How should Christians Vote on November 6th?
November 6th. These are materials that may guide your thoughts on the issues facing the country. This multitude of counselors will serve you as you consider how to faithfully participate in this year’s election.
- Wayne Grudem outlines 24 issues that we face in this election and breaks down the political and ideological stance of both parties on each issue. He also offers reasons Why Evangelicals Should Support Mitt Romney.
- John MacArthur has preached two landmark sermons regarding the moral (and not merely political) issues that are uniquely at stake in this election: Abortion and the Campaign for Immorality and Homosexuality and the Campaign for Immorality. (There is a summary version from the Grace To You Blog.)
- Pastor John also responds (video) to the question about whether it’s OK for Christians to vote for a Mormon.
- Norm Geisler asks and answers, “Should an Evangelical Vote for a Mormon for President?” Geisler reasons, “Despite my disappointment on the religious issue expressed in previous posts, and given the circumstances and the choice of either Romney or Obama, I have decided that a vote for Romney is the best thing I can do for the future of America.”
- John Piper lets us know that he is going to vote. His counsel: “Tell as many people as you can the good reasons why you are disaffected with the whole thing; then go to the polls and take a burden-bearing, pro-active risk rather than staying home and taking a burden-dropping, reactive risk.”
- Frank Turk provides a mathematical justification for the claim that any version of not voting for Romney is, in reality, voting for Obama.
- Dan Phillips breaks down This Election’s Choice and why voting third party or abstaining is, in reality, a vote for Barack Obama. There is so much good reasoning in this post, but here’s a particularly poignant point: “I’ll support a man who is less than my ideal, because he’s basically on the right side of the life question. Otherwise, if I vote for a non-player the only ‘message’ I send is ‘Don’t worry about me. I’m irrelevant. I won’t help the pro-lifer, and I won’t hinder the pro-deather. Ignore me.’”
- Kevin DeYoung asks, “What Am I Doing When I Vote?” and outlines a realistic approach to politics and voting. “What matters most is not my voting experience or what I fear it might say in some abstract way. What matters is what my vote actually does. … Small victories plus realistic strategy plus perseverance can make a tremendous difference over time. Hope is not delusional and change can come, but we have to work within the limits of what is possible. What honors God more, working hard and using our brains to put man into flight, or jumping off a cliff and hoping to fly because you believe God is capable of giving you wings?”
- “But,” you object, “I Can’t Vote for Mitt Romney!” Frank Turk addresses the objections to voting for Romney — from his Mormonism, to his position on abortion, to issues of conscience. Here’s a great summary line: “Doing nothing and calling it a moral victory is cowardly. It may actually be evil. But if it is nothing else, it is certainly this: failing to do as much as possible to make a difference toward the improvement of those things which you can effect and can make better. Failing to show that much compassion and effort is morally lazy.”
- Randy Alcorn asks, “Is It Wrong to Vote for the Lesser of Evils?” responding to the objection that voting for the lesser of two evils is still evil. The key thought: “To vote for the lesser of evils is to vote for less evil. … [Someone objects:] ‘But that’s just thinking pragmatically.’ Or is it simply thinking logically, and trying to make a positive difference with the only power now left to me? Is voting my individualized expression of ideals? Or is it bringing my ideals to bear on the messy choice between two very flawed alternatives?”
- In a context in which many are citing conscience as a reason why they can’t vote for Romney, Joel Beeke explains why his conscience will not allow him not to vote for Romney. “In the election on Tuesday, we have only two realistic options. If you don’t vote for Romney, then you have helped Obama. And if a significant number of evangelical Christians do as you do, Obama will be elected. I could not live with my own conscience if I contributed, even by default, to electing a president who promoted same-sex marriage and baby-killing, which may well lead to the destruction of America. That’s why my conscience won’t allow me not to address this issue, and also won’t allow me not to vote for Mitt Romney.”
- Al Mohler calls the 2012 election The Great American Worldview Test: “We are not looking at minor matters of political difference. We are staring into the abyss of comprehensive moral conflict. Christian voters can escape neither the consequences of their vote, nor the fact that our most basic convictions will be revealed in the voting booth come November.”
Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.
- James 4:17 -
- James 4:17 -
