A very interesting thread is going on on the Touchstone blog-site concerning this article from Beliefnet.com and now on the OCA Web-site, entitled “How Should Orthodox Christians Vote?” Since the author, Dr. Peter C. Bouteneff, teaches dogmatic theology at St. Vladmir’s Seminary, I have no doubt of his level of erudition, but like James from Touchstone, I find myself frustrated with the article. Dr. Bouteneff gives no definitive answer to his own question, and seems to want to conclude at the end that a good Orthodox Christian really can’t answer it either (at the same time saying that Orthodox should vote). Worse, one gets the idea that the inability to choose stems not so much from their differences as from an idea that being detached from the world prohibits us from getting too involved.

With (I hope) the requisite amount of respect due for Dr. Bouteneff, I think that this tendency amongst us doesn’t serve us well.

If we have concluded, as he has, that we should vote, it seems ludicrous to ignore generations of liberal heterodoxy in order to appear pious and non-judgmental.

Here is a response from Dr. Jonathon Chaves of The George Washington University:

My take would be this: This essay is yet another example of the false “angelism” that afflicts so many of our contemporary intellectuals: “you can’t pin me down, I’m above the polarities of the moment.” But there is no “above;” at this point in history, the ideas that activate conservatives, certainly the traditionalist conservatives, are grounded ultimately in the great Christian heritage; contemporary liberalism is equally grounded in the Enlightenment and its essentially anti-Christian conception of human nature. A believing Christian today will have a very tough time accommodating to the current liberal doctrines, and will find that to do so will eventually necessitate relinquishing one Christian teaching after another.

And all I can say is that I wish I’d said that.

In the next four years, we will try to establish a democracy in Iraq, and we may have to face down Muslim terrorism once and for all or fail once and for all. We will probably see replacements in our Supreme Court, and we will undoubtedly have to face a flurry of attacks to our Christian beliefs in courts, schools and government. Can we really afford to strike a pose of vacillating sanctimony by refusing to vote? Or choose a party of abortion, moral relativism and socialism because they’re “not so different” from the other?