Parshall Partners

The Gift of Voting

         Each year, around this time, we watch the leaves change color, set our clocks back and turn the heat on in our homes.  But fall also marks that time of year when every American citizen is given a very precious responsibility.  The question is what will we do with this sacred right?

         Samuel Adams, American statesman and founding father, said of the act of voting:

Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that he is not making a present or a compliment to please an individual – or at least that he ought not so to do; but that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country.

         Adams understood what many Christians fail to remember today – that voting is the responsibility of each citizen of these United States and that the very act of voting comes with solemnity and accountability.Yet, My Faith Votes estimates that 25 million Christians who are registered to vote, typically fail to participate in elections. 

         America fought a revolution to disconnect us from a monarchy. Instead, we created a republic where the power resides in the hands of the people.  In our nation, the power flows from the bottom up – not the top down.  We, the people, determine who sits as our representative in government.  When we choose not to vote, someone else makes that decision for us.

         There are many biblical reasons why we should vote.  Galatians 6:10 tells us that when the opportunity arises, we should do good for all people.  Voting for candidates that support life, who stand for the biblical definition of marriage and who recognize we are a nation of laws, not lawlessness, is good for all the people of our country.

         Luke 12:48 reminds us that to “whom much is given, much is required.” I pass by Arlington Cemetery regularly, reminding me that so many poured out that ‘last full measure of devotion’ to provide and protect the gift of voting in a democracy.  We owe it to them to take responsibility for our governance. 

         We are to put our faith in action (James 2:26) Voting allows us to uphold a standard of righteousness as much as we are able in a fallen world.  People are policy, as we like to say in Washington.  We have the opportunity to send people into government who will either trample underfoot or stand and protect those values and ideals which have guided us for almost 250 years in this country.

         Jeremiah 29:7 tell us to seek the welfare of the city for “in its welfare you will find welfare.” Part of that seeking is putting the right people in office who will further protect our nation.  Sitting out an election does nothing but create a space for a worldview that might further the destruction of the city instead.

         The next time an election season rolls around, spend time in prayer.  Ask God for wisdom.  Then, exercise that right, that responsibility, that privilege of selecting men and women who will steer the course of history for our nation.

         Those are my thoughts.  I’m Janet Parshall.