Every Single Vote Matters

This is John Fuller and today on Focus on the Family with Jim Daly will be taking a look at the great privilege we have to vote which is especially important for us in the Christian community. There are so many critical issues coming up in the midterm elections and there only three weeks away.

Dr. Al Mohler recently address this matter and is responding to a listener who wanted to know how to be a responsible voter. So Caleb those important thing I can say is know what the issues are. Understand the political process and as a Christian go into the voting booth so to speak, prepared to vote your convictions and the vote as a Christian.

That means you are never utopian, but it also means you're not. You're responsible John, that's some great advice from our friend Dr. Al Mohler and to his point about being utopian. We all need to recognize that there's no perfect candidate or political party that can solve all the problems. Ultimately, the fate of our nation is in God's hands and we know that. With that said, we still have a critical responsibility to vote and it's tragic how many Americans almost half of the voting age population failed to vote during the midterms. Despite the fact that the majority of our national and state leaders are up for reelection on November 8 were going to address that concern today. But before we get started, let me say this upfront here Focus on the Family were not gonna tell you who to vote for or which party to vote for. That's not our mission.

We simply want to keep you informed about key issues and policies affecting all of our lives. In particular, there are some pro-life amendments on the November ballot that were very concerned about and we want to help you think through these issues from a godly and biblical perspective that I recently connected online without from his office in Louisville Kentucky so that we can encourage and motivate you to do your civic duty to get out and vote. It's that simple answer pray about the pro-life battle that's raging across this country right now.

That's our main goal with the program today and for those who may not know. Dr. Albert Mohler is president of the Southern Baptist theological seminary is a well-known author and speaker, and regularly addresses political and social topics from a Christian worldview that he is a former board member at Focus on the Family and for more details about our guest and resources we have for follow-up. A stop by our website link is in the show notes or call 800 the letter a in the word family and Jim, I was out of the office as you interview Dr. Muller. Let's go ahead and listen to that now.

On today's episode of Focus on the Family. Dr. Muller, so good to have you with this.

Thank you. You know, Jim is always good to be with you in Focus on the Family hey, let's get to it. You know right now the culture. There's so much turbulence on core issues. I member Dr. Dobson used to say no abortion is not a political issue. It's a moral issue. Let's start with that idea that there are things that are far above politics and they are in the arena of politics there bigger and more important than anything else. Give that some definition for they you know casual Christian who may not understand these things you according to a biblical worldview. God's given to government certain defined responsibilities, but the government doesn't create marriage and government doesn't give life. Life is the creator and marriage is the creation of God for us is the most basic institution of human living history to Christian church life and marriage. For example, have been classified as pre-political which means politics is to respect them.

Politics doesn't create them.

And so when you look at the issue of say the definition of marriage and the sanctity of human life is government's responsibility to respect and to protect unborn life and in the institution of marriage and so that is something that government has no right to redefine or to subvert or to take. I think that's a good place for us to start. You know how let me assess follow-up in that regard because again, what is the motivation to deconstruct these institutions that one are God ordained into cultures thrive when they protect those institutions like marriage and family and children and protecting the week. Why do people not understand that basic truth.

It seems they can't be that disconnected candy.

They aren't as a matter fact, every major government study. Think of the Moynihan report you a generation ago that you can't have a healthy society without healthy families, healthy marriage. Parents to parents optimally raising their children in in a singular household and so the dissolution of the family is come predictably with results and frankly there's not a sociologist is I think dishonest enough to say that doesn't matter. It matters hugely, but you know the modern age is an age of personal autonomy that prizes personal happiness above everything else is is you deserve to be happy you deserve to define your own sex life. You deserve to like marriage are not like marriage or like being married or not being married. You have the right to be un-pregnant or the right to be pregnant just based on your personal autonomy and that you know Jim, that's a not only a horrible way to run a civilization.

It unravels civilization. The election situation so we had midterms coming up and so often there seems to be a split within the Christian community, and I'd I can give you the number, the percentage you might know it but generally there's some that just don't agree with engaging in the political process that you know it's already so bad that why do it. Why be involved with something so worldly, so really nonfunctional this point give a shot to that argument that, then I'm just I don't think the process is right, and as a Christian I don't believe I need to vote why bad news for you. If you are an American citizen, then you are voting one way or the other that you may be voting incompetently and invisibly.

But your holding because if you have a stewardship in God's given you the stewardship of the vote and you don't use it. You're just strengthening every vote against what you would say you stand for and so you know not voting doesn't mean you're somehow clean of responsibility for politics.

It just means you don't have the courage and you didn't exercise the stewardship to actually vote your convictions. If you're not putting your convictions. If you stand of the process, you're actually giving additional weight to the vote against your convictions.

There is no way out of the trap when that every American citizen is given the right of the vote in one of things I'm so concerned about that I see in the cultures the chilling effect of kind of the groupthink. In other words, even within the Christian community there sent tends to be like a blanket that rests over us that we shouldn't be engaged or we shouldn't be as vocal or we shouldn't be as strident and I get that there's an attitude of the New Testament of love, joy, peace, goodness, kindness, mercy, we can still embrace the fruit of the spirit and and talk about very critical issues in the culture correct when absolutely anyone is more merciful than contending for unborn human life and protecting it from being destroyed.

What's more merciful than believing about the children need a mother and a father in working to to hold up marriage and to respect marriage and a lot less more merciful than to want peaceful and orderly community and to allow people to prosper you know human flourishing doesn't happen because we decide to say spending of taxpayer money to bring about human flourishing. It is brought about when people say okay this is the way God intended human beings to live in the very base level.

We gotta start out living that way and encouraging others to live that way. Or there's not going to be any flourishing society anywhere that's exactly right. Let me turn to the pro-life situation that were in right now.

Roe V Wade was overturned by the Dobbs decision. You have mostly read states that are restricting abortion to a certain degree and then blue states that are actually that the philosophy of this.

I just don't don't even comprehend no California and other states where they have expanded Colorado right here in our own state that were Focus on the Family's expanded abortion up until the point of birth as a kind of a direct response to restriction of abortion, so our states can it be the home of abortion and they're very proud of that. Speak to what the post Dobbs decision now looks like and what do Christians do to do more to create that flourishing that you're talking about, you know, Jim Focus on the Family, and so many others and I have have have worked for the reversal of Roe V Wade for about 1/2 a century. That's is hard to imagine how long the Puritans on that and you're right. The Supreme Court did reverse Roe V Wade just a matter of of months ago but you and I both know that really starts the next stage for the next phase of fighting for the unborn, because reversing rope means now.

We got 50 battles in 50 states and I went to continue efforts in Congress by the way, and what's the federal judiciary with the biggest issue is now you mention Colorado humans. New York, California, New Jersey, Illinois graphically proportions states. Thankfully, there are some scary pro-life states as well.

We got to keep the argument going in those pro-life states.

We've got to now center and magnify our effort in pro abortion states and you know Jim you had this one angle. People think about here is not just a moral rebellion. It's a profit motive. There is big money and abortion.

There is huge money by the hundreds of millions of dollars in abortion and what a tragic reality is that abortion is a death industry in this country way. That's a great point your mentioning because I met with an abortion worker and as we talk. She was honest enough to say, yeah, it's about the money abortion drives our revenue and that was so refreshingly honest just to hear that and then we started talk about things that could be done to remedy that more adoption placement etc. but again I think in the in the US the. The attitude I mean they are being very aggressive right now in trying to I think intimidate the pro-life community, including some of the arms of government weathers the DOJ prosecuting pro-life people. I think that to date.

I think we had 73 vandal attacks on the pregnancy resource centers in this country.

73.

Not one has been investigated, speak to that whole thing. It feels like even government can be arrayed against those things that are holy, absolutely and Jimmy are pointing to something that just affirms our central discussion here, which is that elections matter, who heads the Department of Justice that's decided by the person elected President of the United States and the elections have consequences, and so what when you elect a pro-abortion candidate who heads a pro-abortion party.

Guess what you could have pro-abortion effects all the way through the government, right down to the administrative state, right down to deciding you'll eventually, whether a baby is has his life terminated in the womb or not and whether pro-life ministries will be protected or not and whether or not the government to put its power right now our government because of the current administration is actually demanding abortion rights even in other countries going to other countries and saying you need to join the LGBT Q revolution you need to redefine marriage right you don't get USAID get money. And that's how they tied together every night when you pull back at that 50,000 foot view level and you look at the spiritual contour of our country as a theologian teaching young people in your teaching at a seminary of the president of the seminary are saying young people come in with a lot of questions.

I'm sure what you see that contour looking like at a high level about where were at where young people are at what they're thinking, what, how are they processing the. The generation that they're born into and what the Lord is expressing yeah you back to 1960. There's generational change and generational distinction, but nothing like if you fast-forward to 2020. And when you look at the younger generation today. We are looking at a generation that is much more permissive is much more socially liberal. I mean after all, they been produced by generations. Every one of which is been successively more progressive, more socially liberal but you know what when you look at the Christians, they are more deeply committed these younger Christians then was the case in previous generations because they have to be and so you know I'm 63 years old and I was born in a time when there was a lot of cultural Christianity. Well that's pretty much disappearing or disappeared somewhere about to find out where the Christians are and that the younger you go in the generations. The more you discover where the Christians are and I got good news is you know there are millions of incredibly committed convictional young Christians and I am so thankful for the mission of the joy of Christ and of the coming institutions like this and you living produced by parents who are engaged. There's homeschooling there there there raising their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Everything Focus on the Family's been focusing on the over all these decades I can tell you the Lord honors. It and that even if the larger generation. While this can represent a tremendous challenge in mission field to us. You know there is something powerful happening in this young generation of Christians and in some ways were to learn from them, even as they learn from us. Now I so appreciate that. I share that optimism and so often if I'm speaking with a handful of other Christian leaders. One of the things I down about is how down they did about the future of the church of this present generation unit one thing out.

It's so critical for us to remember were almost saying God did know what he was doing when you place the these people in this generation. I'm not going there gods out exactly who he wants her on the face of this earth.

For this moment for his cause and show his glory is in this generation of Christians. Let me let me turn in the last few minutes, let's get very specific about some of things that were facing. And again, the disclaimer here, the informed vote we can we can't tell you we shouldn't tell you who to vote for were just trying to make the biblical case on those things you should be thinking about when you vote, especially those things that we believe are close to God's heart like lifelike marriage traditional marriage. Those are things that are critical to the survivability of the culture and I think and I believe you think so too out the things that are close to God's heart. So let's hit it at California and Michigan. I'm just up in Michigan. We talked at length about this, but both of those state governments each have amendments and they're so good with the verbiage. This is one thing you gotta be careful about in general. They're both referencing the right to reproductive freedom and both remove both of the bills that are proposing California, Michigan, remove all restrictions to abortion, even when the baby is viable outside the womb surpassed 2021 weeks. They also kind of give more freedom to the abortion clinics with less regulation. So speak to those two states. Specifically, California, Michigan, perhaps to the more radical states along with Colorado, you know, I'm looking at, California, Michigan.

The one thing I want to say is that the conservative voters in Michigan really do have a chance to vote that down its insidious statewide measure that as you say would basically enable abortion only up to the moment of birth and is a horrible horrible measure in California. Look, I have conservatives haven't won a statewide election in a long time, but that just underlines the fact that we got to regain ground election by election, and so California's law means you have the governor they're just signed more than a dozen pro-abortion bills just in the last weeks of the current administrative term feeling that you get that. That's just almost beyond belief, but looking out we been watching his longtime depolarization means that in one sense the liberal state right now are getting even more liberal and the pro-abortion movement is getting more bold.

There capitalizing on the controversy after the end of Roe V Wade, and so I just want to encourage feel your responsibility devote to protect life is never been more important than in states like California and Michigan, and Vermont and some other states as well where you got to go and and you are right, Jim.

The way these are written, you got to look very carefully in California and in Michigan vote no. But the whole premise of our of our understanding of our world is that the unborn baby is a person who deserves and demands our respect and protection and again the clarity there and that's what's so important.

The media know it's gonna help you with that.

It's going to become more clouded because of the high level language that they used to try to defend taking a baby's life that we had. We had a speaker at an event we did Alexander DeSantis and she made a couple of statements that were so powerful in her voice needs to get out further and broader and wider because she said so many great things, but one of the things that she expressed she said she elected every red state pro-life law and the other side often plays on the fears of that 1%. The ectopic pregnancy or something like that and she said not in one state where there pro-life laws, is there not the ability of you know that kind of situation and ectopic pregnancy where it's not going to go to full term. That's a medical procedure that needs to be done for the well-being of the mother and in those cases, there is no restriction that she read. She said I've read every law and that here's the difference. Abortion is about taking the life of a viable baby. Everything else is medical.

You know, medical necessity, but were talking about restricting murdering a child and that's as plain and simple as it gets. How would you respond to that. I thought you said it about as clearly as it could possibly be said yes the abortion that we are working so hard to end at and analyze were trying so hard to save the lives of viable infants in the womb and unborn human beings and the womb will be intentionally targeted for destruction. That's what were correct in their being intentionally targeted for destruction. We must, as a civilized society say no to that and I guess the point being, can we get up out of our houses off of our sofas and give that baby the due respect to cast a vote on one day every two years cast of vote in favor of saving those babies and be courageous enough to defend that decision. We don't have to hide or cower to the other side. They are killing the next generation we can come up with systems of adoption. They say that there are as many people wanting to adopt every year that the babies are aborted about a million young couples want to adopt an infant and there's about a million abortions a year when we concentrate on connecting those two and that bringing some solution to this gala me let me move to Vermont that's a state that most Christians kind of just enough that even pay attention to, but grand plan yet that state government has an amendment for personal reproductive autonomy.

Again, great language for the bill, but the language is vague and it says basically could allow minors access to contraception, hormone treatment, surgeries for children with gender dysphoria, all those kinds of things are wrapped up into this autonomy bill and also in there is no parental consent required.

That's crazy is the most extreme proposed a measure of its kind. I can imagine in all of American history that and you know you and I were not surprised to come from Vermont because were talking about a place that is overwhelmingly socially liberal and and yet you notice you started out using the word autonomy. There it is again the sexual autonomy of the of a young teenage girl is that what you talking about the outlook on the same society talks and that that language and and then talked about the autonomy basically of of having you know minors have abortions without any parental involvement whatsoever or or contraceptive use just given reproductive health and sexual autonomy is hard to imagine anyone on the right making up you know something like what we actually see now in Vermont it's real and it's crazy. I know we have two more bills Kentucky and in Montana here in Kentucky.

So let's talk about that when the knowledge of the of the closed area.

Amendment two is an opportunity to state that the Constitution of Kentucky doesn't have any right for abortion and can't require taxpayers to pay for abortion idealist. You think should be obvious and that the at least one final thing.

If you'll allow me yet elections are important.

We think about governors and senators and all the rest, and even these measures being a gym right now I've been awakened to the fact that one of the things we need to watch in the statewide elections is electing justices of the state Supreme Court's. It really does matter, and that has a lot to do is going on in Kentucky amendment to would prevent any state court from finding or discovering or inventing a right to abortion within the Kentucky Constitution and I think that's a really clear statement that needs to be said and Montana's very similar in their bill. So those are yeses that you want to support those bills and contact in Montana now is we wrap up. I mean, people listening. I'm trying to have that year for the person hearing us right now while their alarmist shoe that sounds pretty radical, but it's not. These are the big stakes that are now in play in our culture because we have lost that cohesion that you talked about earlier that between the parties. There wasn't much distinction on these core issues of the definition of a woman, or the definition of family or the definition of the baby.

Those things were pretty well agreed-upon. Up until now, and now it's wide open and I think up good place to end would just speak to that again. The fruit of the spirit aspect of this because we can get, especially watching cable news and try to be informed.

You could get pretty riled up. So the rice this constant battle for the Christian between my flesh being angry, and my spirit wanting to be kind and loving toward people that seem extremely ill-informed. Jimmy set that up so well because you know is Jesus himself said that the first commandment is that we love the Lord our God with our heart and soul and mind, and the second is like unto it, we shall ever neighbor as ourselves. Yes, where everything begins and ends for Christian and that you know in our fallenness and in our in our just humanity sometimes are going to get frustrated with things. But our job is to love God first and the love our neighbor every day, whatever that takes and that you know eight election days not every day and I and you and I are both thankful for that.

We we we would and Americans wouldn't pay that much attention to the American electoral system doesn't require that much as citizens note every two years in terms of these midterm elections every four years in terms of the presidential elections. You show up you look at the issues you do the right thing. You shall love God of and love of neighbor. Then you go back home, raise your children you echo you build your communities you got come you go to church you you know you do your business. You have to build the community. Elections are every day, but election days are important days and it is nothing but unfaithfulness to fail to show up and vote convictions on election day. John and I so appreciate Dr. Mohler's wisdom and insights about the great responsibility we have as Christians to be involved in voting and engaging with these moral concerns affecting our nation and I'm so honored that Focus on the Family is standing with him in the battle to protect precious human life created in the image of God that yes, it's right to celebrate the Supreme Court monumental decision to overturn Roe versus Wade.

Earlier this year, but the battle for the hearts and minds of our society are far from over. Our calling is clear to take up the mantle that pro-life believers have faithfully carried since 1973 and we need to work state-by-state now fighting for the rights and dignity of pre-born babies and their mothers for those with special needs, the elderly and orphans and anyone else who is perceived as less valuable in our culture. And that's the mission that we have and I hope you'll join us and that inherent Focus on the Family were committed to helping you stay informed and up-to-date on these kinds of issues impacting our faith in our families and life and would be posting links to our daily citizen website and Facebook page along with articles addressing the midterm ballots giving you all the information you need to stop by the website of the link is in the show notes and John that I want to encourage our listeners to personally get involved in the pro-life movement.

That's the best way to demonstrate your faith in my opinion I'm inviting you to stand with us in bringing God's truth in love to this important issue. There are so many things you can do like volunteering at your local pregnancy resource Center or donating diapers and formula another baby needs that girls and women have must have when facing an unplanned pregnancy and you can support our option ultrasound program where we provide ultrasound machines and trainings and other resources for these pregnancy resource centers, many of which are working in states that continue to support abortion in some of the states, even to the point of birth.

It's amazing. We've done the math and when you invest $60 in option ultrasound you help rescue one. Pre-born babies monthly pledge of $60 will save 12 pre-born babies a year. I can't think of a better investment that is right and of course a one-time gift is valuable as well.

Whatever you can afford today. Please call 800 232-645-9800 K word for you can donate to the link in the children on behalf of Jim Daly and the entire team.

Thanks for joining us for this episode of Focus on the Family.

I'm John Fuller inviting you back. As we once more help you and your family thrive in Christ.

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