What Should You Care About in the Voting Booth

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In addition to your thoughts on who can help lead a recovery of the economy, combat terrorism and conduct our foreign policy (including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan), here's what you should care about when you enter the voting booth. It's not that politicians are actually on the front lines on most of these issues, but their actions certainly have an impact on them:*

    * pursuing the well-being of marriages and families
    * protecting religious freedom and liberty of conscience
    * promoting the sanctity of human life
    * seeking justice and compassion for the poor and vulnerable
    * protecting human rights
    * seeking peace and working to restrain violence
    * caring for God's creation
    * pursuing racial justice

That's a good start, I think. The notation below will lead you to the biblical basis for each of these issues and a whole lot more.

*This list is adapted from "For the Health of the Nations: An Evangelical Call to Civic Responsibility," a position paper produced by the National Association of Evangelicals in 2004.

Endorsing a Presidential Candidate

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In the last week of our Memo2theNextPresident.com series I'll be departing from the pattern we've been following. The text will be Romans 13 and the title is "Correctly Political." 

You may remember that several weeks ago several pastors across the nation endorsed particular presidential candidates in their sermons that week. The stories in the news were about how they might be putting their tax exempt status in jeopardy. There's also a legal group that will defend their churches and hopes to take it to the Supreme Court to overturn the relatively recent law forbidding churches from recommending particular candidates. 

I'll tell you this week why I think it's a bad idea for a church or the pastor of a church to recommend presidential candidates in any "official" manner. And my reasons have nothing to do with our tax exempt status. 
That's not all I'll be talking about. Part of bringing Christ to everyday life is to be a compassionate citizen, active in the community and in our nation for good and for the Kingdom of God. Our vocation in our world is much more important and impacting than recommending particular candidates or policy measures. Don't miss the last week of our series if you can help it.