by Tad Lindley
On November 8, 2022, one of the most critical elections in human history will take place. How will you vote? Will you vote based on the candidate’s skin color? Will it be based on the speaking abilities of the candidates? Will you vote the way your parents voted before you? Will it be because you signed up to join a political party years ago and you always vote that way? Or will you examine the things that the candidates stand for and cast your vote based on how closely their principles align with the word of God?
There are a number of issues that face our nation today. I will speak to three of them in this column.
Civil rights: The assault on young Black Americans
The number one killer of young black Americans is not murder (13,654 in 2020), police altercations (249 in 2020), or drug overdose (18,291 in 2020), it is abortion (237,631 in 2019). Center for Disease Control data published in 2011 reports that for every 1,000 black children born in the United States 474 lost their lives before birth to abortion. For every two children born, one died in an abortion clinic. Many of these are government funded abortion clinics.
According to the group Protecting Black Life, 62% of all Planned Parenthood clinics in the United States are in black communities (79% if we include Latino communities), keeping abortion cheap, safe, legal, and disproportionately black and Latino. (For those who might be wondering, last year, 2021, 262 Alaska Native/American Indian children were killed in the state of Alaska, this represents the population of a medium sized village dying EVERY YEAR).
Children are made in God’s image (Genesis 1:27, James 3:9-10). Children are a blessing from God (Psalm 127:3). God knows children even in the womb (see Psalm 139:13,15). The Bible condemns the killing of children (II Kings 17:17-18). On November 8, please consider the candidates and vote on behalf of those who are too young to vote. Vote to end the government funded racial assault on our children.
Foreign policy: we must support Israel
The number one priority in American foreign policy is that we support Israel. God blesses those who bless the nation of Israel. He told Abraham Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee [the modern land of Israel and surrounding land]: and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee: and in thee shall all nations of the earth be blessed (Genesis 22:1-3).
The support of Israel gets God’s attention. In Luke 7:5, a Roman needing a miracle is introduced to Jesus as one who loveth our nation and hath built us a synagogue. Jesus granted the man his miracle. In the end of time, there will be a nation that stands by Israel during the three and a half year reign of the anti-Christ (Revelation 12:13-17). We need to be mindful that our vote is cast to the candidate who will stand beside Israel.
The economy:
The Bible is very cautionary about taking on excessive debt. The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender (Proverbs 22:7). The United States borrowed a large amount of money from China during the Obama years. Only time will tell whether borrowing massive amounts of money from China was a wise move, but the Bible tells us that we better get out from under that debt as fast as we can. Massive money printing then happened under President Trump and has continued recklessly under President Biden. Please pray and vote that our nation would have leadership that is able to make the tough changes required to pay off our debts. Either that or vote for one who is really strong on education so that we can all learn to speak Mandarin.
Let your voice be heard
Christian voices need to be heard by the leadership of our nation. Please vote in all of your upcoming elections. Find out what the candidates’ positions are on the issues above, and vote as a result of prayer and Bible study. Remember to cast your vote on Biblical principles, not on human personalities
Reverend Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel, Alaska.
