There have been a lot of days lately when I have sincerely wished that we could just reschedule the election for tomorrow purely so that I could stop hearing about it. New Mexico is a swing state when it comes to presidential elections, and in 2004, we got so many political messages on our answering machine that (true story) I actually missed an offer of a freelance job because we skipped it as we flipped through the more than 25 pre-recorded candidate messages that piled up during a brief trip out of town. Just a heads-up to those of you who have yet to survive a presidential election out here. I, for one, plan to change our phone number sometime around October 1.

There are plenty of things that make me weary when it comes to our political process, and I don't often vent about them publicly, because I'm not a very political person and they're just the usual stuff that annoys everyone. The lying. The posturing. The simplifying of complex ideas into sound bites. But far and away the thing that has come to offend me the most is seeing certain self-proclaimed leaders of the Christian evangelical community turn themselves into political pundits during an election cycle.

I bring this up because it came to my attention this evening that Dr. James Dobson is preparing to weigh in with his assessment of who Christians should vote for this year.

I don't know about you, but this is an enormous weight off my mind. I have been having a really hard time considering the merits and claims of both presumptive candidates and applying a critical thought process to my vote. But now, apparently, I can rest easy and say "Oh! Dr. Dobson might endorse him? Well in that case, my decision is made!"

I'm not saying that Dobson and Pat Robertson and whoever else is supposedly speaking for the Christian community these days don't have a right to their political opinions. But I don't think that the use of their Christian ministry platforms to endorse a political candidate is advancing anything other than A) their own standing as quasi-celebrity Christians and B) a perception among non-Christians that "evangelical" is some kind of third political party. The gospel is supposed to be a sacred thing, not some secondary vehicle to be rented out as ad space for a political message.

So please, Dr. Dobson, focus on the family. Knock yourself out. But put a sock in it when it comes to politics. And I can make time in my schedule to vote this week, if everyone else could just check their calendars and get back to me so that maybe we could bump this thing up a few months. I'm afraid I'm not going to make it to November without blood pressure medication.