5 CHRISTIAN VALUES THAT WILL DETERMINE MY VOTE ON NOVEMBER 6

When Jesus Christ came to earth He did not identify with any of the numerous political or religious parties then in existence in Israel. He did not become a Pharisee, Sadducee, Zealot, Herodian or Essene. How could He! He did not come to take sides; He came to take over.

Jesus brought heaven’s values to earth and He wanted His disciples to exhibit those values. This is what the Sermon on the Mount is all about. This is what the Lord’s Prayer is about, particularly the part that says, Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done, on earth as in heaven. That is a prayer for heaven’s values to be realized here on earth.

When I walk into the voting booth on November 6, I will not be voting as a Democrat or Republican. I will cast my votes based on values and convictions that have been shaped by a life-long study of the teachings of Jesus and the New Testament.

Here are 5 Christian values that will determine my vote on November 6.

1. Life is Sacred

2. Family Matters

3. Faith in God, Not Government

4. Freedom of Conscience
5. Jesus is Our Example

Value #1

Life is Sacred

I will never forget the first time I saw an ultrasound image of a baby in the womb. I was stunned, and my response was, “That is a real person!” Erica, who was about to have an abortion, was even more stunned when she saw the ultrasound of her unborn baby. She wrote,

I begged the nurse to let me see my baby; I felt that I had to see. As soon as I saw my child on the ultrasound I knew I couldn't do it. I saw the heart beating, and he moved his little hands (almost like a wave). I think God intervened and sent me a message that I was about to make the biggest mistake of my life.

These intuitive, common sense responses are confirmed by both the Bible and science. For example, Luke, the physician and author of the Third Gospel, records the very personal response of John the Baptist, while still in the womb, to the voice of Mary, the mother of Jesus, greeting his mother. He must have kicked for his mother, Elizabeth, said to Mary, For indeed as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy (Luke 1:44).

The hand of our Creator on our life from the moment of conception is vividly expressed in Psalm 119:13-16, which reads,

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

Science confirms the Biblical record. After only 11 weeks in the womb the baby has a heartbeat and brainwaves and can kick. He/she squints, swallows and sucks their thumb. They are sensitive to heat, light, noise and all body systems are working.

After 20 weeks in the womb, babies are capable of experiencing pain, and that capability for pain increases with each passing day. Babies in the womb, therefore, experience excruciating pain during an abortion. They will seek to avoid the abortionist tools and will emit a “silent scream” as their tiny bodies are ripped apart.

Ninety-eight per cent of abortions are done for convenience and to end unwanted pregnancies. Such a contempt for life in the womb should not be part of a civilized society and will eventually lead to other forms of “legalized” murder.

Jesus said, I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly (John 10:10). The fact that life is sacred, even in the womb, will be a deciding factor in determining how I vote on November 6.

Value #2

Family Matters

I heard the veteran civil rights activist, Robert Woodson, declare that liberal social policies in America have accomplished what years of slavery and Jim Crow were unable to accomplish--the destruction of the black family. He and other black thinkers, such as Walter Williams and Thomas Sowell, trace the hopelessness and distress of the inner cities to the loss of fatherhood and the breakdown of the nuclear family. In a recent “Daily Signal” article, Williams wrote,

The No. 1 problem among blacks is the effects stemming from a very weak family structure. Children from fatherless homes are likelier to drop out of high school, die by suicide, have behavioral disorders, join gangs, commit crimes, and end up in prison. They are also likelier to live in poverty-stricken households.

Williams argues that the weak black family is NOT a legacy of slavery and gives statistics showing that the breakdown of the black family did not begin until after the 1960s. He blames this breakdown on the social welfare state created by clueless, left-wing politicians who think the government holds the key for every human need.

I can attest to what Williams is saying from my own experience growing up in a rural area of East Texas in the 1960s during segregation and Jim Crow. As a teenager, I worked in the fields alongside blacks chopping cotton, picking cotton and hauling hay. I remember them to be some of the happiest people I ever knew. Looking back, there is no question in my mind that the strong bonds of faith and family produced joy and mitigated the pain of segregation.

All of this confirms the fact that God created the human species to function in family units with a mother and father in a committed relationship called marriage. The environment produced by such a committed relationship between a man and a woman is the ideal setting for raising strong, healthy children who will become productive citizens.

When God sent His Son into this world to be born as a human being, He placed Him in a home with a mother and father. In doing so, He confirmed the pattern established in Creation and affirmed that such a home is the safest and most nurturing place for  children to be reared. The family unit is the basic social unit of any society and strong families inevitably lead to a strong and stable society

I, therefore, cannot vote for any candidate or party whose policies undermine the traditional, nuclear family. Family matters will definitely be a deciding factor in determining how I vote on November 6.

Value #3

Faith in God Not Government

America was founded by rugged people of faith who crossed oceans, mountains and streams to carve out a new life in a new world, without government assistance. These pioneers tended to be resilient and self-sufficient, conquering the wilderness with an ax in one hand and a Bible in the other.

America’s Founders considered such faith in God to be essential for good citizenship. James Madison wrote,

The belief in a God All Powerful wise and good, is so essential to the moral order of the world and to the happiness of man, that arguments which enforce it cannot be drawn from too many sources nor adapted with too much solicitude to the different characters and capacities impressed with it (Hyatt, Pilgrims and Patriots, 131).

It is no accident that our currency and coins contain the motto “In God We Trust.” Faith played a primary role in the founding of this nation and its ongoing success. This was so obvious that in 1892, in the case “Church of the Holy Trinity vs. the United States,” the U.S. Supreme Court declared,

From the discovery of this continent to the present hour, there is a single voice making this affirmation . . . we find everywhere a clear recognition of the same truth that this is a Christian nation (Hyatt, Pilgrims and Patriots, 167).

Contrast this faith of the Founders to modern socialism, which is rooted in atheistic Marxism, where faith in God is replaced by faith in government. The state is deified and becomes the all in all for the society. The people are taught to look to the government to solve every problem and meet every need. This in turn requires a ruling elite, like the old Soviet politburo, that controls every facet of society,

In Marxist/socialist thinking, faith in God is seen as an enemy to the state. That is why, during the twentieth century, millions of Christians were imprisoned and put to death in socialist/communist regimes such as China, Cambodia, Cuba and the Soviet Union. The god of socialism is a jealous god and will tolerate no rivals.

There is no example in history of atheistic socialism bringing peace and prosperity to a people or nation. In fact, the very opposite always happens. Despite having such a terrible track record, socialism is being embraced by the modern Democrat party.

I cannot support a party that thinks government is the answer to America’s ills and would, in effect, replace America’s motto of “In God We Trust” with “In Government We Trust.”

Value #4

Freedom of Conscience

I would never sue in court to try and force a pro-abortion artist to create a poster promoting the pro-life movement. Nor would I ever try and force an LGBT baker to create a cake that says marriage is between one man and one woman. Freedom of conscience is a Christian value that was honored from the very founding of our nation. Today, however, it is under relentless attack.

Just ask the Christian bakers and florists whose lives have been devastated after they were singled out for their Christian beliefs and then sued because they refused to create a special cake or floral arrangement for a same-sex wedding. Aaron and Melissa Klein, for example, a young couple in Oregon, were forced to close their bakery after being sued for declining to create a wedding cake for a lesbian marriage ceremony. They were not only assessed a $150,000 fine but were relentlessly attacked and threatened because of their beliefs.

This use of government force to compel conformity is known as “tyranny.” It was this sort of religious tyranny that many of America’s Founders or their parents fled from in the Old World. The rejection of such tyranny became the foundation for the Bill of Rights, especially the First Amendment.

The First Amendment guarantees freedom for each American citizen to live out their faith without government interference. One political party, however, has taken on the radical LGBT agenda and is willing to run roughshod over the consciences and sincerely held religious beliefs of anyone who gets in their way. This is tyranny and is neither a Christian nor an American value.

Paul the Apostle wrote, I myself always strive to have a good conscience without offense toward God and man (Acts 24:16). When I go into the voting booth on November 6, I will be voting my conscience. I will, therefore, vote for the candidate and party that will best protect the right of every American citizen to maintain a good conscience.

I cannot vote for any candidate or party that refuses to protect my conscience and sincerely held religious beliefs, and those of every American citizen. This is known as tolerance, and only the values of Jesus exhibit such tolerance.

Value #5

Jesus Christ is Our Example

Whose moral values do you want to live under? Marx? Mohammed? Buddha? Darwin? Soros? Sanders? America’s Founders had a clear answer.

In a letter to the governors of the various states at the end of the Revolutionary War, George Washington included an “earnest prayer” that the citizens of the new nation would seek to pattern their lives after Jesus Christ. He wrote,

I now make it my earnest prayer that God would have you, and the State over which you preside in His holy protection; that he would incline the hearts of the citizens entertain a brotherly affection for one another . . . and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind, which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, and without a humble imitation of His example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy nation (Hyatt, Pilgrims and Patriots, 134).

Every Founder, even the most irreligious, agreed with Washington that the teachings of Christ held the key for national virtue and social stability. Thomas Jefferson, for example, stated, “Of all the systems of morality that have come under my observations, none appear to me so pure as that of Jesus.” His commitment to the teachings of Christ is, no doubt, why he ended every official presidential document with the words, “In the year of our Lord Christ.”

Benjamin Franklin, another supposed irreligious Founder, stated, "The moral and religious system which Jesus Christ transmitted to us is the best the world has ever seen or can see." When the noted Deist, Thomas Paine, sent Franklin a manuscript copy of The Age of Reason, in which he attacked historic Christianity, Franklin refused to print it. In very strong language he suggested to Paine that he burn the manuscript and then said, “If men are this wicked with religion [Christianity], what would they be if without it.”

The Founders were unanimous in their belief that only a virtuous, tolerant and moral people could maintain the liberties enshrined in the founding documents. They were also unanimous in the belief that such morality and tolerance could only be derived from Jesus Christ and the teachings He brought to the world. Benjamin Rush, a physician from Philadelphia and signer of the Declaration of Independence, declared,

The only foundation for a republic is to be laid in Religion [Christianity]. Without this there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments.

We can now understand why the Catholic scholar, William Novak, wrote,

Far from having a hostility toward religion, the founders counted on religion [Christianity] for the underlying philosophy of the republic, its supporting ethic, and its reliable source of rejuvenation (Hyatt, Pilgrims and Patriots, 174).

The Democrat party has departed from this founding principle and taken a decided stand against Christianity. They support banning prayer and Bible reading from public schools and libraries. They support the removal of crosses, Ten Commandment displays and other Christian symbols from public property. In a recent Senate hearing, Democrat senators grilled Professor Amy Barrett about her faith and insinuated that her bold faith in God disqualified her from serving as a federal judge.

In rejecting the moral vision of Washington, Jefferson and Franklin, much of our country is like a ship without a rudder, adrift on a sea of moral relativism. As a result, moral confusion reigns in our schools, colleges and public institutions. With no transcendent, moral principle to guide our culture, each one does that which is right in his/her own eyes. What a recipe for moral chaos!

Psalm 33:12, says, Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD. America has been blessed because her Founders acknowledged Jesus Christ and His teachings as supreme. I cannot vote for any party that outright rejects the time-tested moral principles of Jesus for the subjective, erratic and unreliable creeds of modern secularism and multiculturalism.

Concluding Thought
""Whose Side Will You Choose?"

At the start of the Civil War, a minister from the North expressed to President Lincoln his hope that “the Lord is on our side.” Mr. Lincoln replied, “I am not at all concerned about that, but it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord’s side.”

In a similar way, it is my desire to be on the Lord's side when I walk into the voting booth on November 6. That is not to say that there are perfect choices. Far from it! Nonetheless, my goal is to vote for the candidate and party that best reflects the values that Jesus Christ brought to this world and were embraced by the Founders of this nation.

Dr. Eddie Hyatt has documented America's spiritual birth out of the Great Awakening in his book, Pilgrims and Patriots, available from Amazon and his website at www.eddiehyatt.com. He also conducts "America Reawakening" events, which is a stirring Powerpoint presentation based on his book and includes a call for Christians to pray and believe for another national, spiritual awakening.