we can’t stop the government from stabbing us with needles containing synthetic chemicals (the testing of which has been accelerated and cut short due to the pressing requests for it post-haste), how can we claim that there is anything that the government can’t take from us?

Again, here’s the petition – and please share it with family, friends, neighbors, colleagues, and anyone and everyone else:
https://bit.ly/2TrRaxs

Let’s stop this assault on individual civil liberties.