You may choose to be ebullient or lugubrious

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This is not a repeat of a previous editorial – not even close. But I do want to remind you in the strongest possible terms that we have a mid-term election on the horizon and voting is an imperative for every Christian.

When you wake up on November 7th the votes for the mid-term election should be tallied in Georgia and states across the nation and the results should make you either ebullient (cheerful) or lugubrious (gloomy). In fact, your disposition for years to come may depend upon your vote on November 6th.

Voting is not only a privilege; it is a sacred responsibility. John Jay, president of the Continental Congress and first Chief Justice of the United States, stated, “Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.”

James Dobson, founder of the James Dobson Family Institute and Family Talk radio, has issued a warning of the severe consequences if we fail to vote in the November mid-term elections.

Dobson explained, “Everything is on the line, and a wholly new interpretation of the Constitution looms before us. Socialism would replace freedom and free enterprise” if Christians don’t participate.

“Destiny rides before us again. As Barak Obama said after winning a second presidential term, ‘Elections have consequences.’ Indeed, they do. We, the voters, have it within our power to protect our Constitution, preserve our democratic system of government, and secure the blessings of liberty for us and our posterity.”

Dobson indicated that powerful social movements and passions are “blowing in the wind” that have dangerous implications for the institutions of the family, religious liberty, our children and unborn babies, and the country at large.

Is Dobson an alarmist, a conspiracy theorist, a merchant of doom? Is socialism really that much of a threat in the United States?

There was a time when I would have questioned Dobson’s warning, but no more. When Bernie Sanders, an avowed socialist, gave Hillary Clinton a run for her money in the Democratic presidential primary in 2016 I realized that we are very close to having to endure a way of life very foreign to what we have known in the past.

Sanders won the allegiance of millions of Americans – particularly Millennials. A new YouGov study revealed that 44 percent of Millennials would prefer to live in a socialist country, while just 42 percent of Millennials said they would choose to live in a capitalistic country like the U.S.

Why would Millennials buy into the lies of socialism? I think it is because of the dumbing down of our educational system. Our schools no longer teach what made America great or even that America is great. Students are no longer taught why American Capitalism is far superior to Socialism. Instead these left leaning pedagogues are teaching the younger generation that Capitalism is evil and Socialism needs to be given another chance.

However, if you want to test the results of socialism look at North Korea. And if you want to observe the impact of capitalism upon a nation look at South Korea.

While capitalism may have its challenges, socialism has proven to be a failed system of government. Winston Churchill stated, “The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.”

Former U.S. Senator Jim Demint, in his book Saving Freedom, warns about America’s slide into socialism. He writes, “Government is now the nation’s largest property owner (nearly one-third of the land mass); it owns over one-third of the incomes of most working Americans. It controls and restricts the development of America’s energy resources. Government controls the majority of education and health-care services in America. It owns the primary retirement income plan for most Americans (Social Security).”

In socialism the government could declare national eminent domain, garnish one’s wages, own everything, and only give a stipend to its citizens whereby they would have to eke out a living on whatever the government permitted them to have.

The economic principles of socialism are bad enough, but that is not the worst thing about this debilitating political system. Socialist societies typically embrace atheism. Karl Marx, the German philosopher who popularized socialism in the 19th century, declared, “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opiate (opium) of the people.”

Richard John Neuhaus, a prominent Christian writer and Christian cleric, commented, “Socialism is the religion people get when they lose their religion.”

You need to understand that when you vote for liberals that promise more free “stuff” through more socialism, you are being seduced by Satan’s alluring whispers; and it is his desire to ultimately steal your money, your hopes, your dreams, your faith, your freedom, and your country.

Your vote could result in you becoming wonderfully ebullient, but your failure to vote could make you tragically lugubrious. Don’t forget to vote on November 6th. It is your sacred responsibility!

atheism, government, socialism, voting