Life as a Christian Woman

First I must say whoever wins the election will have my prayer support.
– Huntley Brown

Unless you have been living in a cave for the past, oh, four years, you know that we are in the final stages of a political campaign in the U.S. As we enter the last few days (yippee!), the mud is sailing, the rhetoric has gone into double-time.

And the out-and-out lies are flying. But not from the candidates…

From you and me.

The internet can be a wonderfully informing place to be. But it can also be a dangerous place. We all know about predators that lurk in chat rooms, scams trying to drain your bank accounts, and hackers who want to steal your identity.

But those seemingly innocuous emails that come in from friends, with challenges to “step up to the plate and let all your friends know how bad “Candidate A” or “Candidate B” is, well, in most cases they, too, are dangerous, and all lies.

Each time I get an email, I go straight to Snopes.com to verify. And in the past two weeks I have gotten over 20 emails, each one with more lies than the last. They are full of innuendo designed to scare the reader away from one candidate and straight to another.

These emails challenge me to pass them on, to help warn other voters about the dark past, or secret goals, of one candidate or the other.

First of all, I doubt that any email has ever changed someone’s vote. But if they are forwarded without thought to fact-checking, then the forwarder becomes complicit in the smokescreen.

This past week I got a forwarded email that I found out was true. Huntley Brown, a fabulous African-American pianist and strong Christian man, had been asked repeatedly by his friends who he was voting for and why. Mr. Brown has said it was never intended for mass publication, but one of his friends posted it and it has entered the internet, never to be stopped!

At any rate, there are several parts that jump out at me:

First I must say whoever wins the election will have my prayer support.

I process my identity through Christ. Being a Christian (a Christ follower) means He leads, I follow. I can’t dictate the terms, He does because He is the leader.

I can’t vote black because I am black; I have to vote Christian because that’s who I am. Christian first, black second.  Neither should anyone from other ethnic groups vote because of ethnicity. 200 years from now I won’t be asked if I was black or white. I will be asked if I knew Jesus and accepted Him as Lord and Savior.

All of this makes sense as a Christian. We have to put aside our personal biases, and look at this and any election as a Christian first. Which leader is more likely to continue an agenda that is faith-based?  Who is more likely to take our Christian beliefs and push them to the back, in the name of political correctness.

This isn’t about being Democrat or Republican, Blue State or Red State, Black or White, Liberal or Conservative. It is about following your Christian convictions. It is about breaking through your own biases and opinions, and seeking the opinion of the only One who matters.

And then following Him.

It also means that, as a Christian, you must get out and vote! No excuses. Christians cannot lead, cannot expect to hold onto this country, if we do not take the time to vote for the ones we feel God leads us to vote for.

Vote!