The new issue of Critique magazine arrived yesterday. This is a publication I highly recommend. Its tagline is "Helping Christians Develop Skill in Discernment." Published nine times per year, it is free, although they hope for a donation. Archived copies are available online in downloadable pdf format; a number of articles and discussion guides are also available online.

This issue contains an article on voting, "Can We Vote Christianly?". Very thought provoking. It doesn't offer a checklist to guide you down the path to one specific candidate, but rather it offers some questions that hope to make the potential voter take some account of the degree of thought that goes into his or her voting decisions. Here are several questions from the list of twelve:

"How do you tend to choose which candidate to vote for? How certain are you that your approach represents Christian faithfulness? If you do not vote, why don't you?"

"To what extent does Christian faithfulness imply that believers will vote for the same candidates? Can equally discerning and godly Christians cast opposite votes? Why or why not?"

"How do you educate yourself politically? Is it sufficient for faithfulness? What books have you read which explore political citizenship from the perspective of Christian faith? What news and political commentary do you expose yourself to: that with which you already agree, or thoughtful presentations of opposing positions? Why?"

I wish this article was online so I could refer you to the rest of the list of questions, but these three are good questions in and of themselves. I'm challenged by them, certainly.

Critique also includes movie and book reviews, along with discussion questions. In the current issue is a review and discussion guide for the movie Garden State. This is online and can be found at http://www.ransomfellowship.org/M_GardenState.html.