Do NOT fail to vote—ever, even if the only race on the ballot is for a local dog catcher.
During the last major national election, 25,000,000 Judeo-Christian believers sat home. The margin of victory was less than 5,000,000. If just 20% of the home sitters has voted, the outcome would have been substantially different. A significant portion of the recent cultural decline could have been avoided.
I hear people say, “I’m not going to vote, because no one is running that I can support.” Whoa! Do you see that flashing red neon sign in your mind’s eye? It says, “Pride alert! Pride alert! Pride alert! News flash: The election is not about YOU! Sometimes, it’s not even about the candidate(s) running. Here’s why:
Since elementary school, we have heard the opening lines of the Declaration of Independence so often we have become a bit numbed to them. For a moment, revisit those words anyway?
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator [God] with certain unalienable Rights [cannot be altered, abridged, or changed in any way, because they come from God], that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness [there are more, but this is the starting point].–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it…[Emphasis added]
The rights and freedoms embodied in the Declaration of Independence and codified in the United States Constitution are gifts from God, not grants from government.
Voting was held by the Founders and numerous later statesmen to be a sacred trust. Since voting is sacred, it is an act of worship. Voting is an act of worship, because the one casting the vote is not making a personal declaration or even supporting a particular candidate. The voter is casting a ballot to insofar as possible to guard and protect the rights and freedoms that are gifts from God. If none of the candidates will directly guard those rights and freedoms, at least vote for the one who will do the least damage.
I, for one, do not want to one day stand in judgment, hearing my God say, “I can hardly wait to hear what you did with my awesome gifts!” and have to reply that, “Well—I was so busy chasing materialistic goals the I really didn’t have time to vote much less do anything else that would protect those gifts.”
The signers of the Declaration of Independence were so totally and irrevocably committed to God’s gifts of rights and freedoms that they added at the end, “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
The cost was enormous. Later, Founder John Adams exclaimed, “Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present Generation to preserve your Freedom! I hope you will make good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in Heaven, that I ever took half the Pains to preserve it.”
Do YOU share their commitment to freedom? What will YOU do? Will YOU at least get off your blessed assurance and go VOTE?
“The people of every country are the only safe guardians of their own rights, and are the only instruments which can be used for their destruction.”
Jefferson to John Wyche, May 19, 1809
South Reading Room Mural
John Adams Building
Library of Congress
Voting is Sacred; It Is an Act of Worship
The founders created vitally important checks and balances in the Constitution, but it is up to the voters to enforce the checks and balances. Today’s courts, including the U. S. Supreme Court will not do it. The founders and others considered the citizen’s right to vote a vitally important sacred trust.
Voting was held by the Founders and numerous later statesmen to be a sacred trust. Since voting is sacred, it is an act of worship. Voting is an act of worship, because the one casting the vote is not making a personal declaration or even supporting a particular candidate. The voter is casting a ballot to insofar as possible to guard and protect the rights and freedoms that are gifts from God. They are the rights and freedoms enshrined as a partial list in the Declaration of Independence and guaranteed by the United States Constitution. If none of the candidates will directly guard those rights and freedoms, at least vote for the one who will do the least damage.
Consider these profound observations all reprinted as direct quotation. Note the special emphasis on the voter’s accountability to God and posterity.
Samuel Adams (Founder)—Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that he is not making a present or a compliment to please an individual – or at least that he ought not so to do; but that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country. Nothing is more essential to the establishment of manners in a State than that all persons employed in places of power and trust be men of unexceptionable characters. The public cannot be too curious concerning the character of public men.
Alexander Hamilton (Founder)—A share in the sovereignty of the state, which is exercised by the citizens at large, in voting at elections is one of the most important rights of the subject, and in a republic ought to stand foremost in the estimation of the law.
Matthias Burnett Tallmadge (statesman and federal judge)—Consider well the important trust . . . which God . . . [has] put into your hands. . . . To God and posterity you are accountable for [your rights and your rulers]. . . Let not your children have reason to curse you for giving up those rights and prostrating those institutions which your fathers delivered to you. . . [L]ook well to the characters and qualifications of those you elect and raise to office and places of trust. . .Think not that your interests will be safe in the hands of the weak and ignorant; or faithfully managed by the impious, the dissolute and the immoral. Think not that men who acknowledge not the providence of God nor regard His laws will be uncorrupt in office, firm in defense of the righteous cause against the oppressor, or resolutely oppose the torrent of iniquity. . .Watch over your liberties and privileges – civil and religious – with a careful eye.
Thomas Jefferson (founder and president)—The elective franchise (right to vote), if guarded as the ark of our safety, will peaceably dissipate all combinations to subvert a Constitution, dictated by the wisdom, and resting on the will of the people.
Daniel Webster (statesman and senator)—Impress upon children the truth that the exercise of the elective franchise (right to vote) is a social duty of as solemn a nature as man can be called to perform; that a man may not innocently trifle with his vote; that every elector is a trustee as well for others as himself and that every measure he supports has an important bearing on the interests of others as well as on his own.
Vote! Vote! Vote! Vote at every opportunity including seemingly minor local offices. Vote thoughtfully after careful consideration of the record of each candidate and his/her specifically clarified views. Do not fail to vote; do not vote frivolously.
Strong Character Builds Strong People and a Strong America; Compromised Character Destroys Both
John Adams (founder)—We electors have an important constitutional power
placed in our hands; we have a check upon two branches of the legislature . . . the power I mean of electing at stated periods [each] branch… It becomes necessary to every [citizen] then, to be in some degree a statesman, and to examine and judge for himself of the tendency of political principles and measures. Let us examine, then, with a sober, a manly . . . and a Christian spirit; let us neglect all party [loyalty] and advert to facts; let us believe no man to be infallible or impeccable in government any more than in religion; take no man’s word against evidence, nor implicitly adopt the sentiments of others who may be deceived themselves, or may be interested in deceiving us.
Frederick Douglass (statesman, orator, social reformer)—I have one great political idea. . .That idea is an old one. It is widely and generally assented to; nevertheless, it is very generally trampled upon and disregarded. The best expression of it, I have found in the Bible. It is in substance, “Righteousness exalteth a nation; sin is a reproach to any people” [Proverbs 14:34]. This constitutes my politics—the negative and positive of my politics, and the whole of my politics. . .I feel it my duty to do all in my power to infuse this idea into the public mind, that it may speedily be recognized and practiced upon by our people.
[T]he time has come that Christians must vote for honest men and take consistent ground in politics Charles Finney (19th Century evangelist)— or the Lord will curse them. . .Christians have been exceedingly guilty in this matter. But the time has come when they must act differently. . . . Christians seem to act as if they thought God did not see what they do in politics. But I tell you He does see it – and He will bless or curse this nation according to the course they [Christians] take [in politics].
John Jay (founder)—Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation, to select and prefer Christians for their rulers. The Americans are the first people whom Heaven has favored with an opportunity of deliberating upon and choosing the forms of government under which they should live.
William Paterson (signer of the Constitution)—When the righteous rule, the people rejoice; when the wicked rule, the people groan.
Noah Webster (lexicographer and political writer)—In selecting men for office, let principle be your guide. Regard not the particular sect or denomination of the candidate – look to his character as a man of known principle, of tried integrity, and undoubted ability for the office … Scriptures teach …they direct that rulers should be men who rule in the fear of God, able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness. When a citizen gives his suffrage to a man of known immorality he abuses his trust; he sacrifices not only his own interest, but that of his neighbor, he betrays the interest of his country.
When you become entitled to exercise the right of voting for public officers, let it be impressed on your mind that God commands you to choose for rulers, “just men who will rule in the fear of God.” The preservation of government depends on the faithful discharge of this duty; if the citizens neglect their duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted; laws will be made, not for the public good so much as for selfish or local purposes; corrupt or incompetent men will be appointed to execute the laws; the public revenues will be squandered on unworthy men; and the rights of the citizens will be violated or disregarded. If a republican government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the divine commands, and elect bad men to make and administer the laws.
John Witherspoon (minister and signer of the Declaration of Independence)—Those who wish well to the State ought to choose to places of trust men of inward principle, justified by exemplary conversation. . . [And] the people in general ought to have regard to the moral character of those whom they invest with authority either in the legislative, executive, or judicial branches.
Vote! Vote! Vote! Vote at every opportunity including seemingly minor local offices. Vote thoughtfully after careful consideration of the record of each candidate and his/her specifically clarified views. Do not fail to vote; do not vote frivolously.
Broken Character Will Break America, Unless…
President James Garfield—Now more than ever the people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless, and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness, and corruption. If it be intelligent, brave, and pure, it is because the people demand these high qualities to represent them in the national legislature. . . . [I]f the next centennial[1976] does not find us a great nation . . . it will be because those who represent the enterprise, the culture, and the morality of the nation do not aid in controlling the political forces.
Francis Grimke (Presbyterian minister and civil rights activist, 1852-1937)—If the time ever comes when we shall go to pieces, it will . . . be . . . from inward corruption – from the disregard of right principles . . . from losing sight of the fact that “Righteousness exalteth a nation, but that sin is a reproach to any people” [Proverbs 14:34]. . .[T]he secession of the Southern States in 1860 was a small matter with the secession of the Union itself from the great principles enunciated in the Declaration of Independence, in the Golden Rule, in the Ten Commandments, in the Sermon on the Mount. Unless we hold, and hold firmly to these great fundamental principles of righteousness. . . our Union . . . will be “only a covenant with death and an agreement with hell.”
William Penn (founder of Pennsylvania)—Governments, like clocks, go from the motion men give them; and as governments are made and moved by men, so by them they are ruined too. Wherefore governments rather depend upon men than men upon governments. Let men be good and the government cannot be bad. . . . But if men be bad, let the government be never so good, they will endeavor to warp and spoil it to their turn. . .[T]hough good laws do well, good men do better; for good laws may want [lack] good men and be abolished or invaded by ill men; but good men will never want good laws nor suffer [allow] ill ones.
Vote! Vote! Vote! Vote at every opportunity including seemingly minor local offices. Vote thoughtfully after careful consideration of the record of each candidate and his/her specifically clarified views. Do not fail to vote; do not vote frivolously.
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Dr. Lloyd Stebbins 