Why Christians Should Vote Their Values

By Dr. Richard D. Land

The New Testament teaches us that Christians are citizens of two realms, the earthly and spiritual, and they have rights and responsibilities in both spheres. Rather than "Christian citizens," we at the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission have encouraged believers to consider themselves "citizen Christians."

In this election year, the reality of what it means to be a citizen Christian should be apparent to every Christian. Chief among our concerns about the disintegrating moral fabric of our society is the fact that, still in 2000, our government continues to condone the devaluing of human life by permitting abortion on demand.

Government edicts on stem cell research whose source is "surplus" human embryos created at fertility clinics appear to encourage the taking of unborn children's innocent lives "for the sake of science." However, citizen Christians can make a difference in the face of this culture of death.

Our attempts to make a difference in society flow from the fact that as Christians we have responsibilities in the realm of the nation as well as in the realm of the Lord's Kingdom. As citizens of heaven (Phil. 3:20), we are called to be obedient to the Lord (Ex. 20:1-5). Our Lord has commanded us to be the "salt" of the earth and the "light" of the world (Matt. 5:13-16).

This requires Christians to be in active engagement with the world, preserving as salt and illuminating as light. Obedient discipleship requires nothing less than active, principled involvement with society, including informed participation in our nation's public policy process. As John Stott has said,

There is a great need for more Christian thinkers in contemporary society, who will throw themselves into the public debate, and for more Christian activists who will organize pressure groups to promote the work of persuasion. Their motivation will be thoroughly Christian - - a vision of the God who cares about justice, compassion, honesty, and freedom in society, and a vision of man, made in God's image though fallen, moral, responsible, with a conscience to be respected. It will be out of zeal for God and love for man that they will seek the renewal of society. (John R. W. Stott, Involvement: Being a Responsible Christian in a Non-Christian Society, p. 93.)

All such involvement should be undergirded by prayer--prayer for elected officials, prayer for personal wisdom and guidance, and prayer for our nation (1 Tim. 2:1-3).

The Bible never says that we must be a majority. To employ an analogy from physics, we need only to reach "critical mass," the point at which an atomic chain reaction begins. How many does it take to reach the point at which the chain reaction begins? God alone knows the answer.

But we do know the process can and must begin with each of us. Follow His instruction to pray, to seek Him, and to repent (2 Chron. 7:14). And then, put feet to your prayers.

Become informed about the various candidates' positions on the issues; then cast your ballot accordingly.

More than ever, Americans are yearning for a restoration of the most fundamental traditional value: the sanctity of human life. Most of today's pundits and politicians refuse to acknowledge this concern about our culture. They realize that their vision for the American culture is vastly different from most Americans.

This election, as all elections should be, is about ideology, properly understood. It is about values. It is about convictions. James Davison Hunter, author of Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America, wrote,

Electoral politics, in other words, is far more than the process of selecting lawmakers who will administer the affairs of state. Rather, an election (especially a presidential one) is an opportunity by which citizens either embrace or reject certain symbols of national life. It is true that candidates in the heat of an election will inevitably tout their own competence, experience, knowledge and grasp of issues as against the incompetence, inexperience, stupidity and moral diffidence of their opponents. But in the final analysis, candidates tend to be selected by their parties and tend to run principally on the basis of the symbols of collective life they identify with in their rhetoric. ("America at War with Itself: Those Debates Over Sitcoms and Motherhood Aren't Froth - - This is a Cultural Showdown," The Washington Post, September 13, 1992, Page C1.)

In a time when unborn children continue to be aborted at a horrific rate of 1.37 million babies per year, elderly Americans are under increasing pressure to "step aside" and be euthanized, and policy wonks whisper about an imminent need to ration health care and to withhold it from those "unworthy" of that care. In his book The New Absolutes, William Watkins notes that we have slipped from a "procreation generation" to a "termination generation" in a matter of decades. The issues are far too important for Christians to allow personal preferences and concerns to dictate their vote in November.

The bottom line: Don't vote your geographic origins. Don't vote your denominational affiliation. Don't vote your pocketbook. Don't vote your party.

Vote your values. Vote your convictions. Vote your beliefs. If candidates want your vote, let them get it the old-fashioned way; let them earn it.

Let them make commitments, and then cast your vote based on your beliefs and convictions!

Dr. Land is the president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention (www.erlc.com) and host of the nationally syndicated radio program For Faith & Family.

Paid for by the NRL Political Action Committee. Not Authorized by any candidate.