an encouragement to vote
I know this is a little late, but good anyways.
the following was emailed to me by my dear friend and pastor up north:
“Dear Friends,
Several weeks ago I preached a sermon called “In God We Trust,” in which I outlined the relationship of the Kingdom of God to politics. I ended by stating that the Kingdom of God is not affected at all by who is elected to public office. Our hope is not to be in our political system any more than David’s hope was to be in numbering his troops.
But that doesn’t mean we are to be politically inactive. The Old Testament has a number of examples of people who spoke out politically. Nehemiah was a cupbearer to the king and used his position to political advantage on behalf of the Jews. Daniel was a respected statesman in four successive pagan administrations. Of course, David and a number of godly kings served God in their political regimes. In the New Testament, Paul made an appeal to his Roman citizenship a number of times.
Next Tuesday we will have the opportunity to vote in a historic election. I urge you to vote. Your vote is important for a variety of reasons. As citizens, Christians are to exercise our voice to influence the direction of our country. It doesn’t make sense to talk about the evil influences of our day if we don’t do something to stop them.
The Presidential race offers a clear cut choice between two competing ideologies. Besides the issues of abortion and advancing the homosexual agenda (which many “evangelicals” are encouraging us to ignore), raising taxes, increased government spending through “redistributing” the wealth, the war in Iraq, and solving our current economic crisis are all hot-button issues. But frankly, if we vote our pocketbook and ignore the moral issues of our day, we are not approaching the issues with a biblical mindset. Any candidate in any race who will not take a stand against the heinous practice of abortion and the perverted homosexual agenda should be rejected.
Many “evangelical” leaders are trying to reframe these issues to include the elimination of poverty and global warming as primary moral issues. But that only confuses the issues. Global warming is an incredibly misguided piece of illogical contortion of Scripture which shouldn’t even be listed in moral concerns. And, while addressing the poor is clearly a biblical mandate for Christians, the biblical solution is never government sponsored. Jesus ministered to the poor on a personal level. He never involved Rome.
I urge you to vote with a biblical mindset. This begins with an understanding of biblical morality. Abortion and homosexuality are clearly condemned in Scripture by any objective view. This has specific ramifications here in California with Proposition 8, which provides the most dramatic issue, possibly of this whole election season.
This proposition contains the very same words that were approved by 61% of the voters in 2000. It states simply, “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.” If passed, these words would be added to our state constitution. They would overturn the ruling of the four judges on the California Supreme Court who felt that their opinion was more valid than the majority of Californians. By the logic they expressed in their ruling, three people should be able to get married if they are “in love.” Or you could extend that to four people, or a man and two women, or a man and a child. After all, pedophiles say they “love” children too. The logic is preposterous.
Senator Diane Feinstein has started airing ads against Proposition 8. She says it is “discrimination.” Of course it is. But all laws are discriminatory. If someone broke into the Senator’s home, she would “discriminate” against them and call the police. We discriminate against murderers, rapists, thieves, and people who jaywalk. If we had no discrimination at all we would disband our police force, shut down our court system, stop passing laws-and live in chaos, free from discrimination.
The issue is not discrimination. For society at large, the issue is removing the priority of the most important institution we have and giving legal cover to an aberrant and damaging lifestyle. All objective societal indicators reveal the importance of children growing up under the influence of a mother and a father. When this is removed as the preferred model, the result will continue to be the degradation of the home and advancement of a harmful model for relationships between adults that will have damaging affects on children as well. Innocent children can already be adopted into a homosexual “home,” and we already have laws on our books that mandate teaching children in our public schools that there is nothing wrong with homosexuality, bisexuality, or transexuality. If Proposition 8 does not pass, state law would require public school teachers to teach young children that there is no difference between gay marriage and traditional marriage between a man and a woman. Only teachers of conscience in our public schools who would violate these laws would stand between the brainwashing of a whole generation of impressionable children.
The issue is also not about rights. Homosexuals enjoy the same basic protections under the law that all citizens do. They have the same right to live, work, play, entertain, and travel wherever they want to as everyone else does. Our laws also protect them against assault, rape, theft, and other crimes against the person. In fact, the homosexual agenda continues to push for more rights than any other group of people enjoy. What other group pushes for “hate speech” legislation that makes it a crime to even talk in a negative way about them?
If Proposition 8 is defeated it will remove the legal umbrella for the most valuable and enduring contract in our society. Marriage between “Party A” and “Party B” would officially remove the priority of a man and a woman raising children. It is almost too preposterous to imagine, but here we are. The image of two people of the same sex being “married” would be absolutely silly if it weren’t so tragic.
For the Christian, this is an overt attack questioning God’s creation of a man and woman in the Garden of Eden. It offers a crude counterfeit that is intended to destroy the very thing that is intended to be the ultimate human refuge for a man and a woman. Marriage is not only the sacred picture of Christ’s love for the church, it is the primary place where love, forgiveness, acceptance, holiness, joy, emotional maturity, and spiritual sanctification are learned and passed on to the next generation. Proposition 8 won’t kill those things for Christians who still want to follow Christ, but it establishes the official position of society as opposed to God’s provision.
Simply stated, a “yes” vote on Proposition 8 would ensure that even the State Supreme Court would have to uphold the standard of marriage for a man and a woman. As Christians, we should applaud and support this measure. I urge you to vote “yes” on Proposition 8 for the following reasons:
It restores the biblical standard of marriage between a man and a woman that is so important to society at large.
It restores the definition of marriage that has permeated all civilized cultures for thousands of years.
It will deny the opportunity to teach about the validity of homosexual “families” in our schools.
It does not take away any “rights” extended in our constitution to anyone.
It will place a significant roadblock to the homosexual agenda.
Thanks for reading through all this. I apologize for the length of this but this is one of the most important issues we have ever been asked to vote on. I firmly believe that if this proposition is defeated, the march toward criminalizing the reading of Scripture as “hate speech” will continue. God is still sovereign and will eventually vindicate His name. But in the meantime, we have the opportunity to stand against evil and continue to work for His kingdom here on this earth.
Sincerely yours,
Jon McNeff
Senior Pastor
NorthCreek Church”
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