Every Christian has a moral obligation to vote

OPINION:

A recent national survey conducted by George Barna of the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University indicates that many Christians do not plan to vote on Nov. 5. Mr. Barna says that about 104 million religious people will not bother to vote in this election, and of those, 32 million are theologically defined as born-again Christians.

Why do so many conservative believers plan to sit this one out?

Mr. Barna’s survey answers that question. When these Christians were asked why they did not plan to vote, the most common answer was a lack of interest in politics.

There was, however, a glimmer of hope. When asked if they could be persuaded to do otherwise, about 1 in 6 of these disengaged souls said they would probably change their minds and vote if someone convinced them they were biblically responsible for doing so.

Well, let me give it a try.

Even if you don’t care about your personal freedom, the state of the economy, national security or the survival of our constitutional republic, there is still one clear reason that every Christian has a moral obligation to vote.

It’s the children.

More to the point: Tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of boys and girls are being trafficked by your own government. That alone should make it morally untenable for any faithful follower of Christ to sit on the sidelines and let the current administration remain in power.

Consider this.

This week, a government employee named Clarissa Rippee revealed that she could no longer stay silent about a $347 million contract her division of the General Services Administration awarded to a company to transport unaccompanied minors across the United States.

You read that correctly. Your government awarded a company over one-third of $1 billion to literally truck unaccompanied minors across the nation to destinations and handlers unknown.

In Ms. Rippee’s words: “My line in the sand moment was when I found out that GSA had awarded [this] contract. [These children are being treated like] commodities … like potato chips on a truck,” she said.

She concluded: “It’s just an accepted part of the bureaucracy. But the reality is this is exploitation, and it has to stop. What you know, you cannot unknow. It’s about the children, and it’s my duty now to speak up.”

Then there is the congressional testimony of Tara Rodas, who works for the Department of Health and Human Services. She recently told the House committee on this subject that she believes many vulnerable children are already in the hands of criminals and sex traffickers who are not vetted properly and who fraudulently claim to be a child’s relative.

She said she saw a 16-year-old migrant whose sponsor claimed to be her brother. He “was touching her inappropriately. He was clearly not her brother,” Ms. Rodas said. She then said that the girl later turned up on her sponsor’s social media, “looking drugged” and as if “she was for sale.” Ms. Rodas added that over a period of less than six months, she observed dozens of such cases.

The Biden-Harris administration admits that there are at least 32,000 cases of unaccompanied minors where they have no idea where the child is. Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, former President Donald Trump’s running mate, says it’s closer to 320,000.

Whatever the number, surely all Christians can agree that this is a humanitarian crisis taking place in our own backyard that we cannot ignore. As Jason Piccolo, a retired federal agent who likewise witnessed the government releasing unaccompanied children to potential criminals, has said: “One child lost to trafficking is one too many. This systemic failure demands immediate attention and reform to ensure the safety of all children in our care.”

Unless you have calloused your heart, mind and soul not to care about any of this, the question you should be asking is, what has Ms. Harris done about it? The answer is absolutely nothing. She didn’t even visit our southern border for 3½ years after being appointed the nation’s border czar.

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen once said: “The refusal to take sides on great moral issues is itself a decision. It is a silent acquiescence to evil.”

Jesus made his position on such things quite clear: “It would be better for you to have a millstone tied around your neck and cast into the sea than to cause one of these little ones [harm].”

It appears that Christians who stay home on Nov. 5 and do nothing about the evil being done to these “little ones” will have some explaining to do.

I don’t know about you, but as an obedient follower of Christ, I plan to vote.

• Everett Piper (dreverettpiper.com, @dreverettpiper), a columnist for The Washington Times, is a former university president and radio host. He is the author of “Not a Daycare: The Devastating Consequences of Abandoning Truth” (Regnery).