#Ivoted

So wow. How about that election, huh?

Don’t worry all you election weary people; this post is not going to go into a political recap complete with my personal impressions of party platforms, voter turnout, the Electoral College, etc, etc, etc. In the words of Hank Hill, I think we’ve all had just about enough of that.

No, I’m going to use my space here at Ignitum to ponder an interesting election phenomenon I witnessed this year: The Facebook and Twitter “I Voted” photos.

I’m sure most of you already know what I’m talking about, but in case you somehow missed the several million photos of little red stickers with the words “I Voted” plastered across the social media sites on Tuesday, that’s what this post is about.

I’m sure many of you shared your own mobile pics of yourself in your car or on your way out of your precinct with your red badge of patriotic fulfillment. Some photos were just of stickers on anonymous bodies while others were full body poses of friends pointing at one another’s stickered lapels. Some were of babies sporting the stickers (voter fraud?) and others included pets.

They all made me smile, regardless of the captions, because of the simple point that people still care about voting. It is still an appreciated privilege in our country and many millions of us were proud of that little red (and in some places even red, white, and blue I’ve been informed) sticker on our jackets and we showed it off online.

Among the many dozens of photos I saw these past several days there were two pictures of “I Voted” stickers that really caught my attention as they said much more about the voter than the fact that they had voted. It’s said that a picture is worth a thousand words and these two could certainly have at least that many ascribed to them. I’ll keep my thoughts on them brief, but challenge you to think a little more deeply about what your self-portrait would be if you were to describe your beliefs in the flash of a bulb.

The first picture was one that embodied the false “War on Women” rhetoric we heard so frequently this past campaign season.

It caught me completely off guard when it popped up in my Facebook newsfeed and actually caused me to cringe as an automatic “Ewww!” escaped by lips. I’ll spare you the searing image scalded into your brain and not share it here, but basically it was a picture of this woman’s lacey underwear with an “I Voted” sticker stuck to her pubic area. The photo showed only her below the waist region. Her pants were unzipped and pulled partially down and her caption proudly exclaimed that she voted with her “girl parts”. You can’t make this stuff up people.

No surprise, she then goes on a short rant about how her body is hers and no one can tell her how to use it or abuse it. She voted, gosh darned it, for women’s rights!

It was so comical it almost seemed like a good work of satire, but sadly it was not. She was 100% serious. Somewhere along her journey she had not only allowed herself to be reduced to her female body parts, but she had also been convinced that by doing this she was somehow liberated. She and millions of other women, sadly, have bought into the worldview that her body is in need of devices and chemicals and surgeries in order for her to have an equal chance at making it in this world. She does not focus on her gifts of intelligence and creativity and demand that the world honor and recognize them. Instead she focuses on a supposed handicap of fertility and insists she can never be recognized as capable until that little problem is taken care of, a.k.a. suppressed and destroyed.

Her “I Voted” sticker reduced this beautiful woman to an image of how she defines herself.  She is faceless, objectified, and thinks with her “girl parts”. How degrading! She is driven by our sex saturated online casino culture to make even our political system an accomplice in this broken worldview of sexuality. She may find empowerment in seeing herself as a sexually liberated woman, but that is not the fullness of who she was created to be. It belittles her other gifts and talents and places all the emphasis on her worth being linked to her sexual appeal. It made me so sad as I wondered how this woman would raise her daughters to view their own worth.

Within hours of seeing this first picture on Facebook, another popped up in my newsfeed that had an entirely different message. This one I can gladly share as it doesn’t scandalize anyone here (or at least it ought not).

This picture is from a friend who is a Catholic priest. His photo captures his sticker, his collar, and part of his face with the bright sunlight shining down on him.

His photographic statement on voting said something about who he is; a citizen and a man of faith. It demanded that we view this man in a holistic way. Yes, he is an American citizen, but he is also a Catholic priest who votes. It forced acknowledgment that people of faith are also the people of the State and that their voices and opinions matter in the political realm as well as within the walls of our churches. He is free to express his beliefs in how he votes and he freely chooses to inform those decision in the light of the Church”s wisdom and love. In short, his picture demanded we not reduce him or limit him.

The two pictures both aimed at expressing deeply held convictions, but one did so by reducing oneself into a fraction of the entire person, while the other embodied the richness of living a fully integrated life. The two pictures proclaimed to the world the guiding principles of these these voters.

What does your self-portrait say about you? What principles guide and inform you? Are you pictured with/defined by your home, your toys, your status? Does your photo capture you working to bring Christ to the world?

Who are you?

Better yet, who were you created to be, and would a casual observer on Facebook know you are for Christ??? #Ihopeso.