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Perhaps it is a bit
surprising to be seeing stewardship connected with
voting, or to be seeing stewardship connected with
anything other than our annual pledge this time of
year. But, stewardship is our faithful use of
every gift with which God has graced us. Our way
of life, our freedom, and our ability to determine
who leads our government are among those gifts. It
is our Christian responsibility, then, to see to
it that we exercise our stewardship of those
gifts.
The following is
inscribed on the doors of the chamber in the old
Arizona House of Representatives: "As you enter
these doors, contemplate the political philosophy
that influenced many of our country's founders.
People get the government they deserve.” It
continues, "Good moral people concerned about
others get a good moral government that cares
about the people.” And it concludes, “In a
democracy, each of us is responsible for the
quality of our government."
For us to function
as “One Nation Under God,” it is necessary for
godly people to exercise their stewardship of the
decision making of their government. It is an
exercise of our stewardship of all creation, to
prayerfully, yes prayerfully, vote for those
candidates who will most exercise our Christian
values.
For committed
Christians, elections are not a beauty contest.
They are not about Democrat and Republican, blue
state and red state, liberal and conservatives.
Elections are about the soul of our country. We
hear much about the debate regarding the
separation of church and state. That comes from
the First Amendment to the Constitution of the
United States of America that says “Congress
shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise
thereof;…” While it is argued by some that no
level of government can in any way promote
religion, faithful people retain the right and
responsibility to influence the functioning of
government.
Through the 1990s,
the United States had among the lowest voter
turnouts in the world. We averaged 44.9 percent,
placing us 140th for voter turnout in the world.
Our friends in Britain averaged 72.4 percent and
Australia beat us both with 82.7 percent.
Listening to interviews with potential voters,
perhaps we should be thankful that our turnout is
so low. Many of those interviewed either could not
identify all of the major candidates, or were very
clear about who they would vote for, but had
little idea why. Both the turnout and the
ignorance of the candidates and the issues speak
to a complacency that a country as blessed as ours
and as powerful as ours cannot afford,
particularly among people of faith.
There are many
critical issues that our next president will
influence; the Middle East, stem cell research,
same sex marriage, health care, education, and
many more. It is our responsibility as Christians
in covenant with our creator to pray for God’s
guidance on these issues,
to pray for guidance to choose our next leaders,
to pray for all who can vote that they will vote
and that their vote will be influenced by the will
of God, and then to exercise our vote informed by
the guidance of the Holy Spirit. It is our
stewardship. |
