At election, remember Christ’s warning against guises

How fitting that Halloween and Election Day are only one week apart. The parallels can be unsettling.

Don’t get me started on the greed shown by some trick-or-treaters, and some politicians or political initiatives. For today, I’m thinking about the guises worn on both occasions.

A “guise” is some kind of outward appearance usually meant to partly or fully conceal the true identity or character of a person or a concept.

The guises of trick-or-treaters are often ways for the kids to try on fantasy identities to test both who they are and who they aren’t – harmless, “let’s-pretend” times.

Guises are not always so harmless when adults use them to pretend they represent something they really don’t. This tendency is particularly evident during an election campaign season

Halloween is next Tuesday. On Wednesday, those guises will be tossed in a closet or corner. Then it will be time to look beyond the political guises so we can vote responsibly on Election Day.

It is often very difficult to determine if politicians or political initiatives are really what they claim to be. How do we know if what we see is true?

Jesus showed this complexity in a much simpler way. In Matthew 7:15, he warns of false prophets who are really wolves in the guise of sheep. Judge them by what they do, he said, not by what they look like.

Earlier, in Matthew 7:9, he speaks of being as honest and direct in your relationship with God as you are with your own child. If your child asks for bread, do you give him a stone, or you offer a snake when he asks for a fish? As bad as you are, Jesus says, “you know how to give good things to your children.”

How much more will God – who loves you more unconditionally than you could ever love your child – offer you if you honestly, directly ask.

This part of the Sermon on the Mount shows both a radically hospitable God and a street-wise Jesus who wanted his followers to be alert to the guises of people who pretend to be who they aren’t. His warning works for us also.

Not all false prophets are outwardly religious. Some false prophets are outwardly political. Some are even religious and political at the same time.

Their desire for power and control may come in pretty wrappings and attractive proposals. But their drive for personal power is far greater than their passion to serve others. Don’t be fooled by people like these.

Pay close attention during the week before Election Day. Wherever we live, we’re exposed to political campaigning that has cluttered newspapers, mailboxes, television, yards and roadsides. We hear promises of what “I will do” and attacks on what “he will do”.

It isn’t easy being part of the body politic. We get a lot of body-blows. It is sometimes hard to know when a politician is absolutely sincere in his/her desire to truly serve your constituency, and when the campaign words hide a less honorable agenda.

I was in political offices in Sandpoint for six years. I saw both honorable politicians and those with less honorable intentions at many levels of involvement.

Most of those with whom I served and who I observe today are honorable people who wish to do their very best for their communities. I will continue to vote for them without hesitation because they will work hard to honorably represent us. I’m sure you will seek to do the same.

Many of us have state propositions or initiatives that need to be examined closely before Election Day. Don’t just read the voters’ pamphlet you get in your mailbox. It only reflects the guise (outward appearance) of an initiative.

Take time to look behind and beneath those words to see how the initiative will actually impact you. Which vote will bring more justice to our society? Which will increase a current imbalance of economic, social and moral reality in your state or community?

If you can’t understand the initiative on your own, go to someone you trust and ask for clarification.

Be informed about who and what is on the ballot. When you are informed, the winners are less likely to be wolves disguised as sheep, and the bread you voted for will not be a “bait-and-switch” for a stone.

And our states and communities will all be a step closer to being what we say we know they can become.