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Voting 101

The Life Initiative Team • Oct 26, 2018 • 5 min
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“Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote…that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country.” Samuel Adams

I recently traveled for business and needed to take an Uber to the airport. My driver was a very polite middle-aged man who began the typical Uber-to-airport small talk—Are you from here? Where are you headed? What do you do for a living? Et cetera. And, when I asked, “What about you?” He proudly told me he immigrated from a small town in the state of Chihuahua, Mexico almost thirty years ago.

He then asked if I planned on voting in the upcoming election. This evolved into a discussion of our thoughts on some of the candidates. Speaking of one candidate in particular, he said, “I like him. He seems like a nice guy. You know, that’s what we need—nice guys in office doing good things.”

While it is true that we need “nice guys/gals in office, doing good things,” a political candidate must be so much more than that. This conversation alerted me, and to an extent, simply reminded me how many uninformed voters are shaping our elections, voting on the whims of society without having done much, if any, background research.

Politics in our society today are more divisive than ever. Rather than your religious, political, and moral beliefs forming topics of intellectual conversation, it has become increasingly more difficult to engage in conversation with others who think differently than you, without offending someone or escalating the conversation.

In elections, we are first called to pray. In Jeremiah 29, Jeremiah wrote a letter to those the Lord sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. Jeremiah wrote, “But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare,” (Jeremiah 29:7, ESV). We must pray for our city, state, and country. We must pray for our leaders who are in a position of authority. Pray the Lord works in and through them to benefit the welfare of our community and our nation. Pray the Spirit of the Lord will work through your elected officials, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord (Isaiah 11:2, ESV).

While the first step is always prayer, we are also called to take action in seeking the welfare of our city. You may be thinking, there are no “good” or “perfect” candidates; “I don’t want to vote for him or her and justify those one or two actions or statements he or she said or did last month.” However, indifference towards the political process does not result in the abolition of those individuals or doctrines with which you disagree, but in fact the opposite. It will result in the establishment of individuals in power who will ensure the enactment of those doctrines into policy. After prayer, we must vote for godly men and women who will turn to the Word of God to guide their actions.

It is not enough that we vote, but we must vote knowledgeably. We must cast our votes only after conducting research on the candidates to determine whether they will act on more than mere promises and truly live out the Word of God and not the world. Proverbs 18:15 teaches us that, “an intelligent heart acquires knowledge and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.” It is not enough to vote for “nice men and women who promise to do good things,” like my Uber driver suggested. As believers, we are called to look past the promises made and insults thrown on campaign trails, seek knowledge and wisdom regarding those with whom we are entrusting our government, and cast our votes for those whom will follow the Word of God.

"We are commanded to obey our leaders, so we must elect those whom we can trust to obey the Lord." Hebrews 13:17 (ESV)

We write this post to encourage and remind you to VOTE. Below is a list of resources that we hope will help you vote obediently, knowledgeably, and prudently. Early voting started on October 22. Election Day is November 6.

Resources

Voter Guides
Religious Liberty
Stewardship - Texans for Fiscal Responsibility
General - Right to Left Position - Rice University

County Election Contact Information