Video: by Dr. Mark Creech
Christian Action League
November 4, 2016
All Citizen Christians in North Carolina are urged to watch the latest video, Rev. Mark Creech’s Evangelical Voter Appeal (Part 2). In this video Rev. Creech not only emphasizes the urgency of voting in this election, but also provides critical information about certain North Carolina races. Once again, please TAKE THE TIME to watch.
Transcript
Hello, I’m Rev. Mark Creech, executive director of the Christian Action League. I want to speak with you one last time about critical matters concerning the election. Thanks for taking the time to listen.
Daniel Horowitz, in his new book, Stolen Sovereignty, writes, “The radicalism and destruction on display in the waning months of the Obama presidency has shown signs of engendering a political rubber band effect. There is a great awakening in this country and people are starving for leaders who will steer the country in the opposite direction. It’s time to harness this opportunity and make this election meaningful…We are now at the precipice of the ultimate time for choosing. There is nowhere to retreat…”
So much is at stake. Questions of fundamental import will be decided. Will we be a nation that moves closer to recognizing and enforcing respect for the sanctity of human life at every stage, or will we move further away? Will religious liberty survive? Will the Second Amendment be protected? Will traditional marriage continue in a downward trajectory? Will we support men in women’s restrooms, locker rooms and showers? Will we continue to support with public funds organizations like Planned Parenthood that sell the body parts of aborted children? What about federally mandated healthcare – do we really want the government managing our health? Will we be a nation of borders that protects and preserves our sovereignty? Will we continue to allow certain refugees that we cannot currently vet, not knowing whether they mean us harm, to be brought into our country? Will the justices appointed to the courts interpret our Constitution according to its meaning fixed by the Founders, or will we have justices that impose whatever the legal profession deems or cultural elites’ decree? Will the rights of the individual continue to be considered unalienable – meaning given to us by God, which no government has the right to infringe upon, or will the view that the state gives us our rights grow more and more pervasive?
We are at a tipping point in this nation and what will be decided on November 8, could not only set the course for the rest of our lives, but also that of our children and grandchildren for many years to come.
This is why it’s so important for each of us to vote in this election. There are, too many, unfortunately, who are either complacent or skeptical about voting. But the right to vote is the most sacred privilege of a Representative Republic.
Moreover, every vote does count – every vote does make a difference. In 1948, Lyndon Johnson was elected to the United States Senate by 87 votes cast in 6000 precincts. That figured out to less than two votes per precinct. In 1960, John F. Kennedy defeated Richard M. Nixon by 113,000 votes. That was actually less than one vote per precinct.
Whoever you are, no matter your status in life, the vote empowers you as a true equal.
Christians, especially, should treat their right to vote as something sacred – as a stewardship from God – as an act of obedience to Christ’s command to “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s.”
Still, according to a study by the Barna Group, 40 to 50 million Christians, many of them evangelicals failed to vote in the last election. Dr. James Dobson has rightly argued that it’s a disgrace that half the Christians in America fail to vote. “When we withhold our influence and participation,” he once said, “we yield by default to those who promote immoral and destructive policies.”
Not only should Christians vote, but they should do so intelligently. There are excellent Voter Guides online and in print from faithful Christian groups to help with this responsibility. To vote intelligently as a Christian is to bring a solid, biblical, Christian worldview to bear on a candidate’s public-policy positions.
This may seem like a daunting task for those who haven’t had the time to look at each of the candidates. But I suggest, generally speaking, there is a rule of thumb that can be followed with remarkable accuracy.
No political Party represents Christian values perfectly, but the differences between the Republican and Democratic Party Platforms are as distinct as light versus darkness.
Renowned theologian Wayne Grudem has rightly argued that “conservative evangelical Christians who tend to believe that the Bible is God’s Word in its entirety, have tended to align with Republican principles. So have others whose religious views lead them to believe in absolute moral right and wrong, such as Roman Catholics, Mormons and more traditional Jews. But people who have no religious belief at all, or who do not believe that we can know what God has told us with regard to moral standards, tend to be more moral relativists, and this aligns them much more closely with the Democratic Party and its emphasis on allowing people to choose abortion”…or favor gay rights, and so on and all the other Progressive points of view.
I think, whether considering the top of the ballot or looking down the ballot, this is typically the case. This is not to say, by any stretch, all Republican candidates are born-again believers. Nevertheless, I think it is true, Republican candidates are, more often than not, in step with those eternal verities stemming from our Judeo-Christian heritage, while Democratic candidates, although they may make a Christian profession, are most often far removed from them.
The Scriptures warn us, “Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people” (Prov. 14:34). At the heart of America’s greatest problems – the reason we are subject to careening over a cliff, can be found in our rejection of God and his way. We must personally choose him, as well as to choose leaders that will choose his way.
There is much more I wish I could say about this election, but allow me to share these closing thoughts.
There has never been a greater contrast between two Presidential candidates and their vision for the country than Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Although Trump is not everything that conservative Christians aspire for in a candidate, he at least has promised to safeguard and defend much of what we value, our religious liberties being paramount. On the other hand, Hillary Clinton has promised to work against what we value.
In the race for the U.S. Senate Seat, representing North Carolina, Richard Burr for more than a decade has demonstrated his commitment to conservative values, with a few exceptions, while Deborah Ross was a lobbyist for the ACLU and one of the most liberal members of the North Carolina House.
The race for Governor is a contrast between one man, Pat McCrory, who has truly succeeded in making our state’s economy one of the fastest growing economies in the nation, while his opponent, Roy Cooper, wouldn’t even do his job as Attorney General, refusing to defend our state’s laws, whenever he and not the courts, would rule them as unconstitutional.
Our Lieutenant Governor, who is running for re-election, Dan Forest, is the real deal – a genuine follower of Jesus Christ – and a statesman.
In the race for N.C. Attorney General, candidate Buck Newton, as a state Senator, was a staunch advocate for every issue dear to the hearts of Christian conservatives. Josh Stein, during his tenure in the state Senate, was just the opposite. Stein worked under current Attorney General Roy Cooper as a senior deputy attorney, I think it would be accurate to say that we can expect Stein to run the office similar to the way his old boss did.
Don’t overlook the race for the seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court between Mike Morgan and Bob Edmunds. Morgan says his judicial philosophy is much like that of Justice Kennedy on the U.S. Supreme Court. Kennedy, mind you, wrote the ruling that imposed same-sex marriage on the country. Edmunds has been a proven conservative on the State Supreme Court for 16 years. The loss of his re-election would give a 5-4 majority to liberal justices that could put much of the state’s progress in jeopardy.
Lastly, please remember those lawmakers that have shown incredible courage by passing HB 2, the bathroom bill – a common sense measure that protects a person’s fundamental right to privacy, as well as keeps the government from forcing Christian business owners to abide by policies which are a violation of their deeply held religious beliefs. These lawmakers, and, yes, our Governor who signed the bill, stood up for us. They have wrongly suffered the abuses of gay activists, Leftists celebrities, corporate entities, sports organizations, and a grossly biased media that smeared the bill and their good names. It would be a shame if we didn’t stand with them now – via our vote.
This is no time for equivocation – no time to time to sit it out – no time for wasting our vote on write in candidates or candidates who have no reasonable chance of being elected.
As James Lowell once said, “Once to every man and nation, comes the moment to decide, In the strife of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side.”
That is where we are in America, and we had better pray in earnest to choose wisely this election.