As many of you know the political campaigns are heating up. I believe this has been one of the more interesting political seasons in quite some time. Actually what is happening now is much more interesting than what happened two years ago in the presidential campaign. I have always been kind of a political junky. I find it very interesting and like to discuss the political situation. Most of time it is just to offer my opinion, but hey at least I listen to myself Most of the time I do not believe that my local representative really cares what I have to say. I mean after all, I vote, and he is suppose to represent my views, but most of the time I can't figure out what my representative believes. For the most part I want someone to have a spine and vote what is right, not what his political party might want him or her to vote. However, I think those days are far gone as we have become more polarized than ever before.
I do not hide from the fact that I am a conservative in my views. I am not ashamed to say that and I believe that my decision is right. I guess that is why they call me a part of the right wing. My question is what's wrong with being RIGHT! There is a reason it is called the right view.
In regard to the political campaign heating up today, my wife got a call from a person working for a certain candidate. This individual is running for US Representative in our district. I will not mention his party because it really does not matter. My wife stated that she would be voting for the other individual and then the dialogue began as to why. As the conversation developed my wife mentioned that our country will never be on the right track until we decide to put God first again. She stated that she was a Christian and that she wanted someone who was a Christian to represent her.
The interviewer stated that he also was a christian, but he did not know if the candidate he was working for was a christian. To me that statement is revealing. I am not naive enough to think that every candidate and every politician is a christian. However, if he or she is a christian it should not be a secret. Why is is that we think that religion has no place in the public realm. As a matter of fact I recently heard a politician say that "one's faith is a private matter and has no place in the public arena." No wonder this individual represents the party that has a "donkey" as the mascot. NOTE TO READERS: Not an endorsement of one party over the other or even suggesting that one party is christian and the other party is not. I doubt if either one really represents the cause of Christ.
The point of this article is that we should know what we believe, why we believe it and then we should also know what the candidates believe. As followers of Jesus Christ we should vote based upon God's values and not the values of a certain party or even an individual. The candidates may not perfectly line up with everything you believe, but they should at least stand for something you believe. Most of the time though when we pull that lever, we throw out any spiritual advice that God might have because after all our "faith has no place in the public arena." I don't believe that is a biblical teaching. I believe the Bible says "let your light shine before men." It also says that we are the salt of the earth. It states that we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works. I could go on and on, but the point is that what we believe in our hearts we are to demonstrate to the world. Our beliefs will affect our actions and that also means when we pull that lever and vote.
So my simple advice is this "know what the candidate believes and make sure it lines up with God's Word." The hard part is knowing what you believe? Do you know? More importantly do others know what you know?
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