From the Capitol: Don’t forget about the importance of voting

Mike Griffin

Let’s engage as followers of Christ and make sure we spread as much of God’s salt and light as we can in our nation.”

REMINDER: Early voting for the November 3rd Election opens this Tuesday, October 13th, and runs through October 30th. You can check on your voter registration, polling location, and more at the Secretary of State's My Voter Page (https://mvp.sos.ga.gov/s/).

The Georgia Faith & Freedom Coalition has nonpartisan voter guides available for the Georgia Governor and U.S. Senate races. You can also reach out to Sam Steiner to request voter guides to be shipped for your church, neighborhood, or community event. All of our voter guides can be viewed, printed, and shared at this link: https://www.georgiaffc.com/election

In addition, they have voter guides for the races for Lt. Governor, Attorney General, State Senate Districts 37, 42, and 48, and State House Districts 48, 53, 99, 105, and 151 available online. You can view, print, and share here. The results in these down-ballot races will make a huge impact on the direction of our state. 

As Georgia Baptists, we never instruct our church members about who to vote for. Our main desire is that every voter be well informed up and down the ballot. The Faith and Freedom Coalition does a good job of sharing the declared positions of candidates on various issues of concern. They make sure the positions are well documented, as you will see from the footnotes.

Just recently, SBC President Willy Rice said on Fox News, "Should pastors engage in the political process? They absolutely should. Because there are many political issues that are, at their heart, theological issues and moral issues that strike at the very center of what we believe to be true and what we believe people need to know in order to flourish personally and as a culture. I think the pastors need to step up. I think throughout American history, pastors have had a strong voice at key moments in American political history.”

With what our SBC president said, we all must always be reminded that elections have consequences! This is true whether it is a local, state, or national election. It is the people that we put in office that ultimately are responsible for good or bad policies that govern our nation. This is why it is important that you should always know as much as possible about the candidate’s position on issues before you vote.

We all must be reminded that our first responsibility as citizens of a republic is to participate, whereas the only responsibility in a monarchy is to obey. Therefore, nothing characterizes our responsibility to participate more than voting for the best elected officials.

I think we are living in a day when we are losing our best government by default. Too many Christians, I believe, have self-censored themselves. We can never allow ourselves to believe we are too “spiritual” to get involved in government. Government is one of the institutions that God came up with. Note Romans 13:1-10 (See this article: Commentary: A Biblical perspective of God’s will for government - The Christian Index)

As we are now closer to the November election, please join us in praying that our citizens will have wisdom and discernment in voting. We cannot emphasize enough how important it is to go to the polls and vote according to your Biblical convictions.

Let’s engage as followers of Christ and make sure we spread as much of God’s salt and light as we can in our nation. I continue to believe that for such a time as this, God has brought us here to make a difference!

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Mike Griffin is the Public Affairs Representative of the Georgia Baptist Mission Board.