Dr. Jack - Voting

Dr. Jack’s Christian Responsibility to Vote

I’m thankful beyond measure to be an American. I’m thankful for the fact that we have the freedom to elect our leaders. I’m even thankful for political ads because they are evidence of the freedoms we share. However, I’m saddened to see the state of our country from a moral perspective, and it leaves me thinking many of the very same thoughts I’ve heard from countless others. Thoughts such as:

• I feel like it’s a choice between the lesser of two evils
• I don’t really feel we have an option that will be pleasing to God

For we, as Christians, the 2024 elections are undoubtedly more meaningful and controversial than at any other time most of us have been voting. Never before in recent history has our country been so divided and angry towards one another. So what should our path be?

Look into the Word

The first thing to realize is that Solomon was right when he penned the words: “There is nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9).” What we are facing in America is nothing other societies haven’t faced before.

We don’t have to agree with our leadership, but we have to pray for them and obey them as long as obeying our government doesn’t cause us to disobey God.

We don’t have to like paying taxes, but we have to pay what we owe because God says so.

Pray

Pray for your heart to be at peace with the votes you cast. Pray for our country to have a desire to turn back to God. Pray for our leadership to seek God’s will. Pray that we will turn from our wickedness and God will heal our land (2^nd Chronicles 7:14).

Our Suggested Path:

There should be no question that Christians want to do good for the people and the nation we are part of.

So we bless our communities with gospel words and good deeds. That’s the implication of 1 Peter 2:9–17. Christians do not want to be part of life-ruining problems in society. We want to be a part of life-bettering solutions in society. We don’t want police to be unjust or unhelpful. we just want them to protect us. We don’t want leaders to be corrupt, but to have integrity. We don’t want the infrastructures of water, and sewer, and electricity, and natural gas, and roads, and bridges, and streetlights, and fuel supplies, and flood control, and building codes, and 911, and fire stations — we don’t want any of these to fail. We are willing to pay for them and do our part to keep things functioning for good, the common good of as many as possible.

We want to be a part of helping with the problems of homelessness, and poverty, and drug addiction, and mental illness, and criminal behavior, and domestic violence. We want there to be safe neighborhoods, and good schools, and affordable housing, and ample jobs, and stable economic conditions. This is why Peter, two times in this short text, said that we are to be busy doing good deeds so as (1) to silence those who say Christianity is bad for the world, and (2) to make God look glorious We’re not sitting buried away in our little caves, indifferent to the suffering and the needs of our society.

Voting is one form of doing good. It is one kind of good deed. We hope by voting for worthy, competent, wise candidates that the common good will come to more people.

As Christians, I believe we have a moral duty to vote for what we believe will help our society improve and be closer to God. We have an obligation to be God’s instrument to bring healing to a broken land. We have an obligation to exercise our freedoms and rights and to make our voice heard.

May God bless the United States of America, in the name of Jesus, our Savior.

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