We are now in the final days of preparation for Election Day. Of course, anyone not aware of this has probably had his or her head in a bucket for the last three months.

The ads began long ago, folks have been “stopping by for a chat,” and both presidential candidates have managed to leave messages on my answering machine. After hearing the debates, the attack ads and the final arguments, we will step behind a curtain and take into our own hands the power to decide.

There is no shortage of folks who would love to tell us how our faith and our ballot are connected. Courting religious voters, both conservative and liberal, has become one more tool in the hand of career political advisers. In trying to win the hearts and minds of those who profess a religious faith, ads and direct mail will often refer to one’s “God-given duty” to elect a certain individual or to support or defeat a certain referendum.

Perhaps there is a great temptation to allow others to decide for us, to tell us how God would vote on Nov. 2. When the issues are thorny, the times are frightening or the answers obscure, what comfort there can be in a simple answer. But neither citizenship nor a life of faith is bound to be comfortable all of the time, and I expect neither is for most of my neighbors this year.

With the nation at war, deficits soaring and social issues such as gay marriage and stem-cell research yet to be resolved by our society, Americans are people in search of answers.

United Methodists use a “matrix” for decision-making commonly called the “Wesleyan Quadrilateral” (after John Wesley, the founder of our church). It urges the faithful to seek answers in Scripture, experience, reason and tradition. Scripture obviously holds a pre-eminent place for all “people of the book,” but finding simple answers to bear baiting or tax caps in the Bible can be a bit vexing.

Nonetheless, perhaps the answers are in there if we combine the study of our sacred texts with an awareness of what faithful communities have taught over time (tradition), our individual and corporate experience of God, while utilizing our God-given reason to arrive at an answer that we think honors God’s desires for the human family.

Resist the simple path of allowing another to decide the election’s outcome for you, either because you neglect to vote or vote without discernment just as your pastor, priest, rabbi, spouse, parent, etc., tells you. Bring to the election the values and principles of your deepest self, and the vote you cast will indeed be the right one.

A friend recently passed along these fundamental principles for voters suggested by the National Council of Churches (“Christian Principles in an Election Year”). You may or may not agree with them, but perhaps they will prompt you to articulate your own “core values” by which you cast your vote next month:

1. War is contrary to the will of God.

2. God calls us to live in communities shaped by peace and cooperation.

3. God created us for each other, and thus our security depends on the well-being of our global neighbors.

4. God calls us to be advocates for those who are most vulnerable in our society.

5. Each human being is created in the image of God and is of infinite worth.

6. The earth belongs to God and is intrinsically good.

7. Christians have a biblical mandate to welcome strangers.

8. Those who follow Christ are called to heal the sick.

9. Because of the transforming power of God’s grace, all humans are called to be in right relationship with each other.

10. Providing enriched learning environments for all of God’s children is a moral imperative.

National Council of Churches, www.ncccusa.org.

God be with you as you struggle with what is “right” in these important days.

The Rev. Thomas L. Blackstone, Ph.D., is a United Methodist pastor in Presque Isle and a brother in the Order of St. Luke. He may be reached at tlbphd@yahoo.com.