Election Day

I'm on pins and needles of course. Have a good feeling about the day but polls all still say it's razor close. No line at my polling place at lunch time.

I love election day! I love the civic feeling of it.
 
As for ballot question #6: I've editorialized, I've blogged, I've testified before the House of Delegates, I've lobbied, I've gathered petition signatures, I've arranged two voter education workshops and spoken at a third, I've volunteered and recruited volunteers, I've donated to the advertising, I've nagged, I've annoyed my Progressive facebook friends, I've prayed, I've fasted, I've voted and now I'm off to work the polls until they close.

So for the record, if marriage is defeated in Maryland,  it's YOUR fault.

Just kidding. Whatever happens, it's been a fruitful campaign. Some much needed intellectual space has been created in two areas, and there's been spiritual fruit in a third.

1) Paul Ryan  & the JP II-era bishops on the one hand, and the HHS mandate on the other, have opened some space for honest discussion of how best to meet our moral obligations to the poor. For the past 30 years that's been a conversation Catholics couldn't have because as soon as you raised a question the Social Justice bullies shouted you down.  Now everyone serious in the Church is re-thinking the relationship between  Church and federal programs.

2) The President's radicalism, particularly against marriage, has opened some space for blacks to distance themselves from the Democratic party. Not suggesting we'll see much of that this cycle, but it will bear fruit down the road. (I wish you could have met all the black Republicans at our poll -worker training for marriage volunteers last night; you'd have hope! Not that I think the GOP is so great -- it isn't, esp in Maryland. But the real hope for race relations lies in freedom to think for ourselves rather than voting by racial block, so the expansion of the freedom to be a minority who isn't a Democrat is a move towards genuine solidarity.)

3) Christian unity. Nothing fuels the ecumenical movement like the social questions. The friendship and trust and mutual prayer together among all the Christian churches --and also Orthodox Jews and Muslim groups-- will not disappear tomorrow, no matter what happens at the polls.