What an election year!  Can we say this is epic?  Are we allowed to compare this to every other election year and actually admit the process has become base and degrading and unlike previous years?  One might argue that every year mudslinging takes place and candidates up the ante with negative campaigns and exaggerations of the truth and even outright lies, but this year seemed to have started earlier and gotten uglier much faster.

I have been witnessing people become polarized over “their” candidate and their political views.  People are angry, protesting candidates, and the lies, wow the lies are just every where.  The press cannot be trusted to be objective and talking heads and reporters takes sides and skew the political rhetoric to appeal their own views.  I am exhausted from the robo calls and television ads, the mailers and the divisiveness of our country.  So, how am I to vote?  I have been told by just about everyone on TV how and what I should do, I have seen and read articles by pastors, preachers, teachers, politicians, journalists, comedians that tell me who not to vote for and why and what will happen if I do.  So, once again I ask, How am I to vote?

I have broken it down to what I believe can be a way to clear out all the noise and get to heart of the issue.  But it will take effort on your part, do not read this if you just want someone to spoon feed you an answer. Don’t read further if you get offended easily.

1.   I will choose a candidate that will allow me to practice and proselytize my christian faith.  As a Christian ,it is not enough to just be allowed to attend church or a bible study, but I am commanded to go into all the world and preach the Gospel and make disciples of all peoples.  I am to love them and tell them about the saving and forgiving love of Christ by faith through grace and not forgetting repentance.  So I need to be free to teach biblical truth about marriage, the sanctity of life, all life, unborn, elderly, disabled, enslaved, and imprisoned.     That is the most important issue to me-a founding father constitutional right-freedom of religion.
2.   Although I have been told by teachers of the law that a man who is arrogant and brash cannot be allowed to preside over America, I wonder what they think of all the presidents who have served before these potential candidates?  We have learned that many  were foul mouthed, adulterous, liars, cheats, etc–they just did it behind closed doors until they were caught.  Am I to assume that if one doesn’t speak that way in public that somehow he or she is moral? truthful? honest? humble?  The past has shown us that what we have seen has not always been truth.  There was NO Camelot.   Politicians are by their very job skilled at speeches and telling people what they want to hear to get votes.  They use their tongues to spin tales using half truths and false promises, as WE LISTEN  ugh!    Do people really believe that these professional politicians who line their pockets with our hard earned taxed dollars–that’s right, their pay is OUR money–do not make deals with our enemies or keep the status quo so they can keep their jobs?   I sometimes believe a leader like Saul, who was Israel’s first king, was given to the people so they might repent and return to God.  He gave them what they demanded, He did this to show them their need for Him. Once again, I look for the  freedom of speech, religion, and the  press.
3.  You must be willing to learn.   This election has forced me to actually learn the constitution, the bill of rights and the amendments.  Because the press can no longer be trusted to keep the checks and balances I have had to get out of my comfort zone and actually see what our founding documents say.  I need to know what power “we the people” have.   Then I am able to see through the clutter.   I can see the twisting of the truth, the sound bites, the media seeking viewers to drive up commerical dollars and therefore profits.    I have learned to read what the candidate say on their pages, not just what they say in 4 second bites that get played out of context and warped to once again fit the opinions of those promoting their own ideology.   This drives me back to number one again: Freedom–freedom of the press so I can write, publish my own findings, freedom to fact check, freedom to see who gives money to these people and what they will want in return.  Freedom Freedom Freedom

You see when Jesus came in His first advent, He did not come to overthrow Rome and yet this is what the people wanted.  They wanted someone to ride in and fix the mess.  They were not concerned with their sin, they had their laws and sacrifices, they just had this issue with Rome ruling over them  If they had the right person to rule then they all could just keep on living their lives and be free from Roman oppression.  They didn’t want a heart change, just a leadership change.  When Jesus did not do as they thought he should they found a way to kill Him; interestingly enough, that was the plan all along.  Jesus was in on it too, He went to the cross on His own power, knowing His blood would even save those who were killing him, if they would only believe.  Many did, and the rest is history.  This is the one time in history that ONE MAN could impact the entire world.

So once again, How do I vote?  Well I  know that no one man or woman can fix this country. It belongs to the people and if the people are too lazy or busy or distracted to care about saving it then we get what we deserve.  If this offends you then thicken up your skin.  Most people are too consumed with their own lives to do the hard work of studying government, or law, man’s or Gods, we all have become slaves to pleasure and work in a vicious cycle.   No man or woman is supposed to “save” us, no amount of money or free programs will work, no economic plan will rectify a broken and sinful world, no climate control can stop the inevitable course of action of our planet to end in fire; God’s word tells us that this is the future.  God will come again, He will come to judge this time.     So as a person who is blessed to live in a free country at the moment, and have the privilege to vote, I will, but I will choose based on who will keep the freedoms our constitution was written to protect.   I do not want to lose my right to teach the bible, to tell my neighbor about Christ and not be thrown in jail, to express God’s desire and plan for one man and one woman in holy matrimony and not be in fear of being fined or jailed or forced to take a sensitivity course.   When it comes down to two people in November, I WILL vote, even if that person is arrogant, yep I will, because I have studied enough to know they all are arrogant, full of pride, have huge amounts of money given to them so that they will be swayed in one arena or another, they all will fall short, the system has been hijacked and we the people have allowed it.  They are sincere, they do want to help the country, although there plans are as different as the ocean is vast.  Look to who will keep you freedom to praise Christ, and in the event we lose that right, we will still not lose heart, for we know the One in charge.

So before you take what the media says at face value, before you hate your neighbor for voting for a person you don’t care for, ask yourself if you know the truth?  Have you even tried to find the truth?   Do you use God’s standard for truth or the cultures?  Have your read their biographies, their websites, or do you blindly trust those who are more than glad to keep you in the dark, silent and being led like sheep to the slaughter?   Voting should not be about a name you recognize, or how they look or sound, you should be informed and in this day and age you have no excuse.  Every candidate has their own information out there.   If you are more offended by someone saying something against a political candidate than you are offended by those who degrade God in heaven then you have a political idol.   If you believe one person can build America up or destroy America then you do not trust God.  After all it is God who puts kings in positions and He wields them as He will.

So Vote, vote informed, vote knowing that God will be placing a man or woman in charge and it will be we deserve.  We have a duty to our God, our family and our Country.  If we neglect any of these we will lose them.   So trust God, trust in His plan and believe  He can use any person to fulfill His Will;  No candidate has more power to rule than the Lord has allowed them to have.

I am off the soapbox, this was long and painful.  I hope you will get through this election year intact, full of grace and mercy and ready to pray for the leaders put in place.  God’s way is always for our good according to His riches in Glory.

God Speed

Your sister in Christ

Amy

Ponytail and Boots