Week Five: The Revolutionary Age

This past week's group was a good one. Great to have a couple new people. Regrettable to miss a few regulars.

We looked at the impact of the Reformation on the foundations of several governments, the revolutions in Great Britain, France, the U.S. and Russia, and the church's involvement or lack of involvement in the abolitionist movement. I don't know about anyone else, but this was a departure from what I learned in school. Very eye-opening.

As we looked at the different forms of government, the discussion segued into our upcoming election on November 7th. As I said from my brief soapbox, please don't cast an uneducated vote this election. It's our responsibility as citizen Christians to be active in the political sphere, at least to the extent that we can. Because a couple of people asked about resources for getting educated, I've started a list. This is very basic, but once you know who the candidates are (Blagojevich vs. Topinka, for instance) you can do a little research on where they stand on issues of importance. If others have good links, please drop me a comment.

• www.culturecampaign.com - Check out the MyBallot feature on here. You enter your address and it shows you who the candidates are you'll be choosing between. Then, you can pick two of the candidates in each race and compare them on a number of issues. I don't know too much about this group, but it's done well and is an effort by Christians to impact their culture. Always a good thing.
• www.voterinfonet.com - This is a Cook County site. You should be able to see a sample ballot and find your polling place, though I didn't have any luck seeing the ballot. It does list the candidates running in various areas and, if the candidates have chosen, includes a brief quote on what they stand for. This is also a list of referendums (referenda?) that you may be voting on. These are often non-binding but may lay the groundwork for real legislation. Pay attention to them.
• www.chicagoelections.com - If you live in Chicago, this will show you if you're registered and will give you your ward, district, etc. This will help you figure out who's running against whom. Some redundancy between this one and the County one.
• www.ontheissues.org - This is a good place for finding info on incumbents. There's a ton of info here, but you have to dig through a little. One item of interest not directly related to the election is the PoliticsMatch Quiz. This is a brief quiz that gives you an idea of where you fall on their Grid of liberal vs. conservative on one axis and populist vs. libertarian on the other.

Beyond this, you can look at groups that are interested in issues of importance to you. Many publish voter guides and can give you insight into candidates' voting records or media statements.