4) we are entitled to a government that not only allows religious freedom but encourages Christian beliefs. The church has rarely been so privileged and has usually suffered malaise when it was.
This could be a long post, and before I get to my main points, I have a few other points to make:
Case 1: Barack Obama
Back in 2008, I was dismayed and saddened at how many Christians supported Obama. Setting aside his past affiliations and everything else he stood for that was wrong, and everything he fought that was right; there was one glaring thing that stood out about him like no other candidate who had ever run for this office of President of the United States: He was the most pro-abortion candidate to ever run.
While senator, a bill had come up about babies that survive abortion. This bill would require that if a baby survived an abortion, that care must be given to save its life. This man who claimed to be a Christian voted against it. He is so pro-abortion that he wanted them to let those babies just lie there until they died.
And it didn't even make the Christians flinch who were staunch Democrats or simply were excited to vote for the first black president. Their political party and voting for the first black president meant more to them than his gruesome and inhuman views on babies who survived being murdered.
Case 2: Bill Clinton
The Clintons have always been surrounded by scandal, and there are too many to list here; but pertaining to this blog post is one specific one: Bill's numerous affairs. Anyone with decency in them should have recoiled at the idea of voting for a man once, much less twice, who cheated on his wife so often and so openly.......and yet Christians flocked to vote for him both times and would do it again if he was allowed to run.
Case 3: Hillary Clinton
This woman is a serial liar. She has been caught in lie after lie...... and there is proof she helped cover up her husband's abuse of women and his affairs. She is guilty of breaking laws with this email scandal, and it is amazing the amount of support she still has in the face of all of this.
And again, she will get votes from a lot of professing Christians; and has in fact spoken in churches with their full support. She fully supports abortion, gay marriage, and pretty much anything Christians believe is wrong. Christians will vote for her because they must stay true to their party, and they want the first woman president.
Case 4: Mitt Romney
I was very unenthusiastic about voting for Romney, and did not vote for him in the primary. In addition to other things, he seemed weak on abortion; and there was the fact he was a Mormon; a religion I know is false and would want nothing to do with, but he got the GOP nomination, so I did my duty and voted for him along with many other conservatives and Christians.
Case 5: Donald Trump
No matter what you think of the man, he is a phenomenon. There are many reasons I am against him, but I will focus on what has to do with this blog post. This is not a complete list, but here are a few issues Christians should take to heart about him:
He supports and defends Planned Parenthood and has supported abortion, even partial birth
He supports gay marriage and promised to further gay rights
He is vulgar
He said he doesn't need God's forgiveness
He is a serial adulterer
He owns strip clubs
Christians are supporting him by the masses. You bring up any of this stuff, and they just attack some minute thing in another candidate.
And there are others that Christians have supported and voted for in spite of many moral flaws and things that we are against.
Are we too focused on the wrong things? Take Donald Trump. I am being told I must vote for him if he wins the GOP nomination so that Hillary Clinton doesn't become president. I am to set aside my convictions, my beliefs, do something abhorrent to me just so she doesn't become president. Really?? Who says? And what is more important: me helping to stop one corrupt person becoming president by voting for another corrupt one and going against what I believe to make sure one evil wins over the other, or my faith and doing the right thing?
Which is more important: My faith and duty to God, or my faith and duty to the Republican party?
Which is more important: My religious freedoms, or pleasing God?
Which is more important: Our country, or my God and my faith?
Which is more important: Making pleasing people, or pleasing God?
Are we worshiping God, or are we worshiping America, our freedoms or, the Republican or Democratic party?
Is it more important to us to see Hillary Clinton defeated than it is for us to please God and honor Him in all we do....... including our voting?
Have we become so much like the world that we view politics more important than God and our faith?
Are we too focused on our own comforts?
Is it possible that comfort and freedom here in America has become a god to even we Christians?
I am firmly convinced if every Christian voted for politicians who came as close to biblical principles as possible, we could elect good men and not have what we usually have: picking between the lesser of two evils....... but that usually doesn't happen.
I am getting some backlash from people because I am not voting for Donald Trump if he wins the nomination. I may as well vote for Hillary. At least she isn't as vulgar as he is. Both individuals are corrupt, immoral, support things I as a Christian and decent person am against...... but yet I am supposed to vote for him so she doesn't become president...... but I don't want either option. As a Christian, I may as well vote for her as him.....I'd be just as guilty of violating my convictions and beliefs...... but yet I am expected to please people and put aside what God wants me to do or not do. I am expected - by other Christians - to set aside these convictions, ignore all of the moral and decent reasons to not vote for Donald Trump.... and cast my vote for him just so the candidate they think is worse does not become president.
Have we Christians forgotten this isn't our home? Life will never be perfect here. Yes, I have concerns about Democrats being in power and what they will do........ and I have concerns about Donald Trump being in power and what he will do and who he will put in as judges just as much as I am concerned who Hillary will pick.......
But am I too concerned? Am I too focused on keeping my life here comfortable, keeping things as easy as we can to live here and have the freedoms we think we are entitled to?
Whether the candidate be Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Ted Cruz, or Jim Brady (my favorite singer!); if I have to set aside my morals, my sense of decency, my convictions to vote for someone so I am true to my party and may keep my comfort and freedoms intact.......then God isn't important enough to me. If I just vote for the lesser of two evils, then the Republican party is more important than God. Politics, America. our county's freedoms, and life here on earth is more important to me than my faith in God and doing the right thing.
What is truly more important to me: Serving God and doing all I can to honor him, or keeping life here on earth as comfortable for me as I can make it?
If I walked into the voting booth and voted for Donald Trump knowing all I know about him, knowing he has made a mockery of God by his lifestyle and his own words; am I honoring God, or am I honoring my political party and the people who want me to help defeat Hillary Clinton?
And there is no perfect candidate. We all have flaws. Without God and his grace, I'd be just as bad as any of these people morally. But there are candidates whose lives show what kind of men and women they are. Their stance on things God finds detestable should be enough to cause us to flee supporting and voting for them.
Some day I am going to stand before God to give account of how I lived my life. He isn't going to ask why I didn't vote for Donald Trump so Hillary wouldn't be president. He isn't going to judge me on my loyalty to my political party..... He is going to judge me on how I lived for Him, and if He was more important to me than anything here.... including who is president.
I want to step back from this political circus. I do believe there are a couple of candidates who are closer to biblical values and principles than we had for a long time. Neither is perfect, and both have acted in un-Christian ways; but so have most of us who have been arguing and debating..... but they at least support or stand against the important things. I am going to pray harder about who to vote for, and seek God's will.
I don't want politics to be my god. I don't want to be so focused on comfort, my freedoms, seeing Hillary Clinton defeated, being loyal to my political party.... or anything else, that I set aside my convictions and beliefs and go vote for someone just to make people happy or possibly protect my comforts and freedoms - though I don't think Trump will do any better than Hillary will in that regard.
If we are more worried about who wins, about who does the best in a debate, about who made another candidate look the worst, about protecting our comforts and freedoms than pleasing God and honoring Him in all we do; than we would be better sitting at home and not voting for anyone. This world is not our home, and we need to remember that. God is more concerned about our souls than our political party winning. He is more concerned with us getting to Heaven than being comfortable and free here on this earth.
I hope I have said what I wanted to say. I am not condemning anyone, as I have been guilty of being too concerned about life here instead of pleasing God. I have been guilty of voting for someone who was just the lesser of two evils to hopefully protect my comfortable life and stop another political party from wining.
I don't want to be that man anymore. I want God and His smile on my life. I want to live for Heaven, not for this life. I want Jesus more than comfort and freedoms. I want to please God more than man. This world is not my true home, and it is time I start living that way.
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