Yesterday's election seems to be all anyone could talk about for weeks, months almost a year heading into it. With all of the campaigning going on it was hard to focus on anything else. Many people base their vote on their spiritual or religious preferences and who they feel is the morally "right" candidate.
My mom told I wasn't allowed to vote if I was voting for Obama. My friend's mom refused to take her to turn in her absentee ballot so she had to get her dad to take her - when she came back her mom told her she was going to confession. I think these are humourous instances and I don't think either of our parents were for real serious; just trying to "lead" or "guide" us in the right direction as parents tend to do.
I was surprised my dad didn't use the religious or spiritual argument to try to sway my vote as the rest of my family did.
After these instances, I started thinking about how much people use their spiritual and/or religious beliefs to help them make decisions - from small everyday decisions to bigger once in a lifetime decisions. It seems to me that older adults may have fewer decisions, but they seem to be of greater magnitude. It is in this sense, I think, that older adults rely much more on their spirituality and/or religious beliefs to be their compass, their guiding force.
5 comments:
I also think it is interesting how older adults rely on their religious beliefs to make much of their life decisions. I am not a religious person- spiritual yes, but not religious- and I find it interesting that people put so much personal importance on the beliefs of others. What I mean by that is organized religion, or beliefs systems that someone else came up with. I am not knocking on anyone's beliefs or religion, but I feel like you are selling yourself short by ascribing to someone else's beliefs without first delving into and discovering your own spiritual feelings. Aside from that, it bothers me when people place so much religious emphasis on politics because these things are meant to be seperate in our nation. but, those are just my opinions. Your family anecdotes are amusing to me.
When I read your post, the first thing that came to mind was how often you hear people saying they have to pray about a decision before they make it. Whether prayer actually has an effect on the outcome of the decision, or whether it just serves to make the person feel better, it is a positive factor. It's the person's perception of success that matters - if they believe it helped them, then it probably did.
Your right people might rely more on their religious attitudes inmaking decisions. Maybe its the way they were raised in their time. A lot of older people really rely on their religion to guide them in life's decisions.
Older people do appear to make decisions based on their spiritual and religious backgrounds. I believe it is the way they were taught/raised. People upbringings have a lot to do with they way they perceive things and how they make decisions. Sometimes a tradition or pattern is hard to break.
I know and fully admit that I rely on God, our father, to help guide me when making decisions. I am a Christian and will be the first to say that I could not make it day to day without the grace of God. God helps me get through every challenge in my life and without him and his guidance, I cannot imagine where my life would be right now. There was a time in my life when I was not saved and the decisions I made reflected that. Through my unyielding faith and love for God and the sacrifice he made by sending his perfect son, Jesus Christ, to die for my sins, I live with a sense of love and fulfillment that I pray everyone gets to feel in their lifetime. Therefore, when making a decision, espicially who will rule our country for the next four years, my decision is 100% morally motivated.
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