This post originally appeared at https://wifamilycouncil.org/radio/christian-citizenship-demands-participation/

2024 | Week of October 21 | Radio Transcript #1589

Have you ever been told that faith and politics don’t mix? Or have you felt like when you enter church, your concerns about certain policies need to be left at the door?

These are troubling notions that many Christians experience especially during major elections such as this one.  Even some pastors believe faith and politics, or even the broader idea of government, are completely separate. This is dangerous, and not biblical.

To simply say we are pro-life, for example, without taking action to ensure that preborn children are protected in the womb is not enough. Voting is an action that has very real, tangible consequences that shape whether our communities will protect the rights of all and honor God in doing so.

Recent polling data from George Barna and his Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, however, found that as many as 41 million self-identified Christians are unlikely to vote in the upcoming election — “more than enough to hand the country’s keys to the eager and radical Left,” a Washington Stand reporter wrote.^[i]

According to the research, 49% percent of those surveyed who identified themselves as “people of faith” said they were unlikely to vote this November. Among those unlikely voters, the most common reason, offered by 68% of these non-voters, was a lack of interest in politics and elections, while 52% think their vote will not make a difference, 57% simply dislike the candidates, and 48% said they don’t know enough about the candidates to make a choice.^[ii]

For those who inconsistently vote because they believe their voice will not make a difference, that could not be further from the truth. At every election, at least one race is decided by a very small margin of votes. Many races in several states have been decided by just one vote, with scores more decided by just a few dozen votes. Your vote—every vote—absolutely matters.

For those uninterested in voting because they do not like the candidates, well, unfortunately, candidates are never perfect!  In spite of that reality, we still have the duty to consider how each candidate approaches some core values and vote accordingly:

• Religious Freedom – Does a candidate support our right to worship and publicly express our religious beliefs without fear of persecution? Does he or she support religious conscience exemptions?
• Life – Would the candidate protect the sanctity of human life from the moment of conception? Would he or she ensure that people of faith are not forced to fund abortions with their tax dollars?
• Marriage – Would the candidate strengthen the natural family by passing laws that incentivize marriage and reduce divorce?
• Parental Rights – Does the candidate believe children’s best decision-makers are their parents, and that parents should be empowered by the government, not restricted?
• Gender Issues – Does the candidate believe there are only two genders, and our children should be shielded from radical gender and sexual ideology?

Ample tools are available to help us learn about each candidate and proposed policy that will be on our specific ballot. One such tool is iVoterGuide. Other online resources are also available. Wisconsin Family Council has voter information publications for the presidential and US senate races available at wifamilycouncil.org.

We cannot overemphasize the importance of every Christian voting in this election. Fortunately, we have several ways to vote in Wisconsin, including early in-person voting and absentee ballots by mail.

Early voting begins this week and ends in most communities on Friday, November 1. Call your clerk’s office to verify hours. If you have an absentee ballot, that needs to be returned to your clerk’s office no later than the close of the polls on Election Day, Tuesday, November 5.  Sample ballots and other general election information are available at myvote.wi.gov.

Remember the number one reason non-voting Christians gave for not voting in this fall’s election?  They say they aren’t interested in government and politics. What a dangerous and quite frankly ignorant reason. It’s time to remember, for starters, that civil government is God’s idea and what we claim we aren’t interested in can very much hurt us, not to mention this idea flies in the face of our stewardship responsibility as Christians holding dual citizenship.

God has blessed us with form of government, a representative Republic, that to work right and well requires the knowledgeable participation of its citizens. Of all groups, Christians should be standing out as glowing examples of involved citizens, especially when it comes to voting.

For Wisconsin Family Council, this is Julaine Appling, reminding you that God, through the Prophet Hosea, said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”

[i] https://washingtonstand.com/commentary/to-the-41-million-christians-unlikely-to-vote-this-november-you-need-to-repent

[ii] https://wallbuilders.com/resource/christians-and-voting-2024/?R6wF9AvbqY=05D1ACD11597123E3005F20C556E6C79

Learn more at WIFamilyCouncil.org