iVoteValues Archives

Voter Generation Gap

Posted by: Kaylan Christopher on April 10, 2008 Biblical Values •

My grandma’s music is not my music today. My granddad’s paycheck didn’t look like the paycheck I get every two weeks. And their political party choice may not match mine. Times sure have changed.

There is definitely a generational gap in how we do things. But one thing we do share and connect on is our values—because we believe in what the timeless truth of God’s Word has to say about our culture’s hot topics.

A Gallup Poll recently stated that approximately 6 in 10 Americans say religion is very important in their lives, while 26% say religion is fairly important and only 16% say it is not very important at all.

Religious times sure have changed since my grandparents were my age. My grandmother used to tell me how good times were when she was growing up. I remember her detailing the time she and her family drove to California.

During their journey, they stopped on the side of the road one night to sleep out in the open air. The next night they randomly knocked on the door of a stranger in a town along the way to rest their heads. And throughout the trip, they picked up several hitchhikers to offer a helping hand because it was the right thing to do.

This would never happen today. Yes, times have changed—especially in our belief system, morals, and religious values in America.

Gallup said: “The percentage of Americans who reported that religion was very important in their lives was slightly lower between 1978 and 1989, but was significantly higher in surveys conducted in 1965 and 1952.”

Statistics aside, with each passing year our country seems to move more toward the idea that religion is less important. No wonder our culture is dying morally.

It is our job as believers to help make the right decisions when choosing which way our country should go. It’s time to stand up and speak out about what is truth according to God’s Word. A great place to do this is at the polls this year.

You don’t have to get out and vote like your grandma did. But you can get out and vote for morals and values according to God’s Word.

(1) Comments | Permalink | Tell a Friend |

Tags:

Cowboy Boots and Common Folk

Posted by: Ryan Sanders on April 9, 2008 Hot Issues •

Think you’re ready to make your own bid for the presidency?

Before you say yes, think on this. While I’m no strategist for a political party, for several years now I’ve been interested in what it takes to live and make decisions in the White House in the District of Columbia. If you were a fan like I was of the television series The West Wing, you got a taste of what is necessary to become president.

In the car the other day, I flipped on the radio. I didn’t listen long until an interesting piece came on the air regarding what the next person to make it to the White House would have to do in each state across the nation.

We’ve all seen candidates’ apparel, when in Rhode Island, they don the ‘Rhode Island’ sweater. In Texas, you’ll notice cowboy boots or hats worn by the candidate. With this idea is the attempt to appeal to the common man or woman. Yes, whether you’re from Yale or Harvard, the candidate must get down and visit the ‘commoners’ from time to time.

With Pennsylvania coming up in the Democratic campaign, candidates have had to renew their zeal for all things Philly. Obama made a remark about having goat cheese with his Philly-cheese steak, a big cultural no-no apparently. And Clinton, while confident in her bowling skills after Obama’s run of gutter balls days earlier, was also sure to get the Rocky metaphors out as good as any candidate.

It’s not that all of this is bad. I think the next president should be able to appeal to the common person. Who doesn’t want to be able to sit down with the president and be able to talk with him or her, and be comfortable doing so?

Here’s my question, how would you do it? Would you be as overt or a little less up front than the current candidates? The fact is, you can watch all The West Wing episodes, as I have, and still have only a touch of an idea of what the candidates are going through in attempting to appeal to EVERYONE.

This is no small task; and unless something changes, Clinton, McCain, or Obama will be our next president. Let’s pray for all three of them today. I think I have my vote ready. But the fact is, I don’t want any of the three remaining candidates, to be wearing cowboy boots with the wrong motives. As Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10:33, “Just as I also try to please all people in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many” (HCSB).

I want the next president, at the very least, to be genuine, not seeking their own profit. This will be difficult for them to live out, but refreshing for us to see. We’ll need to keep watching and watch closely. My point is, cowboy boots are cool and very fashionable. What other reasons are there to wear them?

(3) Comments | Permalink | Tell a Friend |

Tags:

Moral Fabric

Posted by: Kaylan Christopher on April 8, 2008 Biblical Values •

My grandmother was a fantastic quilt-maker. My parents, brother, and I have a collection of at least 8-10 quilts made by her hands that are scattered between us.

I have used one of these quilts over time excessively—dragging it around, washing it, allowing my dog to trample all over it, washing it again, and so on. As a result, after almost 20 years of use, it is extremely worn, thin, and falling apart at the seams.

If I protected it and taken better care of it throughout the years, then it would definitely be in much better shape—maybe even like new.

The same is true of the moral fabric in our country. Over the years, we’ve neglected to protect this area of moral and sexual purity in the lives of our families, schools, and government.

Time and again, we’ve seen leaders in government fall prey to the temptation of sexual immorality. Because our leaders have set this sort of example for the rest of our nation and have in some way influenced others that this issue is not important, we have become weak and torn in this area.

We have become numb to the provocative nature of what is produced on our televisions and movie screens. We have become numb to the explicit lyrics that come through our speakers. We have become numb to the sexual sin that is now widely accepted throughout our country.

Wall Street Journal editor Robert Bartley once said, “If America is to decline, it will not be because of military overstretch nor the trade balance, Japanese management secrets, or even the federal deficit. If a decline is underway, it’s a moral one.”

First Timothy 4:12 tells us that we should be examples in our speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity. And 1 Corinthians 6:18 says, “Flee from sexual immorality!”

This election year, let’s remember what God’s Word says about this issue and vote for our biblical values. Remember the sanctity of sexual purity as God intends.

(0) Comments | Permalink | Tell a Friend |

Tags:

All the Candidates’ Faith

Posted by: K.D. Hastings on April 4, 2008 Biblical Values •

In the run-up to Election Day 2008, is there a value in voters having some sort of religiosity meter to help them decide whom to support?

Does it matter if a candidate wears his or her faith on their shoulder? Can we discern if such pronouncements are genuine or only carefully calculated campaign-speak?

E.J. Dionne Jr., an op-ed columist with the Washington Post, wrote in his June 30, 2006 column: “Many Democrats discovered God in the 2004 exit polls.”

Both Democratic candidates have what has been described as significant faith components to the campaign. The party is committed to attracting at least some of the right-leaning evangelicals who helped usher George W. Bush into the White House—twice.

While the Senator from Illinois works to untangle himself from some of the now-public and strikingly racist comments made by his faith leader, it does not diminish the fact that, perhaps more than any other candidate, he has placed his faith at the center of this campaign.

Addressing his denomination’s convention last June, the senator said: “My faith teaches me that I can sit in church and pray all I want, but I won’t be fulfilling God’s will unless I go out and do the Lord’s work.”

The senator from New York has gone public with a faith she indicates she has practiced quietly for years. While her husband was president, she was an active participant in a D.C. women’s prayer group.

A story in the Christian Science Monitor claims that soon after Bush was reelected, Clinton said it was “a mistake for the Democrats not to engage evangelical Christians on their own turf – essentially ceding the vote to President Bush.”

Oddly enough, it is the Republican’s presumptive nominee that is quiet about his faith. Some commentators have speculated the senator from Arizona is a “throwback to an earlier generation when such matters were kept personal.”

When asked In an interview about his faith, the senator said, “I think it’s something between me and my creator. It’s primarily a private issue rather than a public one.”

Most candidates and their staffs search for ways to gain the support of different segments of society. Their campaign pitch changes dependent on the group to which they are speaking—union members, farmers, or college students, for example.

There is no harm in blending politics and religion, that is, until religion becomes the victim and is bruised in the pairing. The same concern exists for politics (the state.)

Yet should an individual’s particular faith be a criterion by which voters determine which candidate to support? It was clear that the candidacy of the former governor of Massachusetts was torpedoed primarily by his faith.

Or should voters instead examine how the candidates’ faith impacts their policy positions, i.e., how they put feet to their faith, such as their view on the preciousness of human life at all ages and stages? It seems the Bible is quite clear on that matter.