As a person I am an avid fan and follower of American politics. As a pastor I am a shepherd of God's people and have a responsibility to advance the Gospel, train God's sheep, and give counsel, advice, and wisdom on matters pertaining to the lives of God's people.
As a personal citizen of the United States of America, I have been given one vote to cast in the 2024 presidential election. As a pastor I have the responsibility of stewarding the lives and questions of my congregants while seeking to give the best wisdom I can to those seeking my counsel on such matters.
As a person, I am responsible for who I vote for in the 2024 presidential election. As a pastor, I am responsible for stewarding God's people and their questions regarding such matters pertaining to life and godliness - and politics would be one of those areas.
As a person, I live in a blue state, Colorado. As a pastor, I pastor an Evangelical Southern Baptist Church named Vanguard Church in Colorado Springs. My position as a person and a pastor matter in this election just as the personage and position of other US citizens matters to the 2024 presidential election equation, but how and how much?
Because politics comes with power, and lots of it. Based off our democracy and process of election, the levels of authority and influencers in our society become critical to the equation. Yet, it has been my impression, in watching how things unfolded during Covid that our desire to control people and to tell them what to believe is of little to no value in such an election season. Celebrities and powerful pastors and even politicians think they own the power to persuade people to do what they want, but I have not found this to be the case with Americans and especially American Christians and specifically American Evangelical Christians.
The debate over whether the morality of the candidate matters in an election year seems to no longer even be a talking point in our society. The corruption of politics and politicians has reached an even higher level than the scandals of so many senior pastors of our day. It is remarkable though to watch politicians with no character cancel pastors who have been exposed for having no character.
We live sadly in a gross society where insult, name calling, and character assassination is the name of the game. The only problem is, no one has any character seemingly anymore and no one seems to care that no one anymore has any character left to assassinate.
In Jesus' time, he was asked, "Master, should we pay taxes?" Jesus' response was to render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's, meaning, yes, taxes are something that each citizen pays, and, in our democracy, voting is how we show our support of the one who is responsible for determining taxes and how much we pay back to our government to run the affairs of our country. The job of the President is to work with Congress to erect a budget that allows our nation to live within its means while tending to the matters at hand to care for our nation and to represent democracy and support to our allies around the world.
As we near this 2024 presidential election there is no discussion about balancing the federal budget, there is no discussion of being fiscally responsible with what has been entrusted to us. There is no plan for turning us back from the cliff that our nation is headed toward, apart from learning to live within our means. Our federal government is modelling to us that they do not have to live in their means, and neither do we. All of us in various measures are drinking the Kool-Aid that we can spend how we want, where we want, with no consequence. But we all know this is not true. We see the consequence in our own lives.
Since 9/11 our nation has been morally and financially predominantly heading the wrong direction. Our respect for authority, our desire to instill a work ethic, and the desire to honour our constitution by all parties involved is sad to observe, behold, and process daily.
We have all seemingly sadly settled for "the lesser of two evils" conversation and though I don't disagree we should vote, we are left to fight it out over a morsel of bread that sadly will not satisfy the wrath we feel from God toward our nation.
As a pastor I want to encourage you to vote, I want to encourage you to stand for morality and the truth of God's Word as you vote, but I also want to encourage you to remember what God said to the nation of Israel and how to best preserve a nation.
God said in 2 Chronicles 7:14: "If my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land."
In Romans 13, it makes clear that the job of the government is to represent God to the people. Sadly, we have politicians that can't get out of their own way and desires, and we have a nation of citizens who are looking for someone to do for them what they don't want to do for themselves. God calls his people to get on our faces before Him, to repent, and to ask Him to bless our nation.
Can I invite you as a person to vote? It is the power given to you by your government. But as a pastor, can I invite you to pray because that is the power given to you by God. Pray for a President who will seek the face of Jesus and seek to surround themselves with people who will give them wisdom from God.
Oh, how our nation needs a Jesus-following leader.
