We have the choices that we have
in this election because Christians have not been voting. An estimated 25
million Christians did not vote in the last presidential election because they
did not like their choices. The choices only get worse, not better, when we
don’t vote. We are losing the rights that we have not exercised, and doom and
gloom becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy when we do not fight for truth and
justice. Be part of the solution. Vote. See http://www.myfaithvotes.com. This paper
addresses reasons that you should vote for the Trump-Pence ticket for the White
House.
One of my primary goals in life is to
think biblically about everything, including politics and elections. One of the
key biblical principles in life is stewardship – I am a steward of everything:
money, time, ability, education, opportunities, and the democratic political
process. As one of the rare people in the history of the planet who can vote
for political leaders, I want to take that vote seriously and encourage others
to do the same. There is way too much at stake to sit out this election.
In Matthew 25:14-30, Jesus tells the
parable of the talents, where various managers are entrusted with the owners
wealth to use until he returns. The manager who hid the wealth and did not
invest it, is referred to as a wicked and slothful manager, and what he had was
taken from him and he was removed from his position.
Jesus then goes directly into speaking
about a coming final judgment where the faithfulness of people is based on how
they treated their brothers and sisters in the faith. When the world persecutes
brothers and sisters for their faith (Matt. 25:35-40), what is our response?
Jesus says, “as you did it to the least of these my brothers you did it to me.”
(Matt. 25:40.) Jesus really cares about the persecution of his followers and he
wants us to care.
Thus, in Matthew 25, we have both the
idea of stewardship of God’s blessings and developing a heart to defend the
persecuted tied together. Voting and political involvement is an area of
stewardship with which we have been entrusted, and it can be used to protect
and help followers of Christ from persecution and affliction. Will we ignore
that opportunity?
While the persecution of Christians is
raging around the world, it is starting to pick up here in the US, as judicial
decrees, civil rights commissions and laws criminalize and penalize Christian
morality and biblical values. Christians have been fined hundreds of thousands
of dollars in various states for simply living out Christian values in their
workplace. California is about to pass a law forcing Christian colleges to hire
and empower employees and admit students who are opposed to Christian values.
These things will accelerate around the nation with a Clinton White House and a
Clinton judiciary.
In Luke 18:1-8, Jesus tells a parable
about a widow appealing for justice to an unrighteous judge who finally gives
in. Jesus is illustrating the need to pray and not lose heart (18:1). In 18:7,
Jesus concludes that God will give justice to His elect, but he asks this
question: “when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith (or faithfulness) on the
earth?” (18:8.) Thus, the question arises for us, in our pursuit of justice,
are we faithful with what God has entrusted to us on this earth? Are we
faithful in representing Jesus well in our voting or are we squandering that
precious gift, out of which justice is either upheld or held in contempt?
The people of Israel squandered the
inheritance that God entrusted to them – they were not good stewards – so God
sent them into exile as He promised he would do in response to their unfaithfulness. In Jeremiah 29, the exiles are in Babylon and are wondering how
they are to live in exile. In 29:7, God says this to His people: “seek the
welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on
its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.” We seek the welfare
of our nation through prayer and by exercising our stewardship to vote wisely.
In 1 Timothy 2:1-4, we are told to
first of all pray for those in authority over us, “that we may lead a peaceful
and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way … [because] God our Savior …
desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
There is a connection between freedom to lead a godly life in public and God’s
desire to draw people into His kingdom. We should not only pray for governing
authorities with that in mind, we should use our stewardship toward that end.
A primary goal of all Christians should
be to protect religious liberty – guard the rights of Christians and others to
freely worship, share their faith, educate their children, and allow their
faith to influence the way that they run businesses, private schools, and to
otherwise represent Christ boldly in a hostile culture. Those rights have been
systematically attacked and have drastically eroded under the Obama
Administration. That erosion will increase under Hillary Clinton.
While God is sovereign over everything, He often allows us
to live with the consequences of our actions. When we are not faithful in
little things, we don’t get the bigger opportunities. When we are not faithful
as Christians with how we vote, and with our involvement in the political
process, the wasting of that stewardship eventually means that it will be
removed from us. We only have so many opportunities to correct our mistakes
before the opportunity is gone and we must live with the consequences for a
long, long time.
A Brief Look at Trump
Donald Trump was not on my list of favorite Republican
candidates. I have never been enamored with Trump and don’t care for his persona.
There are many economic conservatives who oppose him, and who may even support
Hillary Clinton at this point, not because they know what Trump will do, but
because Trump is unpredictable on economic issues. There is nothing that money
managers hate more than unpredictability. Economically conservative money
managers may prefer the devil they know (in Hillary Clinton) to the unpredictability
of Donald Trump.
Trump has also been all over the map on social issues.
Despite media portrayals, however, Trump is not a fool. He knows that he needs
social conservatives, and especially Christian social conservatives, in order
to win the election. Trump has therefore gone out of his way to appeal to and
embrace conservative Christian perspectives on issues. This was clearly
reflected on the opening night of the Republican National Convention, which
included many unabashedly Christian speakers. Only Trump, and not Clinton, is
in active dialog with and has formed an advisory team of, influential
conservative Christians. Ben Carson speaks very highly of Donald Trump.
Trump’s personal social life has appeared to be somewhat of
a mess. He has been married three times. He has come across as personally
over-bearing, rude and offensive. On the positive side, he has 5 children, all
of whom appear to be well-grounded, well-educated, and very supportive of their
father. His children are a tremendously statement of the values that he
instilled in them. He also has seven grandchildren. His present wife of 18
years is clearly devoted to Trump. Those close to him speak very highly of his
character and values.
Trump tends to overstate almost
everything, and tends toward self-interested bravado. He is not politically
correct and seems to go out of his way to offend people. At the same time, he
is courageous, never being afraid to take on any government anywhere. Most of
his real estate developments have been in New York City, where a developer must
be shrewd and aggressive in order to maneuver through a competitive market, a
complex and often-hostile city government and a multitude of powerful union
demands. However, he has developed property all over the country, and
throughout the world, including in the Middle East, Europe and Central America.
His bravado and tenaciousness have allowed him to do things very few people
accomplish. Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, is a long-time friend
of Trump and wholeheartedly gave Trump a ringing endorsement, speaking very
personally of how Trump repeatedly and anonymously helped many families of
fallen NY City police and fire personnel.
Trump had several casinos, but he has
since divested himself of the casinos. Those that bear his name are not owned
by him (primarily now owned by Carl Icahn), but he has licensed his name to the
casinos. I don’t view casinos as high on the list of things that make America
great. They make money by appealing to the baser instincts of people and by
taking about 91% out of every dollar that people spend gambling. Casino
development and ownership is not high on the list of things I would want in a
presidential candidate.
Trump was the overwhelming winner of
the Republican primaries. He has aligned himself with a conservative Republican
party and conservative Republican party platform, including on social issues.
The democratic nature of the primary process necessitates that winner is the
party’s nominee for the White House. Ideas about challenging Trump undermine
democracy and do a disservice to Republican values.
I realize there are other candidates
for President, but only two have a chance to win – this is a binary election –
either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump will be the next president absent some
unforeseeable event. A vote for any other candidate is a wasted vote. A
decision not to vote is to squander an opportunity when our nation is at a
precipice. We only get to do this every four years, so don’t waste your vote. To
not vote is to spare Hillary Clinton a vote against her. To abstain is to
empower Hillary Clinton. The choices will not be better in four years.
A Brief Look At
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Rodham Clinton grew up in the
Chicago area and became enamored with Chicago community organizer, communist
and committed radical, Saul Alinsky. Hillary’s senior thesis at Wellesley was on
Saul Alinsky and his methods of organizing and empowering the poor and weak.
Alinsky published his book, Rules for Radicals, shortly before his death in
1971. In his dedication page introducing the book, Alinsky dedicated the book
to “Lucifer,” the original radical who secured his own kingdom for his
rebellion. In a later quote, Alinsky spoke longingly of being with his kind of
people in hell.
After college, Hillary went to Yale Law
School, but she clerked for a law firm in Oakland that was owned and run by two
communist party members. The law firm represented the Black Panther
organization. Hillary eventually met Bill Clinton while in law school, and the
two were later married.
Fast forward. A year after Bill Clinton
left the White House, Hillary was elected to the United States Senate from New
York, a state in which she had not lived prior to leaving the White House. She
served 8 years in the Senate, running a failed presidential election campaign
that was won by Barak Obama (also a Chicago area Alinsky fan) before being
appointed Secretary of State.
Shortly after leaving the White House,
the Clintons formed the Clinton Foundation, ostensibly to raise funds for
impoverished people around the world. The Clinton Foundation has raked in more
than two billion dollars ($2,000,000,000), with many of the gifts coming from
foreign governments and wealthy foreign individuals. Both Bill Clinton and
Hillary Clinton have managed to rake in massive speaking fees, sometimes
hundreds of thousands of dollars for a short speech, from forums around the
world. Their speaking fees have brought in an estimated $150,000,000. In
addition, the combined Clinton campaigns have brought in another one billion
dollars ($1,000,000,000.00).
While Hillary Clinton was Secretary of
State, many foreign governments and foreign individuals contributed to the
Clinton Foundation, seemingly buying influence through those donations.
According to records that are available for review on the Clinton Foundation
website, Saudi Arabia gave between $10,000,000 and $25,000,000 to the Clinton
Foundation while Hillary was Secretary of State. Individual Saudis gave
millions, if not tens of millions more to the Clinton Foundation.
While Hillary Clinton was first lady, a
young lady who was a sophomore at George Washington University, but who had
been raised and educated in Saudi Arabia, became Hillary Clinton’s aide. That
woman is Huma Abedin, whose parents are Islamic professors in Saudi Arabia.
Think about how many college students would have loved an opportunity to work
closely with Hillary Clinton, but Clinton chose a young Saudi (with dual
American citizenship) to be on her staff – something that would not happen
without outside influence.
Huma Abedin eventually became Hillary
Clinton’s Chief of Staff, working in the US Senate, the State Department (where
she was Clinton’s top aide) and working for the Clinton Foundation. Huma Abedin
is an unapologetic Muslim, although she married a secular Jew, the infamous
Anthony Weiner – one time NY City mayor candidate and congressman.
As Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton
welcomed the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and went out of her way
to travel to Egypt and congratulate Mohammed Morsi after his election as
President with the support of the Muslim Brotherhood. Hillary was effusive in
her praise for both Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood. A staff member of the
Clinton Foundation in Egypt was also an influential member of the Muslim
Brotherhood. There have been many claims about the ties between Huma Abedin’s
family and the Muslim Brotherhood. Morsi was eventually declared a terrorist
and the Muslim Brotherhood was banned as a terrorist organization.
Hillary Clinton strongly supported and
encouraged the Arab Spring, which has resulted in so much human suffering and
chaos across the Middle East and north Africa. Hillary encouraged the overthrow
of Quadafi in Libya, only to have ISIS become the dominate power there. She supported
the overthrow of President Assad in Syria. Hillary also did everything in her
power to keep from having to declare Boko Haram a terrorist organization in
Nigeria. One of the major donors to the Clinton Foundation is one of the
wealthiest Nigerians, who interceded with Hillary Clinton so that she would not
undermine Boko Haram and the Muslims in northern Nigeria who have slaughtered
thousands of Christians.
Like Barak Obama, Hillary Clinton
steadfastly refuses to use the words, Islamic Terrorism, Islamic radical,
Islamic Jihad, or similar words that suggest that any terror is connected in
someway to Islam. This denial of reality is clearly at the request of Muslim
nations and their US apologists who do not want to hear something that offends
them. Such appeasement to terror and radicals, refusing to call an enemy by name,
should be gravely offensive to all Americans.
One of the reasons for the current US
policy in Syria is that Syria has been run by a moderate form of Islam, the Alawites,
with the al-Assad family as the head of the tribal group that embraces the Alawite
form of Islam. The Saudis consider the Alawites heretics. The Saudis support Wahhabi Islam (a branch of a Sunni Islam). As
a matter of religious ideology, the Saudis would like to defeat and remove the
Alawites who control Syria. The Alawites, by the way, were very tolerant of
Christians, and the Christian faith thrived in Syria for 1900 years. The
polices of Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama have almost decimated the church in
that nation.
ISIS (which also embraces
Wahhabi Islam) is the most powerful rebel group trying to overthrow the Alawite
rule in Syria. One of the reasons that the US and the west have not decisively
taken action to defeat ISIS is so that ISIS will continue the fight against the
current Syrian government. This is all consistent with Saudi interests. While
the idea of the Arab spring was creating chaos everywhere else, it did not
touch one of the most restrictive and brutal Arab governments, the Saudis themselves,
who have been led by a royal family in one form or another for more than 1000
years.
The Saudis (and their
allied Arab states) have great influence because of their great oil wealth.
Europe is dependent on Saudi oil. That influence through their wealth extends
to the Clintons, who have followed and supported Saudi interests throughout
their time in political office, and as part of the Clinton Foundation.
The Clinton email scandal
is not about Hillary Clinton being careless. There was nothing careless about
it. This was about Hillary Clinton engaging in communications that she did not
want to ever come to light in her run for President. The only way to do her
business and keep her business from public view was to use a separate, private
email server. With the complicity of the Justice Department, the most
scandalous of the emails will never come to light. Hillary Clinton had to be
confident in doing something that illegal that both the Justice Department and
the media would have her back. She was correct.
The link between the
Clintons and Hollywood elite is legendary. Hollywood dignitaries have been
among the largest American donors to the Clintons and to their foundation.
Hollywood (film and other entertainment media) literally controls the news
networks. Our news networks are owned at some level by the same people who own
and control Hollywood studios and their entertainment empires. Unfortunately,
the news networks never report on those who own and control the networks. That
means that those people, the movers and shakers behind the scene, who are so
effusive over Hillary Clinton, are beyond examination by the media that they
control. Never trust any news media, but look for ways to verify what is
reported.
Hillary Clinton is
fanatically supportive of abortion, including partial birth abortion. She has
gone out of her way to cultivate and celebrate a close supportive relationship
with those who lead Planned Parenthood. While Planned Parenthood now receives
taxpayer funding, some of that funding is then used to support political
candidates who support abortion, leading to more funding. Hillary Clinton may
be even more rabidly pro-abortion than President Obama. This is at a time when
over half the country opposes abortion on demand. How
can any Christian or conservative ever support or ignore a candidate who strongly
advocates killing the most helpless of children?
Most people are keenly
aware that LGBT “rights” are being used as a weapon to suppress the rights of
Christians who can’t biblically agree with that agenda. LGBT “rights” are now supreme
to rights of free speech, freedom of religion and freedom of association – each of
which is expressly protected by the United States Constitution. However, a few
judges, with great encouragement from the media, have imposed their values and
dictates on the rest of the country – no election, no national debate, no
choice in the matter, just top down tyranny. Hillary Clinton is determined to accelerate
that agenda. See her own website statement on those issues - https://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/lgbt-equality/.
There is a lot more on the website if you want to get a glimpse of the agenda.
Consideration of the Federal Judges and Bureaucrats
One of the most influential
things that Presidents do is to make lifetime appointments of federal judges
and justices, as well to appoint tens of thousands of federal bureaucrats who
are like-minded. We have had eight years of appointments by President Obama
that have transformed the federal judiciary. The federal bureaucrats, like Lois
Lerner at the IRS, and Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch at the Justice Department,
have used their positions to advance an agenda and to harass those opposed to
that agenda.
There are now only eight
Supreme Court Justices. Whoever is elected will get a key appointment. More
than likely, multiple other Supreme Court Justices, including Clarence Thomas,
will be retiring. The next President will literally shape the direction of the
US Supreme Court for years to come. The view of Obama and Hillary Clinton and
their judges is that the Constitution is an antiquated document that must
change to adapt to culture. That is why rights not stated in the Constitution
can be granted to people and rights expressively given in the Constitution can be denied
to people – the justices get to decide by fiat rather than via the express
words of the Constitution. The foundational law of this nation has been turned
on its head and the people of this nation have been denied representation on important
issues because judges have made rulings without accountability. That will
continue on a massive scale under Hillary Clinton and may never be reversible.
The bureaucrats who look
the other way to accommodate friends and who viciously go after their enemies
will be empowered by a Hillary presidency, because the people of this nation
will have concluded that such abuses of power don’t matter. Nothing would be
healthier for the nation than a good house cleaning of all of the bureaucrats
who have taken up residency in Washington for the last eight years. If that
doesn’t happen, the natural balance of powers will likely never be restored in
this country. Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals will have prevailed.
Religious Liberty
While I list this last, it
is my first consideration. Hillary Clinton is on record for saying that if
Christians belong to churches that cling to beliefs that are inconsistent with government
or judicial edicts, they will need to change their beliefs. In other words, she
believes that government can compel the church to change its beliefs and she
can be expected to do what she can as President to make sure that happens. Go
ahead and Google her comments on this issue for yourself.
Hillary Clinton has
demonstrated contempt and bold hostility toward Christian and biblical values,
as well as toward suffering Christians around the world. The State Department
has discriminated against granting asylum to Christians fleeing persecution in
favor of granting asylum to fleeing Muslims. That hostility toward Christians will
be boldly reflected in her presidency.
Why You Need To Vote For Donald
Trump
1. Protect
our nation from a Supreme Court that is permanently hostile to Christians and
conservatives and that transforms the Constitution and rule of law in the
United States to something based on the power of an elite. Trump has vowed that
he will appoint conservatives, even vetting Ted Cruz as someone to review
judicial appointments for him.
2. Protect
our nation from an executive branch and bureaucracy that fully and completely
removes the freedoms that we once cherished as Christians and conservatives in
this country. We need someone who is not afraid to clean house in the IRS, the
Justice Department and other agencies that have become political tools of a
liberal, anti-constitutional agenda.
3. Protect
our nation from the foreign influence, and particularly the Wahhabi Islam, that
is behind so much of the radical Islam in the world. Trump will call evil what
it is and do everything necessary to defeat hostile foreign powers and
terrorist. He will not be politically correct.
4. Allow our
nation space and reprieve from the Obama policies that have wreaked havoc on
the nation.
5. Our armed
forces have been used as a social experiment, rather than being empowered to
fight for victory over the nation’s enemies. At the Republican Convention,
heroic soldier after soldier warned about the way that our nation and our
military has been eroded under Obama. That will accelerate under Hillary.
6. Allow
someone who is not accountable to Hollywood and its values to lead the nation –
they cannot control Trump and are fearful of their lost influence.
7. Allow
someone who is at least seeking advice from godly leaders, and who is not
overtly hostile to them, to be President.
8. Mike
Pence, Trump’s VP, appears to be a godly, grounded person, who reflects the
values that we are looking for in the executive branch of our government.
9. Trump has
reached out to every major Republican presidential candidate to make peace. Ben
Carson has wholeheartedly joined the Trump team and is fighting for the same
values that he fought for as a candidate, but now within the Trump team. Others
are also coming to the realization that Hillary is not an option and that #neverHillary
must prevail over #neverTrump.
10.You can
probably add other reasons….
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