As a person, I am an avid fan and follower of American politics. As a pastor, I am a shepherd of God’s people and have the responsibility to spread the gospel, train God’s sheep, and provide advice, recommendations, and wisdom in matters affecting the lives of God’s people.
As a citizen of the United States of America, I have a vote in the 2024 presidential election. As a pastor, I have a responsibility to care for the lives and concerns of my parishioners while also providing the best possible wisdom to those who seek my counsel on such matters.
As a human being, I am responsible for who I vote for in the 2024 presidential election. As a pastor, I am responsible for ministering to God’s people and their questions on matters of life and godliness, and politics is one of those areas.
As a human being, I live in a democratic state, Colorado. As a pastor, I pastor an evangelical Southern Baptist church called Vanguard Church in Colorado Springs. My position as a human being and as a pastor is as important in this election as your personality and position in the 2024 presidential election, but how and how much?
Because politics comes with power, and much of it rests on our democracy and electoral process, the levels of authority and influencers in our society become critical to the equation. However, as I watched things unfold during Covid, I got the impression that our desire to control people and tell them what to believe has little to no value in an election season like this. Prominent and powerful pastors and even politicians think they have the power to persuade people to do what they want, but I have not found that to be the case with Americans, and particularly American Christians, and particularly American evangelical Christians.
The debate about whether the morality of the candidate matters in an election year does not even seem to be an issue in our society anymore. Corruption in politics and among politicians has reached an even higher level than the scandals surrounding so many senior pastors of our day. Yet it is remarkable to see politicians without character removing pastors whose lack of character has already been exposed.
Unfortunately, we live in a disgusting society where insults, abuse and character assassination are the order of the day. The only problem is that no one seems to have any character anymore, and no one seems to care that no one has any character left to destroy.
In Jesus’ day, he was asked, “Lord, shall we pay taxes?” Jesus replied, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s.” This means that every citizen must pay taxes. In our democracy, our vote shows our support for the one responsible for setting taxes and the amount of taxes we pay back to our government to run our country. The president’s job is to work with Congress to create a budget that allows our nation to live within its means while handling the business at hand, to care for our country, and to represent democracy and support for our allies around the world.
As we approach this 2024 presidential election, there is no discussion of balancing the federal budget, there is no discussion of being fiscally responsible with what we have been entrusted with. There is no plan to steer us off the cliff our nation is heading toward other than learning to live within our means. Our federal government is setting us an example that it does not have to live within its means, and neither do we. We all believe, to varying degrees, that we can spend how we want, where we want, without consequences. But we all know that is not true. We see the consequences in our own lives.
Since 9/11, our country has overwhelmingly gone in the wrong direction, morally and financially. Our respect for authority, our desire to instill a work ethic, and our desire to respect our Constitution are sad observations and daily understandings.
We all seem sadly to have settled for the statement that we should choose the lesser of two evils, and while I am not against it, we should vote. All we are left with is to fight for a piece of bread that will unfortunately not appease the wrath of God that we feel toward our nation.
As a pastor, I want to encourage you to vote. I want to encourage you to stand up for morality and the truth of God’s Word when you vote. But I also want to encourage you to remember what God said to the people of Israel and how best to preserve a people.
God said: 2 Chronicles 7:14 “If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
The job of government is to represent God to the people. (Romans 13)
Unfortunately, we have politicians who cannot let go of their own interests and desires, and we have a nation of citizens who are looking for someone to do for them what they themselves are unwilling to do. God is calling His people to bow down before Him, repent, and ask Him to bless our nation.
I would like to invite you as an individual to vote. You have the power that your government has given you.
But as a pastor, I want to invite you to pray, because that is the power that God has given you. Pray for a president who will seek the face of Jesus and try to surround himself with people who will give him wisdom from God.
Oh, how our nation needs a leader who follows Jesus.
Blessing,
Pastor Kelly
