The Bigger Picture

    From time to time we face dilemmas and we have to make decisions that aren't easy to make. Right now, in History, we are going through one of those times. We, who live in America, are getting ready for a big election in the fall. There are two men who are running for the office of president, and only one of them will win. These two men represent two different ways of thinking. One is called 'Conservative' and the other is 'Liberal'.
   But if it were just a matter of either voting conservative or liberal, there wouldn't be any problem, because all the people who are conservative will vote for the conservative guy, and the liberals will vote for the liberal guy. But there is a problem that goes deeper than that. You see, the conservative guy has a lot of strikes against him. First, he is a Mormon. In Biblical Christianity, we learn how to defend the faith. We learn what the Bible says about such issues and salvation and the deity of Christ. And we know that Mormons do not see the Bible the way we do. They have a different religion altogether. Our conservative candidate may be weak in some areas, as far as the presidency is concerned. Also, a strike against him is that, although he is pro-life, he will allow for a woman who has been raped to have the option of abortion. The bottom line is, our conservative candidate has some flaws in him.
  I don't have to go into much detail about the liberal candidate who is rerunning for the office of President. This man has continually been trying to bring our country down, so it is no longer a #1 nation. He is trying to weaken the power of our country by making our defense reduce its weapons. He wants to tax the rich people in America in order for them to pay for the damages done by colonization. That is one reason why he will not open the oil available to us, but will go down to South America and use its oil. We owe money to all these other countries because we have stolen through them through colonization. One of the biggest goals our current president has is to cause our economy to collapse. He wants America to be in slavery of other nations. We can see his socialistic heart as he carries out his plans throughout the past four years in office. Anyone with any kind of intelligence and foresight will be able to see that this man is trouble for our country.
  Now we have to pick which man we want for president the next four years. We don't have the option of filling someone's name in the blank and expecting that person to win over the opposing candidate. So, the questions are; Is it right to vote for a person who has flaws, some of them sinful? Does voting for such a person mean that I am condoning or endorsing sin? Is there such a thing as a candidate who is morally flawless? What will happen if I don't vote? What does the Bible say about voting?
   I will try to answer the last question first. Does the Bible talk about voting? Let's look at that and see. In the days of the Bible, the government was set up in such a way that people did not vote for their leader. Kings and Emperors inherited the throne and no one had a say about who they wanted (or didn't want) in. But there were fights and murders over the throne. So, people in the Bible days didn't elect people into office. But the Bible talks about those in authority. We are to respect and honor those in authority, and to pay taxes to them. They are responsible to protect their people. The Bible doesn't say anything about whether they had to be Christians or people who believed in God, or not. But we do have to pray for them.
   So my question is this; What kind of expectations should we have for a president or vice president? Keep in mind that the role of a president (or any country leader) is not the same role as a pastor. Here is where I think the Conservatives are missing it. It looks like we, probably without thinking about it, are putting the same standard out for president, that we would for a pastor. The Bible has high moral standards for a pastor. The pastor has a special role in the church. The president doesn't have a role in the church. His role is presiding over the United States of America, which means basically, providing protection for, and governing the people, believers and non-believers, Christian, Atheist, Catholic, Mormon, Jewish, Muslim, Agnostic, you name it, he is one who promises to protect and govern this group of people.
   But you might ask, what if his views on abortion are weak? That is a good question. People have different levels of understanding when life begins. I was thinking about the Roe vs. Wade decision that was made. The woman who was the one who started this whole process came to Christ. After she repented of her sins, she still did not see abortion as totally wrong. The Bible says that we see through a glass darkly. She was a brand new Christian, and her views may have developed to the point where she does see all abortion as wrong.
    We have a candidate who is 'pro-life'. But he thinks abortion can be allowed if a woman is raped. Compare that view with a man who is in full belief of abortion being fine, because it is a woman's choice. Look at the two different hearts. One only believes abortion is ok if it is done as a result of rape. The other believes a woman has the right to choose to abort her baby if she wants to. These two men are not even close on the spectrum, yet, people want to penalize the one who says its ok if a woman is raped. Let's look at the reality of this. It is very rare that a woman has an abortion because she got raped. The heart of the Conservative is not aggressively seeking to make provisions for a woman to be able to make her choice. But, if you can see what the liberal is doing, most things are done aggressively to accomplish an agenda, which is to diminish America.
   Even if a president believes in abortion as a woman's right, he cannot create abortion laws. All he can do is influence his thinking that abortion is right. So, when we vote for a man who only believes abortion is ok when a woman is raped, we don't need to fear that he will aggressively make abortion legal. That is just nonsense.
   If our forefathers and early presidents were alive today, I doubt many of us would vote for them. For example, Thomas Jefferson was a Deist, and his Bible had holes throughout it, where he cut out the verses that had to do with hell. Yet, Thomas Jefferson did much good for our country. He really did have some fear of God in his life. One of our best presidents, Ronald Reagan, showed a lot of wisdom in the decisions he made, yet he did some questionable things. While he was taking the Presidential oath, he was facing the obelisk. While he was governor, he introduced 'no fault divorce'.
   The bottom line is this. Every presidential candidate is going to have things in his life that are wrong. If we take those things that are wrong, and line them up with Scripture, and believe that the candidate is disqualified for running because of the things that he believes in, or practices, is wrong, we won't be voting for anybody. No candidate will meet our criteria for being president. The result will be that we won't vote. Guess what happens when people don't vote? The country falls apart.
   When we vote for an imperfect person (and every candidate is imperfect), we are not supporting his wrong beliefs. If his wrong belief system however, violates the Constitution, or is a danger to our country potentially, then we don't vote for him or her. The Bible describes the rulers as those who promote peace and protect the country. If a man has those qualifications that indicate he will protect the nation and if he shows that he truly loves our country, then we should vote for him/her.
   Here is one more question for you; Could it be that a trick of the devil would be to have the Conservatives divide over this issue, so that, the Conservative vote would become weak? If the Conservative vote is divided, then Obama wins. Satan always works to try to divide and bring down. Let's be aware of the devil's tactics.
   This is the bigger picture. It's not about Republicans vs. Democrats, or Conservatives vs. Liberals. It is about promoting peace and protecting the country vs. destroying the country and bringing the defenses down.
   And that is the end of the story, my friend. Thank you for reading and considering.