Don't Be Silent

Keep silent, and Satan wins. 

It still has a way of creeping into the crevices of your soul. Desensitivity happens when we hear something so often that it becomes white noise. I risk this effect in order to allow the phrase to resonate and reverberate in the depths of our being. We need to raise our voice.

Keep silent and Satan wins.

We have a tendency to remain silent when it comes to elections and voting. Many in my generation choose not to vote. I have recently heard to younger men mention that they didn't believe that their vote actually counted, so they couldn't see the point in wasting their time with it. One man his late 20s and the other is early 30s. Others speak about worldly reasons and goals for voting. Reasons such as "the economy" (wealth), "military" (security), or "healthcare".

What concerns me as a pastor is when I see God's people becoming more vocal about these issues and not the impact of our faith upon our conscience in the voting booth. Is a good and growing economy a benefit to our faith? Absolutely! Martin Luther understood that the best way to care for the poor and for widows was to have a strong and stable economy. Is the ability to protect citizens a great priority of the government? You better believe it. Should we desire to have the ability and opportunity to seek out medical care that will best utilize the advances God has granted us in the field of medicine to assist us in living healthier lives so that we can reach more people for a longer period of time? YES!

Keep silent and Satan wins.

However, none of these are biblically guaranteed rights. None of these are given to us in Scripture as the basis for which we should live our lives. And I know that all of my conservative, Republican friends will break out the lynch mob on me when they read this, but the 2nd Amendment is NOT a faith issue or a guarantee of the Bible. Don't get me wrong. I love the second amendment. I think that guns are a proper defense of your person and property, if you use them correctly. But, it's not in the Bible.

So, how do we curb the tide? What do we do to make sure that we are using our walk with Christ to impact our culture through the voting process? Here are a few thoughts:

VOTE! It is hard to enact a change in culture if you do not participate. This is actually common sense. If you are a Christian, you have a responsibility to God, your family, and your country to vote. You have a privilege that grants you permission to allow your faith to influence your decision.

Let your faith impact your vote. We are not a theocracy, so this is not an issue of God's law being the law of the land. Further, contrary to the belief of those who oppose our faith, this is not imposing your beliefs on anyone. It is allowing your relationship with Christ Jesus direct your path as you seek to honor Him in the process before you.

Vote issues, not parties. I know that the Georgia midterm elections on November 6 do not require you to affiliate with one party or another. This means that you have the responsibility to look at individuals who are running for individual offices and not the “party platform”. Just because you are registered Democrat does not mean that this particular democratic candidate is the best person for the office. Even if you are a committed Republican does not mean that a specific republican candidate will do the necessary job to ensure the rights of all who are under their position. Parties do not make policy or effect change. Individuals do. We must vote accordingly.

Keep silent and Satan wins.

I am not (in this post) going to tell you who to vote for, but I will tell you how to vote. That is for issues that our faith directly addresses. For example:

·         Life: Understand what the Bible actually teaches about life. When it starts, when it ends, and how God designed each of us. A candidate that will not stand up for life will ultimately leave yours in the balance. A candidate that will not defend the defenseless (unborn, elderly, terminal), will hold each life as only the value it presents in that moment. Please do NOT make the mistake of believing that anyone who does not protect your life before you are born will protect it after you are born. The issue of life is not subjective. We do not get to choose who gets to live and when to terminate another life, whether born or unborn. Further, do not make the mistake of accepting pro-life as only applicable to the unborn baby. We must see pro-life commitments through childhood and adolescence for these children who are born.

·         Family: This is marriage and then some. Yes, I stand against same sex marriage and yes I stand against adultery, fornication, pornography, pedophilia, and the like. This is not a polemic against homosexuals as the ultimate disaster of our society. The bible teaches very bluntly that all sex outside of the committed relationship of A husband and A wife is sin. The issue we are voting on is the issue of the family. It starts with marriage, the basic and most intimate relationship humans can embrace physically. Ephesians 5 teaches that the husband/wife paradigm is a picture of Christ and His church. But family issues are not merely what the SCOTUS ruled in June of 2015. A vote for family issues embraces single-parent families regardless of how the parent became (or remained) single. A vote for family issues is a direct statement that the family is the core of our society, so whether rich or poor, educated or uneducated, urban or rural, east coast or west coast, we vote for a candidate that is going to support the family model in our society. Further, a vote for family embraces the well-being of every family: the poor and needy, the ones who cannot afford healthcare, those that did not get the education or opportunity that you and I may have, etc.

·         Minority Rights: Schools were integrated in the 1960s and we have had our first black President. That makes us all equal, right? If you believe that, you have bought a racially divided lie. I get it that in white culture we have a proclivity to the "Leave it to Beaver" or "Andy Griffith" good ole days. Our kids weren't having sex, drinking, doing drugs, staying up past 9, etc. It was such a moral time that we just want to run back to the 50s. Ask any person of color if they want to go back to the civil unrest that swept through black communities all across our nation in those days. Ask if they want to be treated as "different". Now ask that same person if they get odd looks if they wear a hoodie into Belk or the bank and loiter too long. Our constitution grants that we ALL are endowed with rights by our Creator, not by man and not by government. By God! Those rights are not shaded by ethnic bigotry. Those rights do not face limits because you have a little more melanin in your skin than I do. To my knowledge, there is no political party that is batting 1.000 on this issue. There have been very skewed reports from past Democratic tenures, so even the socially focused are not exactly in the zone. Look carefully at each candidate, not the stances of their party. Are they speaking about equality, education, opportunity, intervention, and other social issues directly? Or are they tossing out the same political platitudes that have brought on stereotypes of the right or the left but not led to any real results? Remember, parties do not effect change, individuals do.

·         Religious Freedom: The reason we have a First Amendment is because it is biblically warranted. Virginia Baptist pastor John Leland argued vehemently for the 1st Amendment in the 1780s because he understood that EVERY person had the God-given right to choose to believe something or to choose to not believe something. A government (or President) that vows to ban adherents to one religion can (and eventually will) ban your religion or at least limit the ways you freely practice your religion. Jesus never forced Himself on anyone. As a matter of fact, Jesus strongly held to this view of our ability to choose between faith or no faith on two GREAT occasions. The first is in Matthew 22:21 where He tells those that would trick Him to give Caesar what is his and God what is His. That which is God's is what bears His image, which is us. But we choose. The second is John 6. For everyone that thinks Jesus would be the greatest pastor ever, read this chapter. He preaches and the crowd leaves Him. He doesn't fence them in and say, "I am Jesus, you can't leave Me!" Instead, He turns to His disciples and gives them the same choice by asking, "Do you guys want to leave as well?" The point is this: A Christian has the biblical obligation to their family, church, and unbelieving friends to support a candidate that will uphold our God-given ability to have faith or choose no faith at all.

Please keep in mind with all of this that choosing not to vote is choosing silence. As a follower of Christ, you cannot remain silent. Keep silent and Satan Wins.

Whether you are a Georgia Republican or Democrat, vote! Make your voice heard for the sake of the Gospel. Get out Tuesday, November 6 and cast your vote, Republicans! Get out Tuesday, November 6 and cast your vote, Democrats! Get out Tuesday, November 6 and cast your vote, Libertarians! Get out Tuesday, November 6 and cast your vote, those of you are non-affiliated!  WE CANNOT BE SILENT!

Maybe you are sick or will be traveling that day. Absentee voting is EASY! You can cast an absentee ballot until Friday, Nov. 2, 2018 OR have your mail-in ballot postmarked by that date. Do you need more information? Here you go: https://www.mvp.sos.ga.gov/MVP/mvp.do

We cannot be silent. If you follow Jesus, you must vote biblically.

Keep silent and Satan wins.