i voted 3rd party for president, i voted against 2 spending referendums, and i voted for norm coleman, which is mostly a vote against al franken.

I do abhor the fact that we practiced slavery seven generations ago – as did pretty much every other country at some stage, including England, which is part of why it was considered acceptable here. It was practiced in England until 1772 and Scotland until 1776. When people from those countries emigrated to the New World, they didn’t find the concept strange and so they continued it; and of course it was a huge topic of debate for our founding fathers – John Adams being squarely against it and losing the fight over it while the Declaration was being written. It aggravates me no end that the prevailing view in this country is that slavery was a uniquely American institution, when it has been practiced throughout all recorded history in every country I am aware of. Not that it excuses us for doing it! But the view that America is uniquely shameful for that part of our history is not accurate. While I’m very interested in all that, especially given my family’s personal history of racism, I’m far more concerned with modern slavery. Chains, shackles, the whole nine yards… going on right now. People out to be outraged, giving money, demanding sanctions – we ought to have at least as big a movement against it as we did for apartheid… the silence baffles me.

My sister had a pig valve put in earlier this year – medical technology is truly amazing. With regard to the loss of your son… I’m truly sorry. Events like that reveal political concerns to be very petty indeed.

With regard to America’s history of slavery – do you feel the same way about England’s history of slavery? How about the slavery which is going on right now? I presume, considering how strongly you feel about it, that you are active in advocating measures against the countries which engage in the slave trade today.

Been down south lately – yes, in fact, I live in New Orleans, and Jim Crow laws were enforced here in my lifetime. It is NOTHING like that today. Good grief. I don’t know where you get your information. We have a black mayor (and he’s not the first, either) and many black officials who run the city. Our governor is a minority.

Skin color doesn’t earn anyone a privilege, or at least it shouldn’t. We should elect a president because he (or she, if Hillary hadn’t had the nomination stolen from her by Obama’s Chicago thuggery) is the best person for the job.

Are you one of Axelrod’s concern trolls? Because you are too full of cliches to be real. I’m going to have to start logging IPs…

And the worst part is – as the Laffer curve demonstrates time and again, when tax rates go up, government revenues go down. Obama knows this, but doesn’t care; he will bring taxes up to punish the rich in spite of the fact that government revenues will go down. He said so specifically: taxes are about “fairness” and not government revenue. If you sell your home or stocks, he’s going to stick it to you – taking about one third of the proceeds.

Then you’ve got the “tax the rich” mentality which will raise your prices on everything you buy. Businesses do not pay taxes. People pay taxes. As a small business owner, when my taxes go up, I raise my prices to cover it. Raising the taxes on “the rich” is a stealth tax on lower income people, and the worst part is that the government doesn’t actually even get any extra money out of it.

I agree with you that God is going to place the person He wants in the Oval Office. Although I support McCain – primarily because Obama is so pro-abortion, and secondarily because I’m voting my pocketbook – I will not be devastated if Obama wins because I’m trusting God to do what’s best in the eternal sense, regardless of how the next 4 or 8 years look from our perspective.

I think it is possible that I either misstated several points that I tried to make, or you a have misinterpreted them. The responses that I am reading are reflecting a slightly different context or viewpoint than what I was trying to relay. Either way, you both provide very interesting points of view which I shall take under prayerful consideration.

Laura, I could go on and on with you on debating on so many positions which you have laid out in your last response. But the bottom line is that we openly disagree on certain frameworks of what we each believe should be the Christian perspective. That in and of itself goes far beyond the political debate. Though that would be a very tempting and probably edifying discussion, I wouldn’t get any work done!

But I will say that I am very happy to settle for the one main point that you have made clear, in that you “don’t contend that Christians who vote for Obama aren’t Christian or even that it’s a sin to vote for him.”

Have a blessed day!

The Bible legitimizes government…but only for certain purposes. When the government exceeds those purposes, tyranny results. Read Romans 13, which says that the Bible exists to punish evil and not enforce “good.”

For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. For he is God’s servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.

Of course, whether welfare schemes actually accomplish anything “good” is a whole other matter. Laura already addressed that issue, and also see 2 Thessalonians 3:10. But even if we assumed that welfare were good, the Bible never legitimizes coerced welfare “donations.” A coerced charitable donation is basically stealing.

God strictly prohibits covetousness and stealing. Guilt is the weapon of tyrants who seek to weasel around these prohibitions. They prey on envy and promote covetousness among the masses — because it gives them power.

Romans 13 explains my chief problem with libertarianism. Libertarians correctly point out incompetence and corruption within government. In general, smaller government is better. But ultimately, the primary purpose of government is to punish evil. That includes foreign enemies as well as domestic murderers.

But even if you DON’T, it is still not biblically sound for some of these people to come off as harsh as they do on their Christian brothers and sisters who lean Obama. It’s not their call to judge anyway.

The assertion that you’re being fooled does put an automatic ranking on your intellect, that was the point. I believe I’m right and you’re wrong. Every time we form an opinion, we weigh and measure all kinds of things, and when we finally come to that belief, whatever it is, it is because we have concluded it is superior to the other options. And when other people disagree, if you find their argument unpersuasive, then you don’t think their belief is equal to yours. You think yours is better. If theirs was better, you would join them. That’s how it works, and there’s nothing wrong with that. It doesn’t mean I think you’re a bad person or that you’re not a Christian, it just means I think you’re wrong and you ought to reassess. And you think the same thing about me or we wouldn’t be having this discussion. I’m not going to lie by omission or commission and pretend that I think your opinion is equally correct as mine. You obviously don’t think mine as as valid as yours or we wouldn’t be debating these points. It is an unfortunate post-modern convention that we are called to pretend all views are equally valid even though it’s patently true that we don’t actually believe that. There is also nothing in the bible that prevents us from having debates on strongly held views as long as we are civil, as you and I have been so far.

In the same way, Jesus never said to petition the government to forcibly mandate that a person no longer has the choice to kill an unborn baby… But we also know that to be wrong (with or without government) as well, based on his teaching.

I’m saying that killing a baby is not now nor was it ever a valid choice, government or not government, so the discussion of it is a waste of time. The exact same way I would say that a law that permits the killing or sequestration of Jews is not a valid choice and there is NO circumstance, EVER, where we should tolerate it. As a practical matter right now we have the choice between McCain, who supports it under very rare circumstances, and Obama, who supports it under all circumstances AND wants my tax dollars to pay for it AND says that he intends to strike down every reasonable measure to limit it like parental consent and informed consent So as far as I’m concerned that’s a no brainer and if it’s not a no brainer to you, then frankly I wonder what’s wrong with you. To sum up:

Abortion is never, ever, correct; the bible is not ambiguous on that issue.
Less abortion is better than more abortion.
Abortion kills many more times the number of people than war does, so even when you draw a moral equivalence there, the sheer numbers involved provide a worldly argument against calling them equivalent.

For me, the sum of it is that I see a party that has been in rule for nearly the past decade that not only has started a war on some very questionable basis, but also seems built on a foundation of philosophy favoring capitalism and wealth/prosperity to a point to where when combined with the the forsaking of the less fortunate, it has a major trickle down effect that creates such a LARGE mortal statistic in how it results in death and suffering.

Capitalism helps more people than wealth redistribution. This is objectively true, proved time and again wherever it is tried. Consider how the African Growth and Redevelopment Act has improved people’s lives and contrast it with the fiscal policies of the USSR, and until recently, China. In fact, consider the improvements in the standards of living in China thirty years ago compared to now, when they have added capitalism to the mix. Consider Zimbabwe, under capitalism a food exporter, now under Mgabe’s redistributionist “fairness” policies people are starving. No system is perfect, and yes, capitalism is just as subject to abuse by sinful humans as socialism/communism is, but history has proved time and again that people suffer less poverty under capitalism than they do any other system.

The Bible says you cannot serve God and money. And the fact that the party in question has a claim to Christianity puts them that much more under scrutiny for me. There are so many countless details of contradiction in how these people speak and what they do, and how they have decieved while calling themselves “Christian”, I find it scary.

The LOVE of money is the root of all evil.
We, personally, are called to serve our fellow man, and the purpose of doing so is not to see that our fellow man is served, but to glorify God.
The governments wealth redistribution is objectively harmful, not just to the church and our mission in the spiritual sense, but to the people those policies claim to help in the worldly sense.

With regard to deceit, will you share your opinion on Obama and Biden’s professed Christian faith and views on wealth redistribution, considering the amounts they personally give to charity? Do you find them deceitful? How about when you take into consideration that they call people like me selfish, in spite of the fact that people who hold the views I hold give substantially more than they do? I’m not interested in “feel good” policies, I’m interested in actual, practical help and that is best delivered by the private sector, not via government.

But even so, I find the number comparison invalid, as I don’t believe you could say one drunk driver who has caused the death of a child is a “better man” than another drunk driver who killed three adults… (or vice versa)

I think you’re comparing apples to oranges here. The person who has killed one person, compared to the one who has killed three, isn’t a “better man.” But he has objectively caused less harm. My vote for McCain isn’t because I think he’s a better man than Obama. It’s difficult for me to express how much I dislike McCain. If you went back and read my posts prior to McCain getting the nomination, you might be very surprised.

But I do believe that McCain will do less harm and more good than Obama. Given that both candidates are imperfect, I have to make the best choice I can between them. My politics do not inform my faith. My faith informs my politics, and because of my faith-based view that abortion must not be tolerated and that fewer abortions are better than more abortions; because of my faith-based view that in order to glorify God, the church, not the government, must serve the poor, because that’s better for the church AND better for the poor, I support the GOP ticket.

I don’t contend that Christians who vote for Obama aren’t Christian or even that it’s a sin to vote for him. I just think that you’re wrong if you support him, and making a mistake if you vote for him.
Added: You might also be interested in Randy Alcorn’s views on voting for Obama.

Mainly, you used political reasoning mixed with biblical reasoning; but mostly you seemed to build your stance based on political opinion.

My point about the moral comparisons of the mortality factor between abortion and war obviously stands or falls with the discernment of the Christian. So much has happened in and out of the media regarding not only the controversies of how the war took place, but the attitudes and characteristics of persons involved in making it happen. I could write a novel’s worth of information to document what I’ve learned, and how I substantiate it. But that is not a very realistic approach, nor is it the point I was trying to make… I can only say with all honesty that as a devout and clear minded Christian, I am able to recognize specific factors in the light of the Word. With that, I simply use scriptural discernment to draw contrasts in not only the acts of this party who claims to do what they do “under God”, but also their attitude and behaviors in comparison to the “fruits” in Gal. 5:22 as well as the qualities in Col. 3:12.

But in your response, you use mostly political opinion as the larger factor to carry your argument in what is presumably a correction in my Christian view. Not only that, but a slight deviation from those qualities I had mentioned in Col. 3:12. (I emphasize “slight”. I know you meant well. But these are the very details that lead to the later “bashing” in debates between Christians. ) Allow to me to explain:

When you asserted that I was being “fooled by the media”, that sets up an automatic intellectual ranking in debating the details. It basically says, “the sources of information that I choose to believe are right, but the sources that YOU choose are wrong.” Do you see where this starts taking the scriptural discernment off track? The basis for the rest of your points about the war and the good it has done is then built on that political opinion, based on your personal experience, and what you have seen. Without knowing anything about my information or personal experience you have automatically set yourself up as the one least likely to falter in discernment. At least it comes off that way… And this was why I closed my letter with the bit about “humility”.. Or –”being aware of one’s own faults”. It affords us to converse and discuss in a manner that leads to “peace and mutual edification”… Even if we believe we are absolutely right in our minds about certain issues within the scriptures, the best way to go about demonstrating it is first to respect the opposing view under the guidelines of Col. 3:12. The assertion that “I am being fooled” puts an automatic ranking in our intellect.
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Then there’s the part where you back your stance with the Bible regarding war:
Your Biblical reasoning was a little confusing to me… You said; “War was an accepted practice in both the old and new testaments; it was just one of the tools that God used…”

The problem with that statement is two-fold:
First, there is CONTEXT… As you said yourself, God used these as tools to advance his great Will in specific context for the message and purpose of preserving it in his great Word. The way you say it, it sounds like God set a blanket precedent that war is an acceptable thing, because HE used it. No matter “who”.. no matter “what”. But there are a lot of things that God did (and ONLY God can do) in scripture that are being used strictly as a context for something in that passage that he is teaching the whole world by recording it in his mighty Word.

But the second point I have about this comes from your own reasoning on another subject further on in your response… And that is the all-time most used debate premise “show me the scripture.”

When you moved into your response about socialism, the roles were reversed and I was the one who pointed out a certain trait that is prominent throughout scripture; old testament and new; (same as you claimed about war) to which you said;
“In what bible verse can I find Jesus telling his disciples to petition the government to forcibly confiscate other people’s money to heal the sick, feed the poor, or buy a cloak for someone who is cold?”

So in that same way, I could ask, “In what bible verse can you find the Lord telling us that war is acceptable? Or, any specific instructions telling us to go and wage war?”

I don’t mean this to sound snide at all. I’m just pointing out an interesting situation that comes up in these debates between Christians. I’m not saying one’s right and the other’s wrong… But rather trying to enhance my explanation of the main motive behind WHY I wrote that letter to begin with. And that is “how devisive political stance can be when we interject ‘rank of knowledge’ in our opinions”. We become so emotionally worked up, it’s to the point of practically judging the opposing party’s heart with God, calling into question that person’s stand with God. To do that is to completely strip all of the qualities that Col. 3:12 tells us to clothe ourselves with. And then we get no where. (not saying you did this.)
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Regarding your response about my references to Acts and Jesus words about the poor:
Again, you said, “In what bible verse can I find Jesus telling his disciples to petition the government to forcibly confiscate other people’s money to heal the sick, feed the poor, or buy a cloak for someone who is cold?” That logic doesn’t hold for a rebuttal, since you would have to pose that reasoning for every single political premise that you vote for as a Christian.

You are right— Jesus didn’t say to “petition government” to forcibly confiscate other people’s money to heal the sick, feed the poor, buy a cloak for someone who is cold. Yet we know that these are things that we are to do ourselves based on his teaching (with or without government).

In the same way, Jesus never said to petition the government to forcibly mandate that a person no longer has the choice to kill an unborn baby… But we also know that to be wrong (with or without government) as well, based on his teaching.

You see?

But that wasn’t the point I was making anyway. I was pointing out that in a choice between one side (that is centered more on catering to the wealthy first) vs. the other side (that appears to cater to ALL classes of people) we can use scripture as guidance for voting in a self-sacrificing way for the better of someone else. More notably, the poor. (I feel I should add that I fall under the bracket that Obama says will be taxed MORE… and as a Christian, I feel that if it will indeed help other people, I’m all for it.)

Again, the whole point of my letter was to DEFEND passionate Christians such as myself who do have a lean toward Obama, and I wanted to give a demonstration that it is possible to see one moral issue as important as the other. Of course, beyond that (as you demonstrated) there is a matter of whether or not people believe (or agree) that both moral atrocities are even taking place on both sides. thats a different debate, that calls for a lot of citing of sources and a lot time.

But even if you DON’T, it is still not biblically sound for some of these people to come off as harsh as they do on their Christian brothers and sisters who lean Obama. It’s not their call to judge anyway.

For me, the sum of it is that I see a party that has been in rule for nearly the past decade that not only has started a war on some very questionable basis, but also seems built on a foundation of philosophy favoring capitalism and wealth/prosperity to a point to where when combined with the the forsaking of the less fortunate, it has a major trickle down effect that creates such a LARGE mortal statistic in how it results in death and suffering.

The Bible says you cannot serve God and money. And the fact that the party in question has a claim to Christianity puts them that much more under scrutiny for me. There are so many countless details of contradiction in how these people speak and what they do, and how they have decieved while calling themselves “Christian”, I find it scary. But yet, it fits the “end times” scenarios of the Bible, in that people will be fooled.

I get a little spooked when I see someone stands up and claim “I am Christian”, but then turns around and does things that contradict the Bible’s description of one who is in Christ… It could easily be the beginning of the road toward what the Bible refers to as what we call “anti-Christ”. But having said that, I am not positive that Obama’s party is any better in that light either…. But it’s not as scary with them, because they are admittedly who they say they are in those qualities we don’t like about hem. But, when Christian leaders do things that are questionable in the light of God’s Word, it seems far more severe than when worldly men do their things that we know are OBVIOUSLY outside of Jesus’ way. I remember that the Bible speaks about false ones– how it would have been better to have NOT known God, than to have known Him and turned. Now, again, I’m not saying that these are “false ones”… But I do have the scriptures that tell me the “fruits of the Spirit” and the qualities of a Christian spoken of in Col. 3;12 to use a gage for discernment to compare the qualities of these people.

One final word– and it’s about your follow up comment about abortion statistics. I was aware of that as well when I wrote my letter. (I even looked up the number). But as I demonstrated in the above, I feel that the combination of a war that is built on lies mixed with a philosophy on wealth that affects billions of people has a similar moral/mortal statistic in affecting people’s lives. But even so, I find the number comparison invalid, as I don’t believe you could say one drunk driver who has caused the death of a child is a “better man” than another drunk driver who killed three adults… (or vice versa)

I find them both atrocious, as I do with both candidates and their specific individual moral stances. But even with all of the above, I still stand as an independent with only a “lean” toward Obama. I still know I could be wrong. And I am prepping myself to accept whomever God appoints. But sometimes God does things not to bless a nation, but to chasten it.

The gaping hole in your socialism argument is that in Acts 2, while they were practicing communism, it was in fact a commune – certainly something that people joined voluntarily. The fact that people chose to live that way was a testimony to unbelievers, and showed them the love of (and love for) Christ. The bible makes it abundantly clear that when giving, motive MATTERS. It is literally the most important thing about our giving. Look at Ananias and Sapphira, and look at the parable of the widow’s mite.

In what bible verse can I find Jesus telling his disciples to petition the government to forcibly confiscate other people’s money to heal the sick, feed the poor, or buy a cloak for someone who is cold?

I can understand the desire to “do something” when we see someone suffering. I know about poverty first hand – well, about as much as any American will, because obviously even our poor are abundantly wealthy compared to third world countries. I’ve been cold, hungry, underclothed, dirty, and evicted. I did things to get by that I’m still ashamed of today. Anyone who accuses me of being mean or unsympathetic is way off base. We choose, as a society, to have a welfare system, and I have benefited from it and I have supported it. But don’t ever tell me that taking care of the poor in this way is the Christian thing to do, or that Christians should seek to expand it.

Jesus made it clear that the poor “will be with us always.” We’re not going to ever completely solve the problem of poverty. But in spite of that Jesus gave explicit instructions on what we should do about it. And the result of those instructions is that God is glorified. When Christians cede their responsibility to government, God is NOT glorified. Government is glorified. Voluntarily giving in order to show those in need the love of Christ glorifies God. Forcible income redistribution empowers and glorifies government.

We draw people away from God and teach them to depend on government – and further facilitate the weakening of the Church as we fail to obey Jesus’ instructions with regard to the poor. We don’t just harm the poor, we harm ourselves. When Christians see – instead of poverty and a mission field – our commission taken over by government, we don’t see the results of a lost world to the extent that we should. We fail to grieve over these people and fail to get motivated to do OUR JOBS. Why do our hearts break over people in countries far away, who are just as lost as our countrymen – the ones that God placed in our lives and surely wants us to minister to? We neglect our own mission field because the government tends it for us, but government only addresses the problem we see – and we ignore the eternal issues that go unaddressed. I’m not suggesting that we completely abandon the foreign mission field. I’m saying that because government already does so much of our jobs, we fail to tend to the bigger job that He gave us right here at home. If we did our jobs at home, we would be better able to serve other countries.

The question at the heart of the matter is what, exactly, is our mission? Is it to eradicate poverty and to make this world a better place? Or is it to glorify God and enjoy Him forever? How can we best love our neighbor? By teaching him to rely on government, or on God? It’s not social justice. It’s ungodly socialism.

It’s not a matter of not wanting hard earned wages redistributed, because the money is all God’s anyway. It’s a matter of directly harming our mission in a number of ways. Look at the drop in per capita giving since we started all these “social justice” programs in the early 60s, and consider the trends in society since then. Socialism/communism is harmful in every possible way, especially to the church, but also to the people that we are called to help – would you have wanted to live in East Germany or the USSR? It’s never worked and it never will as long as sinful humans are in charge of it.

With regard to “sincerity” being a factor and being blessed for our votes, I don’t believe that the bible supports the “I meant well” argument. We are called to ask for wisdom, not good intentions. With regard to humility – well, I could use a good deal more of that, it’s true. I’ve had to publicly apologize more than once on this blog for my sharp tone or for the content of my responses to people. It’s too easy, reading pixels on a screen, to forget there’s a real live human being – either a brother in Christ or a lost person – on the other side. I speak very directly and bluntly too, so my writing tends to reflect that – and I’ve had to apologize for “tone” in real life, too – not just online.

Given Romans 13, Titus 3, and the numerous other verses that show that God selects our rulers, I think all the election hype is kind of a moot point anyway. Which is not to say I don’t really enjoy politics; obviously I do. But God is not a Democrat or a Republican. He’s a monarchist.

Here is what I wrote:

As a Christian and an independent, the “moral issue” for me is not as easy to decide on as most of my fellow Christian Americans would have it seem. Allow me to explain:

I see both parties as being completely EQUAL in standing for the something that is morally wrong with the Word of God.
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Demonstration:
Democrat- ABORTION RIGHTS
Reason for justification: It’s pro-choice… Woman’s tight to choose etc.
Biblical stance: It’s murder of life. Killing of unborn babies.

Republican- WAR IN IRAQ (and the possibility of more wars coming in similar context)
Reason for justification: War on Terror…
Biblical stance: Lies and deception were used as grounds for going in and starting a war that has numerous questionable motives. But all of the political talking points aside– Using deception and lies does not go together in harmony with God’s Word. Therefore, it can be viewed as the same as above: Murder of life, causing the deaths of countless human beings. (soldiers as well as tens of thousands of men woman and children on the other side… Some say more than how many Saddam killed…?)
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BOTTOM LINE: The moral issue is disqualified. They are both horrendous and result in the cost of human life… Therefore they are EQUAL in this category.
Obviously the talking points and debates could go back and forth when held under political light, but all a Christian has to do is hold it under the light of Gods Word, and both sides fall completely. And so ultimately– as a Christian this is what teeters me on the thin line between two parties declaring me as an “independent”.

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So what’s left? If both men stand for something that is more political than moral, what becomes the deciding factor? For me it is very difficult.

But there is an approach that remains very Christian… and that is to “consider others as greater than” ourselves. As difficult as it is, try to see the affect of the plans that both candidates have on your fellow man… Look for strong indications that certain plans and policies will most likely be carried out by that candidate and consider how those will affect our brother… Our neighbor.. Our children.. And then, ultimately, the election becomes what WE are going to do for our country. Not them. WE become the ones who are actually enacting those changes that will hopefully affect our fellow man.

This line of thought is the very factor that has me as an undecided tilting in Obama’s favor… And it is the Word of God that I am using as a guide to follow in this direction. Let me demonstrate:

In the book of Acts, we have in the 2nd chapter, verse 44-45 it says, “And all that believed were together and had all things common; and sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men, as every man had need.” Now lately we have heard that the “sharing of wealth is called SOCIALISM. Well, according to these verses from the Bible, the early Christians were practicing “socialism”.

And then, we have Jesus telling the man who had observed the Law of God and followed all of the commandments to go and sell what he has and give to the poor to obtain “treasures in heaven”… But the man went away sad because he had “great possessions” and could not part with them. And that is just one of many verses where Jesus upholds the poor over the wealthy.

And this takes me to the current Republican candidates’ stance regarding their problem with “spreading the wealth”. The whole idea that a Christian doesn’t want his/her hard earned wages “redistributed” to help others is completely out of sync with Jesus Christ and the Word of God. Yes, I have heard all of the “spin” about socialism, marxism, communism, etc. But again, those comments are not only exaggerations, but are also coming out of political reasoning– not Biblical reasoning. Being unbiased I have tried to apply both of the points of reasoning togther, but they just won’t work.

Somehow, though, the Christian majority has this “moral issue” about abortion and gay rights outweighing all of the above. But clearly, the scriptures demonstrate the contrary. And again, I reiterate that not only does a war based on a lie(s) have the same mortal loss of life outcome as abortion rights. But added to that are the notions that surround wealth and how it affects the less fortunate when it comes to disease and lack of care because of money. The results are similar.

It fascinates me what God has put before us… It’s almost like a test. You have these candidates up there standing for “this and that”, and we are looking at them as if THEY are the final voice of God… But it’s not about them. It’s about US. There is a more important poll that is going on right now– it is a poll that we will never see the numbers on in this life. It’s poll of our hearts… And God is looking at the percentage points of those polls. And one way or another, it will affect us as Christians and what our true motives are in what we stand for in this election and why we stand for it. And I believe that we have sincere brothers and sisters in Christ voting on both sides of the ticket who will be blessed for their vote, no matter who it is for. There are those who are so passionate to the point of tears who will vote McCain because of their absolute sincere belief in the abortion issue… They really care for those souls of the unborn. And at the same time I believe that there are the same kind of people voting for the opposite side who see suffering of the people in terrible circumstances and suffering that believe with all of their hear that Obama will save those individuals.

But at the same time, I also fear the ones who are too caught up in worldly details and the motives in their heart stray more to selfish gain or political motivation. I fear that that some vote against abortion simply because they want to be viewed only as right with God…. That it is a self-righteous legalistic decision more than a heart-felt decision… (Same as when the Pharisees who saw themselves as “right with God” criticized Jesus for healing on the Sabbath because it was outside of the Law of God.) And also, I fear those who vote for Obama because they are simply liberal and seek to continue to capitalize on their freedom to promote Godless practices and living such as the selfish right to do anything– whether it’s gay marriage or blatant sexual immorality.

But ultimately in the end– I believe God is looking at those poll percentages of our hearts. And we will not know the outcome on election day, but rather what takes place from then on. Will he bless our country? Or will he do as the the book of Deuteronomy says in that as a man chastens his son, so Lord chastens us… Or when Hebrews says that “no discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”

Chastening is a very realistic possibility as we go through rough times.

But the last point I want to mention from the scriptures regarding this is election is the scriptures regarding the “fruits of the spirit”. They are; love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance..” as well as the call for humility in the verse from Colossians that says: “As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you.”

And specifically noting “Humility”, in that I could be wrong… But either way, whoever feels that the other guy is wrong, we aim to have the qualities of the that the scripture states above in admonishing one another as Christians.

Having said that— and under humility- though I am leaning Obama– I am not an “Obama man”. I am just leaning for the qualities outlined in the above. And again– I could be wrong– and I should add that I welcome BEING wrong. I don’t want to be disappointed on election day, regardless of who wins. I want hope. I would love to be convinced that McCain would be great as well. As a politically unbiased voter who is Christian– I just want everyone and everything to be okay.

And so, as Christians– we are all equal under God– no matter who you vote for.. And if we disagree, we admonish each other under the guidelines of Galatians 5:22. And by doing do, “..Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and mutual edification.” -Romans 14:19

Chris