The Privilege
By the time you receive this millions of citizens in the United States of America will have voted their preference for politicians and regional public policy.
I am a pastor. My hope is that every registered citizen will vote.
Those who choose not to vote help to elect the winner. Those who could vote, but choose not to, have the least right to complain about the results of an election.
Democracy had minimal success in earlier history. During the Golden Age of Greece, about 500 years before Christ, there were fledgling efforts to provide citizens with voting rights. It was the most successful attempt at democracy to that time. We are much indebted to the Greeks for providing principles and pragmatics that provided a format for later attempts at democracy.
Martin Luther suggested to the Roman Catholic Church that persons other than the Pope of Rome could interpret scripture. This was a seed of popular democracy, suggesting that persons have a divine right to an opinion and further suggesting that individual opinion should be measured by qualitative standards and not based on position and power.
John Calvin wrote a letter to a friend and agreed that Christians could charge interest under certain circumstances. This social letter to a friend was circulated and may have been a significant factor in the evolving Industrial Revolution.
Tyndale translated the Bible into English for the common man to read, again, a seed of democracy.
Gutenberg printed the Bible in common language, thus making it available for the common man, a seed of democracy.
From 1739 to 1742 Jonathan Edwards and others led The First Great Awakening, which was a revival in North America. It was a call from the pulpit for the Church to awaken to the urgency of the times. Men and women were challenged to think about personal responsibility of governance and the consequences of lack of diligence in society. Seeded in this revival were notions of independence and freedom that possibly had a major impact upon the developing Revolutionary War.
In 1776 thirteen colonies alerted the King of England to their divine right to rule themselves. The predication for this independence was democratically premised in “inalienable rights.” Founders of the United States believed in a creative God who made man. As a creation of God man and woman have rights and responsibilities.
The Declaration of Independence was written. The Constitution was written. A Bill of Rights was written. It should be noted that all of these documents were predicated in the belief that every man is a person of worth and dignity.
Note that none of these documents specified punishment for those who do not wish to live in a democracy and share the benefits of a free society. Court systems and penal institutions have evolved laws that are a result of interpretation of freedom.
Almost simultaneous with the beginning of the Revolutionary War, the Second Great Awakening began and lasted until about 1830. This revival was a call for the common man to forget the hope of restoring orthodoxy or the nominal church. Find God! Pursue God! For the first time since Jesus liberty was extended for persons not professionally trained to be ministers. Farmers, merchants, lumbermen, and whoever preached in warehouses, open fields, houses, business places, and wherever they could get an audience. Many of these preachers could not read or write. Popular democracy was finding its way into the church, and the church was integrally involved in the governmental process.
To the present time more than 1,200,000 persons have died as a direct consequence of defending democratic freedoms in the United States and other countries. Millions, soldiers and civilians, have died from the effects of war, often long after a battle or war was over. Millions of other persons have lived with physical and mental limitations as a consequence of defending freedoms in the United States.
To date the United States is the finest example of democracy in history. It is the strongest country in the world militarily and economically. Perhaps these are simple enough reasons for the U.S. to be so hated by countries that refuse to value human freedom.
My hope is that if you voted in Virginia you voted for marriage to be one man and one woman. My hope is that as you stood (and stand in the future) to cast your vote, you prayerfully sought to express the opinion that Jesus would express. If so, then you have no right to pride and argument that is divisive. And, by all means, you will hopefully be sufficiently sanctified not to argue your political opinions in a church context.
When we study the life of Christ it is quite clear that He did not live his life fighting the Roman Empire. He fought evil.
Please value your privilege to vote. Then please live your life fully in Christ ministering to the Body of Christ, which most likely includes Brothers and Sisters who did not vote exactly like you voted. Privilege equals respect.
In the end human government will not save us. We serve Christ the King who is Lord of a Kingdom not of this world.
Thankful for the privilege of voting,
Pastor Bare
Luke 20:25