Checklist for Voting

Now that we know who the presidential candidates are (my apologies for those who are waiting to find out the vp candidates to really throw themselves into the election process), we can begin to fix our eyes on the big election in November.  So, in order to make everyone’s task in the voting booth (actually, it’s more like a voting plastic stand), I’ve produced a “Voting Checklist” for Christians for your consideration. 

Before You Vote
1.  Pray for wisdom (James 1:5)
2.  Remember what is important to God.  Things like care for the less fortunate (James 1:27; Acts 6:1-6), keeping peace and order (1 Peter 2:14; Romans 13:3-5), and justice for everyone (Isaiah 5:22; 10:1-2) are big deals to God.
3.  Keep in mind what you’re really there to do.  Our goal as Christian voters is not to produce a “Holy” state that fuses church and state together.  It is interesting that so many Evangelicals really do want this when that is the very thing that the Catholic church started out as.  The New Testament makes it very clear that the church and state are not the same entity and do not have the same goals.  In fact, the NT seems to think that the church actually thrives in a hostile environment rather than having a favored status.

As You Vote
1.  Pray for Guidance (Ephesians 6:17-18.)
2.  Remember that voting for a particular candidate does not mean that you endorse everything that candidate believes or blabs on about.  This concern really causes a lot of people to lose sleep.  They think, “I really like this person, but there is this one issue I disagree on.”  So, they end up voting for some they know nothing about or don’t vote at all.
3.  Make several choices.  Do you choose character over competence?  Do you choose single issue over multiple issues?  Does your voting strategy work in other areas of your life?  When you pick a doctor or attorney, do you choose character over competence?  Ideally, we wouldn’t have to make a choice in this area, but we usually do.

After You Vote
1.  Pray for those elected (1 Timothy 2:1-2.)  Even if you didn’t vote for them or despise them, it is your Christian responsibility to pray for them.
2.  Be subject to the governing authorities (Romans 13:1-7; 1 Peter 2:13-17.)  Just like #1.
3.  Live consistently with your voting strategy (James 1:22-25.)  If you vote for someone because you like their stand on the definition of marriage, then you better honor God with your marriage.  I find it incredibly ironic that Christians are all up in arms about who should not be married, but the divorce rate among Christians is the same as non-Christians.  Maybe the rest of the world would listen to us a little more if we actually lived out our beliefs rather that just scream about them.

So there you go.  I hope this spurs you on to consider how to biblically exercise your priviledge to have a say so in selecting our political rulers (something that the biblical writers knew absolutely nothing about.)