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Evangelicals in America are people who believe a person must be born again to know God, and they believe the Bible is very important to life. They read it more consistently than any other segment of the Christians in the U.S. Yet, only about 1/2 of them are registered to vote. Of the one half who are registered, about 1/2 of them do not vote in any given election. Of the one half who do vote, oftentimes only 1/2 of them vote for candidates who stand for Biblical values. Is it any wonder our governments are going downhill in America!!
But here is the most amazing thing about Evangelicals. We make up about 1/3 of the U.S. population. That’s 100 million people. In the last Presidential election, a total of only 130,000,000 voted. Obama beat McCain by 10,000,000 votes. You can easily see how that, if Evangelicals were registered to vote and voted for candidates that stood for Biblical values, they would control the outcome of every election in this nation!
So if we have that much governmental power, why don’t we use it? Let’s consider that.
In my 47 years of ministry I’ve observed several excuses Christians make for not being involved in the political process. Let me briefly list them for you.
Number one, most believers still do not connect the importance of what happens in government with oppression coming to their personal lives. We have been deceived by anti-God education and media into believing that life will go on as usual no matter who is in political office. Yet the Bible plainly states,
“When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.”
(Proverbs 29:2)
But our lack of Biblical discernment prevents us from being able to discern who is a righteous ruler and who isn’t.
Another reason believers are not impacting the political realm is simply fear. Especially many Pastors fit into this category. They are afraid they will offend someone in the church or in the community if they take a bold stand on a political issue. Yet, let’s think this through. You don’t want to offend someone because you’re afraid that will keep them from coming to your church. Consider: if you lose your political liberty, how long do you think you’ll be able to meet in your building? You won’t have a church building—or a church salary—if you lose your political liberty. Ask the persecuted church in lands where a dictator rules how secure their ministry and building are. They’ll tell you real quickly how important political liberty is to the sharing of the Gospel!!
There are other reasons Evangelicals aren’t involved in the political realm, but we’ll have to look at those reasons next week.
We should take a quick lesson from the Christians in Nazi Germany. They were assured that Hitler’s ignoring of their Constitution (sound familiar?) was no threat to their churches and Pastor’s salaries. However, carefully consider the testimony of one German Pastor, Martin Neimoeller, who lived through the Nazi reign of terror. His words warn us. He stated,
“In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up.”
(Niemoeller, Martin. J. Bartlett, Bartlett’s Familiar Quotes (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1855, 1980), p. 824)
So what are you risking if you don’t speak up and vote on political issues?
Think about it; because if you don’t, someone else will do your thinking for you—
and for your children! And you won’t like what that brings to you. I’m Don Pinson this has been Think About It.