Remembering the Original Plan for This Country
The United States of America were founded with faith in mind, and in heart—namely, the judeo-christian values, morals, and belief in God. Despite what secular America would have you believe, there is no denying that. You can hear it in the words of our founding fathers as they drafted the documents that proclaimed our freedoms.
“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”
This is the introductory paragraph of the Declaration of Independence in which you can clearly see that this country is founded upon the “Laws of Nature” and “Nature’s God.” It doesn’t get more blatant than that. They had faith, they believed in God, and their belief in God influenced their political views. Period.
So why is it that today there is such an effort to keep faith, specifically the Christian faith, out of the public square, and for that matter, the ballot box? Your faith—whatever it may be—defines you, who you are and your view of the world.
Five Reasons Your Vote is Important
1. The Bill of Rights Says So
There’s no doubt that faith was important in the founding of this great country, and that it remains to be so in its continued survival. Of those protections laid down in the Bill of Rights, the very first of these rights reads as follows:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
It is your right to practice your faith, to live your religion, or to “exercise” it as they expressed it. And they thought it so important, so essential to the survival of the American experiment, that they chose to make it the first on the list of our God-given rights.
2. Real Faith is Lived Faith
Christianity is not only something you practice on Sunday mornings. The attempt to rephrase “freedom of religion” to “freedom of worship” provides direct proof to the widely misunderstood notion of the practice of religion. Unfortunately, there is a large group of Christians who live their faith this way, thus adding to this misunderstanding. If you are a Christian, you are a Christian 24/7/365. Yes, Sunday is the day you come together with your fellow Christians to worship your God, but that doesn’t mean He ceases to exist the rest of the week.
As a Christian your faith—your belief that God loved you enough to become human like you, suffer and die for you, then rise from the dead to give you new life—is a gift from God that has changed you on the deepest level of your existence. And that faith causes a change in your life, in every aspect of your life. You don’t just go to church. You are called to practice your faith, to live your faith, to be a Christian.
3. Life Matters, in All Cases
One of the issues that continues to poke it’s ugly head up is that of abortion. You might think that this should not be a factor for your vote, but life is the most precious right that you have.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Again, our founding fathers recognized that life was a gift, a right, that you receive from God. To take away the right to life is to in essence void all of your rights. If you don’t have the right to live, what do you have? It doesn’t sound like a big deal, because it didn’t happen to you, but abortion has claimed over 50 million lives since Roe v. Wade made it legal. That means there are over 50 million people missing from the world that should be walking among us.
“Any country that accepts abortion, is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what it wants.”
~ Blessed Teresa of Calcutta
Abortion is the extinguishing of life, which violates the fifth commandment. Neither of the presidential candidates follow the Catholic view on abortion. Romney’s position on abortion is that it should only be allowed in cases of rape or incest, which is a big step toward abolishing abortion. Obama sticks to his party’s pro-choice position, which sounds like a good thing, but actually continues the open practice of abortion.
4. Love Can’t Be Forced
You are most likely a good person. You probably want good things for other people. Perhaps you even volunteer or contribute to charitable causes and organizations. That is the beauty of charity. It is voluntary. By making the decision to do good, you bring good on yourself and on others. Christians are good at charity, shoot, the Catholic Church is one of the largest charitable organizations in the world. Should that continue, or should the government take over? Should the government place roadblocks that prevent the good work of the Church from being carried out?
Charity is another word for selfless, self-giving love and love must come freely. It’s not just a feeling, but rather a decision that you make to step outside of yourself. People reaching out to each other in charity is what makes societies succeed. A government organization providing food to the hungry can never compare to the personal connection made between real people. The idea was a good one, but it takes the love out of charity and makes it a program, a machine.
5. Money, Money, Money, Moooneeey
Jobs are the hot topic this election, as they were last time around. Not much has changed. What is the solution? Should more money be spent to create jobs? Sounds good, but is it the responsible thing to go deeper into to debt to do it? Is it a permanent solution as the Obama campaign would have you believe? More debt means insecurity for future generations.
The government has the ability to help people, but if it comes at the cost of others, is it worth it? Can people be empowered to create their own jobs, build their own companies, and start their own businesses? Many have, and many more will. Those businesses will hire people. Those companies create jobs. That’s another approach to the situation. What do you think?
What to Remember at the Polls
The government has a job and that is to protect the rights of people, rights given to the people by God. That is what you should think about when you are headed to the polls next month. Not parties. Political parties don’t matter. They have both become mutated forms of their former selves, often times forgetting the people they were created to serve.
Your vote needs to be informed, so read up on the candidates, their policies, and their history. You can’t really go off of the sound bites you hear on TV or the radio, because many times they are taken out of context or worse yet, forgotten by the candidate as soon as they have your vote. If you don’t vote with your faith and your conscience, then nobody else is going to. You have a voice, use it! So read up on the candidates, watch the debates, and pray!