We Decide Today

  I have no intention of telling you how to vote today. Your choices are your own. But I have every intention of encouraging you to vote because, given the issues our nation is facing, I believe it is a sin for Christians to do nothing. A total ban on human cloning passed the House by an overwhelming majority, but it never came up for a vote in the Senate. If we elect senators who will vote for a total ban on human cloning, we will be making huge strides in defending what it means to be human, one of the defining moral issues of our day. If we lose that vote, the consequences will be grave. We decide today. Then there is a whole host of foreign policy issues including our response to North Korea and its nuclear weapons, the question of whether we go to war with Iraq, and the ongoing war on terrorism that has reared its head again in Indonesia and Russia. Homeland security is enormously important in the war on terrorism. Will the office of homeland security's staff be subject to the president, or will the unions control it? We decide today. Tough budget questions are before our leaders as well. Because we can't afford to do everything, are we going to continue funding all the benefit programs of the government, or are we going to tighten down and invest in the military resources needed to defend civilization? We decide today. Another huge issue is the confirmation of judges. The Senate -- in an abuse of the advise-and-consent clause of the Constitution -- has made a mockery of the process of confirmation, leaving ninety-four vacant seats, which Chief Justice Rehnquist calls "alarming." Qualified nominees are just sitting and waiting. Either they never get a vote, or they get voted down on straight party lines. A report last August by the American Bar Association said that as a result of delays in the judicial confirmation process, "the federal courts . . . suffer, and so does the rule of law." It went on to say that the Senate Judiciary Committee's refusal to allow "confirmation proceedings in the full Senate is simply unacceptable to our notion of an appropriate and constitutional nomination process." The way we the people correct these problems is by getting out and voting. That's what democracy is all about. Remember the next Congress will probably handle new nominees to the Supreme Court. The make-up of the Senate will decide who, if anyone, gets confirmed. You and I can have a say in that make-up. We decide today. In my home county, there is a real dogfight for the school board that's going to influence a lot of issues important to people in my neighborhood. Are we going to be able to teach the flaws in evolution as well as the facts supporting it? Is there going to be explicit sex education? Will there be special rights for homosexuals? Will schools be offering classical education or some form of social engineering? Issues like these are up all across the country. And we decide today. In short, it is the first duty of an informed citizen of a free nation to vote, and Christians, as Saint Augustine taught, are to be the best of citizens. There are profound moral questions being decided today. As Christians, it is our privilege, our duty, and our sacred trust to take the time to get out and vote. We decide today. For further reading: See CitizenLink's coverage of the election. See the October 30 "Worldview for Parents" page for more resources on voting and public policy. Access the Christian Coalition Voter Guide download page. Once you sign in, you can then select the voter guides for your state and/or area and view, download and print them out on your desktop printer. Cal Thomas, "The election for which few care," Jewish World Review, 31 October 2002. Bob Jones, "Northern nail-biter," World, 2 November 2002. Peter Kreeft, How to Win the Culture War: A Christian Battle Plan for a Society in Crisis (InterVarsity Press, 2002).

11/5/02