A PRAYER FOR THE ELECTION

BY DR. STEVE DUNN

This has been a tough couple of years for persons who are political moderates.  Our nation is so deeply divided between two extremes that increasingly becoming more extreme, that moderates are considered to be opponents from both sides of the aisle, to battered into silence or simply considered to be so naïve as to be ignored.

I am a Christian who lives by a biblical world view and honestly believes that biblical values are the only realistic and healthy way to live.  I am an evangelical Christian in the classical understanding of the descriptor rather than the self-identified evangelical that the media seems zeroed in on.  A classical evangelical believes that we are an active, worshiping part of a church, live by the Bible as our rule of faith and life, the necessity of persons to become disciples of Jesus Christ, and understand that we are first and foremost citizens of the Kingdom of God.

We do not equate this last observation with a single nation–even if we love that nation.  We do not believe that good people go to heaven–but people who have accepted the forgiveness provided  by Jesus Christ and to let the Lord be our leader.  We abhor the idea that political philosophies, party positions, and cultural preferences trump the clear commands of Scripture–particularly the teaching of Jesus Christ.  We do not believe we can be faithful Christians and attend church irregularly; because we are connected to a community of faith that is a community–not a group of loosely connected religious consumers.  And we know without regular acknowledgement of God is above all things we drift into what is at best a cultural religion–without authenticity and power.

As an evangelical, I am deeply troubled by politicians who claim to be Christians but whose lives, words, and actions do not reflect the values of Jesus Christ.  I saddened that so many evangelicals have bought into the culture of hate and anger, neighbor-despising, and rationalizing away the lack of integrity in our leadership because they are advancing the one or two issues that we consider to be the litmus test of “true Christians.”  That buy-in is driving Christ’s love from the public arena as surely as the secularist trying to scrub God from our walls, laws, and documents.

My election prayer is that Almighty God, Who I believe is indeed sovereign, will rise up against this culture of fear and anger–giving all people (but especially evangelicals) the wisdom to vote with the mind of Christ and defeat all candidates and parties that have embraced the tactics of fear and hatred–to bring true repentance to our national leadership on all sides of the aisle, and help America find its greatness by acknowledging the words of the prophet Micah, a forerunner of Jesus Christ.

“He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?”  Micah 6:8