Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that a Presidential election is rapidly approaching. Many Americans are no doubt worn out by the relentless political ads. Most Christians I’ve spoken with are well-informed & are ready to vote.
I cast my ballot for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in the Republican primary. Although he’s not my ideal candidate, I happily voted for Donald Trump in the general election.
I’ve interacted with a troubling minority of Christians who don’t seem to understand the issues, or even more disconcerting, don’t even feel that voting is very important.
I’ve heard some Christians say something like this: “Whatever the outcome of the election, God will still be on the throne, so we don’t need to worry.”
It seems that Christians understand the importance of practicing piety in their personal lives. But far fewer comprehend our responsibility to confront evil in the public sphere as well.
Of course, it is quite true that God is on the throne of the universe & we really should put our ultimate trust in him. But Christians must also recognize that “putting our trust in God” does not mean that we withdraw from the political process. Quite the opposite. Our nation gives us the opportunity to be God’s agents working in the political realm to advance the Kingdom of God and vigorously opposing the dark forces which seek to destroy God’s good and lovely creation.
The coming election will have huge consequences for our nation. Yet some American Christians have been lulled into a state of complacency. They seem to think that their (mostly) happy lives will simply go on no matter what the outcome. Such naivety shows a lack of historical perspective. Over and over again, history teaches us that when the wrong kind of people assume power, they unleash all manner of evil & injustice upon God’s world.
In 1980, Venezuela was the richest country of South America, with per capita GDP of $7,900 (in today’s dollars). Chile on the other hand was quite poor with a per capita GDP of only $3,400. But over the last the last 4+ decades, Venezuela and Chile have embarked upon two widely divergent paths.
Chile has generally embraced the principles of free market capitalism. Economic freedom has allowed the Chilean people to thrive. By 2023, Chile’s per capita GDP had soared to $29,900. Poland is another example of how free markets produce prosperity. Since the fall of communism, Poland’s per capital GDP has surged from $11,259 in 1990 to $37,707 in 2022.
Venezuela has taken a much darker route. Venezuela is incredibly rich in natural resources, possessing the world’s largest crude oil reserves. In 1998, Hugo Chavez was elected President and embarked upon an aggressive socialist agenda. He seized Venezuela’s oil revenue and partially allocated them towards social spending. Chavez died of cancer in 2013 and was replaced by his protege Nicolas Maduro.
Venezuelans now suffer extreme scarcity and malnutrition. There are severe shortages of basic necessities such as food, drinking water, gasoline & medicine. People must stand in line for hours each day to acquire basic commodities like flour. A 2017 study showed that Venezuelans had lost an average of 24 lbs.
The vast majority of Venezuelan households are now mired in poverty. Hyperinflation reached an astounding 130,000% in 2018. Needless to say, this has rendered Venezuela’s currency worthless. According to the IMF, between 2013 and 2019, Venezuela’s GDP plummeted by 65%. Of course, Maduro & his supporters in the military live like kings. Ordinary Venezuelans struggle just to survive.
Venezuelans no longer enjoy anything resembling free & fair elections. The country held sham elections this past summer. Exit polls showed that opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez trounced President Maduro. But when the government announced the final tallies, Maduro was declared the victor. The old dictum is true: you can vote socialists into office, but they only leave at the end of a gun.
Chavez and Maduro have frequently cracked down on their political opponents, who are beaten, jailed or killed. The Press is controlled by the government. Journalists who speak against the regime fear for their lives.
Today, Venezuela is a hellhole. Their per capita GDP remains at $7,900 – the same as it was in 1980. It is estimated that 7.7 million people (about 1/4 of Venezuela’s population of 30 million) have fled the country since 2014.
The United States is a much different country than Venezuela. But there is every reason to believe that the United States will suffer greatly if Kamala Harris is elected President. There is no possible justification for a Christian to vote for Kamala Harris or any member of the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party has utterly sold itself to evil.
Complete lack of spending restraint has led to brutal inflation over the last few years. Government statistics tell us that cumulative inflation has exceeded 20% since Joe Biden & Kamala Harris assumed office. (The true inflation rate is significantly higher.) Gas, groceries, rent and insurance costs have soared. The relentless rise of inflation has created a cost-of-living crisis which is especially acute for poor and working-class Americans.
Under the Biden-Harris Administration, our government’s annual deficits are approaching an astounding $2 trillion. In fiscal year 2024, the Federal Government raked in $4.92 trillion in revenue but spent $1.13 trillion just to pay interest on the national debt. Thus, 23% of all revenue was allocated to interest on the debt! This kind of wildly irresponsible spending guarantees future bouts of excruciating inflation.
The Democratic Party routinely celebrates the murder of unborn babies throughout every stage of pregnancy. Kamala Harris’ running mate Tim Walz eagerly signed appalling legislation in Minnesota guaranteeing abortion through all 9 months of pregnancy. This legislation also allows care to be withheld from infants who survive abortions – tantamount to murder by abandonment.
Transgender propaganda is aggressively pushed by Democrats at every opportunity, particularly in schools. Blue states like California & Minnesota have passed laws which allow the government to remove gender confused children from their homes if parents don’t support the child’s desire to transition. The Manhattan Institute estimates that from 2017 & 2023, about 6,000 girls underwent double mastectomies – the surgical removal of their healthy breasts. This truly Satanic movement continues to destroy thousands of lives.
Maintaining law and order is the most basic function of government. Societies which cannot protect life and property quickly dissolve into anarchy. Recent statistics released by the Bureau of Justice show that under the Biden/Harris administration, violent crime has soared 55%.
In Hennepin County, Minnesota (home to Minneapolis) there have been over 8,500 cars stolen this year. Less than 3% of these cases have been solved. Since the beginning of 2023, Minneapolis has suffered an auto theft every hour! Such statistics are routine in large cities controlled by the Democratic Party. Democrats nationwide have embraced soft on crime policies which allow serial criminals to be released again and again only to terrorize law abiding citizens.
Democrats have trapped millions of American kids in utterly failed government schools even as funding has soared. Democrats chronically claim that public schools are underfunded, but this is a flagrant lie. Since 1970, inflation-adjusted public school funding has risen an astonishing 152%!
In the Democratic stronghold of Chicago, school spending has reached a staggered $30K per student – enough to send each child to an elite private school. But since 2012, reading & math scores fell by 63% and 78% respectively. Not one single student demonstrated proficiency in mathematics in 33 Chicago public schools.
Under Kamala Harris, millions of illegal immigrants have poured across our nation’s borders. Thousands of US citizens have been murdered, raped or assaulted by illegal aliens. Who can forget the horrendous case of Laken Riley, the Augusta University nursing student who was sexually assaulted and murdered by an illegal alien. Liberal media outlets who flooded the airwaves for months with coverage of the George Floyd incident gave little or no attention to this compelling story. Sadly, Laken Riley’s tale is hardly exceptional. There are daily accounts of illegal aliens committing violent crimes.
Astonishingly, the Dept. of Homeland Security recently acknowledged that President Maduro has been releasing criminals from Venezuelan prisons & sending them to the United States. Is it any surprise that the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gangs have taken over apartment complexes in Colorado and Texas?
Yes, God will still be on the throne November 6th. But let’s reflect on what that means. God was on the throne even while Venezuela descended into the abyss. God has also been on the throne as Americans suffered brutal inflation & rampant crime over the last 3 1/2 years. A thousand more historical examples could be offered. All manner of misery has afflicted human beings even though God is on the throne.
Let’s not get lulled into complacency. Just because God is on the throne doesn’t mean that Christians can sit back and watch the world spin off into madness. Rather, precisely because we acknowledge God’s sovereignty, his loyal people must do everything they can to defeat the powers of evil at work in our world.
