It's Time To Vote

It's time to vote. As a citizen, it is your duty, privilege, and right. You hold it in your hands; you are responsible for it. It is also a tool that you must use to shape our nation. That is how it has always been used.

When the Founders were forming the U.S. Constitution, they voted. These votes came after long, deliberate, and sometimes heated conversations. They wrestled with great ideas and thorny problems. And then they voted.

They agreed with the passage in Jeremiah 17:9 that states, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" So they decided not to put too much power into any one person's hands. Then they voted on Separation of Powers.

They saw the government envisioned in Isaiah 33:22, "For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; it is he who will save us." With that vision, they separated the powers into the Judicial, Legislative, and Executive branches of government. Their votes created the first three articles of the Constitution.

The Founders agreed with the wisdom revealed in Exodus 18:21: "But select capable men from all the people — men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain — and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens." So they decided to create a republic, where we select leaders who then represent us and are constrained by the law and the Constitution. And they voted to affirm Article 4, Section 4 of the Constitution.

They understood the command of God in Leviticus 19:33-34 - "When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the Lord  your God." In obedience, they agreed to an orderly accommodation of foreigners in this new country, Rules of Naturalization. Then they voted and approved Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution.

They agreed with the warning found in Deuteronomy 17:15 - "Be sure to appoint over you the king the Lord your God chooses. He must be from among your own brothers. Do not place a foreigner over you." In light of this they decided that the President should not be a foreigner. Then they established Article 2, Section 1 by a vote.

Over and over, the Founders used the truths they found in scripture to inform their deliberations and their votes. They weren't perfect. Sometimes they got it wrong. In 1784 Thomas Jefferson introduced a bill in the Continental Congress that would have banned slavery in the entire United States. It was strongly supported by George Washington, Benjamin Rush and many of the other Founders. Unfortunately, it failed to pass by only one vote. The nation became misshaped.

For nearly 200 years this nation would struggle with an issue that led to things like the Civil War, the Birmingham Church Bombing, and the Watts Riots in L.A. Each of these scars might have been avoided if there was just one more vote in 1784. A vote that was informed by the truths we find in scripture. A vote that would have helped shape our nation for the better.

Now it is your turn. How will you use your vote? You hold it in your hands; you are responsible for it. It is a tool that you must use to shape our nation.

Some day you will have to answer for how you used your vote . . . even if you choose not to use it. It's your choice. Choose well.

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There's a Higher Moral Law

I am writing in response to the Cokie and Steven V. Roberts, Newspaper Enterprise Assn., article “The ‘agents of intolerance’ return” published in The Courier-Times on Wednesday, October 17, 2008.
What role should faith play in American politics? How compatible is orthodox religion with the practical functioning of democracy?
That was a great way to start an article. Unfortunately, what followed is proof that the Roberts’ totally misunderstand people with a conservative Christian world view.
Texas preacher Rick Scarborough had it exactly right; it’s not about winning elections. For the conservative Christian it is exclusively about honoring Christ and the authority of God’s word.
Politics is about compromise and there are many areas where we can reason together and reach compromises. Should we pave or gravel-top this road? Should we spend 5 million or 10 million on cancer research? Should we mandate full-day Kindergarten and allow school vouchers for private schools? In all of these areas compromises can be reached that benefit the community while not violating a moral law. However, following the Judeo-Christian God with integrity has nothing to do with compromise when it comes to moral law, or what conservative Christians would call “clear biblical truth.”
Ask Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from the Hebrew Scriptures who said, “We will not bow!” Translation: we will not compromise about this. Daniel even accommodated the king who kidnapped him along with other promising young leaders like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego by serving as a royal advisor, and eventually as the king’s most loved and trusted advisor. But when it came to things as simple as his personal prayer life or diet, Daniel drew a line in the Babylonian sand and said, “I will not disobey God. There are some things that I just will not do.”
In the New Testament the Apostle Paul wrote in his second letter to the Corinthian church, “What do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?” And the Apostle John wrote that “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.
Following God is about purity in thought and deed. In our own power, we cannot attain absolute purity, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t strive for it. Just because compromise is easy and/or acceptable in the political realm doesn’t mean we should lay aside strongly held beliefs simply to gain a political victory. Even our own poets like Frost say we will be rewarded if we “take the road less traveled.”
Sean Hannity is right when he says that if conservative Christians abstain from the political process, “the result will be far worse for the cause that I know [James Dobson] passionately and deeply” believes in, and the nation will live with the consequences. But God forbid if we sell our souls for a short lived, hollow, political victory.
Religion as the dominant credo or a blueprint for public policy may or may not be a source of discord. But religion as the blueprint for a well lived life is essential. Voting for someone who doesn’t value life enough to protect it, is a violation of a biblically informed personal blueprint, and red flag indicating a life that is being lived without moral integrity. In 2007, no one in their right mind would vote for someone advocating slavery. But that was not the case 140 years ago.
In the pre- and post-Civil War years, politicians were having a very similar discussion as the one we find ourselves in today. But they were not discussing the right-to-life or the sanctity of marriage, they were discussing the right to buy, own, and sell other people. Slavery isn’t wrong because we all decided it was wrong. And slavery wouldn’t have been right if the Confederate States had won the war. Slavery is wrong because a higher moral law says it is wrong. Killing pre-born babies, and destroying the definition and structure of marriage, is wrong because that same moral law declares it is wrong.
The congressional votes cited by Senator John Danforth (R-MO) regarding stem-cell research and Terri Schiavo can be seen clearly in the light of this higher moral law. Polls, political practice, Senators, and opinion writers cannot change that law.
Many times we enter the voting booth, hold our noses, and pick the candidate we can tolerate the best, not the one we like the most. However, there may come a time when people of faith cannot, in good conscience, vote for any of the candidates presented by the political machine. Abstaining at the ballot box is not the equivalent of political ignorance or of moral intolerance. Sometimes choosing not to vote is the only choice you can make and still sleep well at night. Conservative Christians who refuse to make “compromises” on moral issues may or may not understand the American system. But a nation that refuses to acknowledge a higher moral law, as well as the Giver of that moral law, does so at its own peril, and a Christian who does so will certainly have a higher authority to answer to.