"I'll Vote Democrat, Republican.....But Jesus?"

   Either Jesus is Lord of all, or he isn't Lord at all.  That is not just a cliche, a trite saying; it is truth! Certainly all believers heartily attest to that!  Or do they?  Sadly, I think not; indeed, I know not.

     I will address you who are reading this blog very directly and plainly. If an open discussion is considered by you as an attack on your political party and causes you to have a defensive passion that you do not have when hearing our Lord's name being cursed, you are simply not right with God. 

     To set the record straight, I will vote for no man or woman based on whether he or she is a Democrat or Republican.  Every vote cast by a Christian to determine an election of a candidate or the fate of a referendum should be decided on one issue.....how closely does this candidate align himself with biblical moral principles? Someone might take issue with me and state that as a religious leader I should understand the principle of the separation of church and state.  While this principle has fervent arguments either supporting its existence or in opposition to its existence, there is one thing for sure....our Founding Fathers did not support separation of GOD and state. Proof? One example can be found in the Declaration of Independence which speaks of our being "endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights."

     From what authority did those early founders of our nation find the concept of the Creator? They found it in the Bible though some were Congregationalists, others Catholic, others Protestant, others deists, etc. Their religious authority held in common by them was God's Word. Therefore, common sense would dictate that that same authority which guided their penned belief that it was God who gave individuals their rights would also be the authority which governed those same individuals in the proper exercise of their rights.

     Proverbs 6:17 clearly says that one of six things God hates is "hands that shed innocent blood." This is one very good reason that I will never cast a vote for a candidate, Republican or Democrat, who supports legalized abortion. Someone may counter by asking if I support the death penalty, and if I do support the death penalty,  am I not a hypocrite because innocent men have been executed?  There is a huge difference. While I will agree innocent people have died in the executioner's chamber, the death penalty was designed as a public policy for punishment of guilty people. All of the victims of the public policy of legalized abortion are innocent. 

     Of course, another argument is that before a woman delivers, she is simply carrying a blob of fetal tissue which cannot be considered as a person with either innocence or guilt. Psalm 139:16 says, "Thine eyes did see my substance yet being imperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there was none of them." Please note that this verse totally dispels the modern myth of a fetal blob. God sees the UNFORMED baby being FASHIONED, that is, being developed in the womb. This one verse clearly confirms life begins at conception, so abortion is the ending of that innocent life, an act that Proverbs 6:17 says God hates. That being so, how in the name of all that is holy and rational  can a person who calls himself a believer politically support a candidate for any office who endorses a public policy which is a policy that God hates?

     This is only one example of the many reasons that sincere believers understand that the Bible must  trump the arguments of any pro-choice group or candidate's platform. Some of you who read this are, this very moment, angry with me and think that I am taking the Bible too seriously with a complex societal and political issue. You have an entire arsenal of non-biblical responses to shoot my way. Let me answer your concern for my narrowmindedness this way....when I stand before God, I'd rather hear Him say, "Harold, you took the Bible too seriously," as to hear Him say, "Harold, you didn't take the Bible seriously enough." For me, if Jesus is, indeed, in actuality, Lord of all, that includes the voting booth.