OPINION:
One party has them overwhelming support yet largely takes them for granted. The other party doesn’t have them and doesn’t seem to want them; in fact, it denigrates their deeply-held beliefs a bit more with each election cycle.
Yet, in an era when political consultants focus on winning over seemingly endless subsets of Americans, this particular group cuts across all known boundaries. Its ranks include suburban soccer Moms, Hispanics, blacks, working-class whites, Gen Z and everyone in between.
In fact, it’s no understatement to say that Bible-believing Christians will decide the 2024 election. Simply put, either they’ll show up on Election Day or they won’t.
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Consider an eye-opening study just released by the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University. It found that 41 million Christians – including 32 million who attend church regularly – are not planning to vote this November 5th.
That follows a similar trend from 2020, when some 40 million Christians didn’t vote and 15 million weren’t even registered to vote.
SEE ALSO: Millions of church-going Christians expected to skip voting in November
Those are massive numbers. The kind that can completely swing an election – especially in swing states.
Renowned researcher George Barna, who led the Arizona Christian study, observed, “If church leaders, family members, and close friends will use their influence to get reticent voters from their churches to cast a ballot on November 5th, the election outcome will be meaningfully affected.”
As a follower of Jesus, I wish I could say Mr. Barna was wrong about my fellow believers – that, contrary to his study, we were fully engaged in the political process and fulfilling our Biblical mandate to be salt and light in an increasingly dark world. To be, as Jesus described in the Gospel of Luke, “A chosen people, a royal priesthood.” By the way, that’s quite a mantle laid upon the Body of Christ by none other than the Savior of the world.
But the numbers don’t lie. Clearly, tens of millions of Christians either don’t understand what Jesus meant or underestimate the power of their voice. Why else would any able-bodied Christian man or woman of voting age sit this election out, given the stakes for our nation?
What the United States is facing right now is a future that promises one of two very distinct outcomes. We’ll either choose the three F’s that made this country great – faith, family, and freedom – or the three S’s that will lead it into oblivion – socialism, secularism, and separation. There’s really no gray area here. The choice is very stark. That’s one reason why widespread Christian indifference to voting is so frustrating.
As Christians in America, we have more freedom to worship and express our faith in Jesus publicly than any other nation in the world. Having these freedoms – including the right to vote – is a tremendous privilege, paid for by the blood and sacrifice of generations of brave men and women who’ve served in our armed forces.
SEE ALSO: Jeff Myers: Should Christians avoid politics?
To simply ignore voting is a slap not only in their faces but to the millions of Christians in places like China, Iran, and North Korea who have no freedom of religion and who face death if they proclaim Jesus publicly.
Those persecuted believers living under unspeakable tyranny would give anything for just a small taste of the freedom Christians in America enjoy – especially the right to vote for their leaders.
It’s not that American Christians believe that all is well in the United States. Quite the contrary. A vast majority of Americans, including Christians, believe the country is on the wrong track. According to a recent Gallup poll, only 22% of Americans feel the country is headed in the right direction. It’s not hard to see why.
Between the invasion at our southern border, feckless foreign policy, a wobbly economy, and a poisonous culture that demeans traditional Judeo-Christian values while glorifying gender confusion, the United States right now feels a bit like the Titanic heading towards an iceberg.
Here’s the good news: with the right captain at the helm we can chart a new course. But to do so, I believe that Christians will need to get up off the bench, get in the game, and lead the way — to truly be that royal priesthood that Jesus talked about.
In the meantime, a reminder to my fellow Christians: We’re voting for a Commander-in-Chief, not a Pastor-in-Chief. And November 5th is not a popularity contest. If my child, God forbid, needed life-saving surgery, I’d choose a gruff, rough-around-the-edges surgeon who would do the job better than the rest – regardless of the “mean tweets” on their X account.
Bible believers know very well that God can – and does – use the most unlikely people to do extraordinary things. To even turn nations around. Followers of Jesus have a golden opportunity to help do exactly that if they head to the polls in a few short weeks.
In choosing whether to vote on November 5th, American Christians – who’ve enjoyed unprecedented freedoms and influence – will do well to remember these words from Jesus, also from the Gospel of Luke:
To whom much is given, much will be required.
Let’s not take the tremendous privileges God has given us for granted. For the sake of our kids and grandkids.
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Erick Stakelbeck is host of Stakelbeck Tonight, seen every weeknight at 7:30 pm EST and PST on TBN, the world’s largest Christian television network.
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