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Hey guys, this is Michael Zwick. Why should Christians get out and vote this fall? Or what is it going to take for Christians to get out and vote this fall? I've got a Rebecca Haney on the line right here out of Iowa. Are you there, Rebecca?
I am. Can you hear me, Michael? Yes. And we praise God for the miracle that God just did in your life. We know that your son was in a coma.
And praise God, people were praying and he is doing much better right now. Is that right? He is. We're all very grateful for everyone who is praying, and of course, to the Lord, and we say hallelujah every day. Hallelujah.
Well, I know this is a subject that you talk about a lot, Rebecca. And I've got a shirt on, and on the back of my shirt, it says that I vote pro-life. But what do you think it's going to take, Rebecca, to get Christians to come out and vote this fall?
Well, I love that shirt. I think every Christian could wear one, hopefully. It's something that should motivate us, even that issue alone.
Sometimes we get called single-issue voters, but I would say if the choice is life and death, then yes, that is enough. We should choose life. But I would say there are three things that should motivate Christians to vote. One is a biblical view of citizenship. We are Americans in the 21st century since we're having this conversation, and God has given us so many blessings.
One of them is the ability to choose our leaders. And we are accountable to God for how we steward that in the same way as we do with our time, our family, our money, anything he gives us.
So he's entrusted this ability to us. And we should take that seriously. I think we should not give up. or abdicate that responsibility.
Now sometimes it feels like there are no good choices. And so I would also say number two is that we need biblical candidates to vote for, to motivate Christians to the polls.
Sometimes that seems like it's easier said than done. But I believe that Christians should be advocating for biblical issues that matter. We should be speaking with a prophetic voice into the public square, because nothing good happens when the voices that care about righteousness and holiness leave the square. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's right.
You know, and one of my favorite stories, Rebecca, is about Napoleon Bonaparte. And this is a story that I heard. I think it's true. But what they said was that he had a bugler who, every time, you know, when it was time for Napoleon to tell the bugler to stop the war, stop the battle, he would tell the bugler, and the bugler would blow the bugle for retreat. And so one day, Napoleon realized that he was going to lose this battle.
And so what happened was, he sent word to the bugler to blow the bugle for retreat. And so about 10 minutes later, nothing happened.
So Napoleon said, once again, he said, I want you to send word to the bugler to blow the bugle for retreat. 10 minutes later, nothing happened again. The third time, Napoleon said, I'm going to go and I'm going to go tell this kid myself. I've told him twice and now this is the third time you need to blow the bugle for retreat because I told you.
So he went there, he talked to the bugler, and he said, I've told you two times, three times now that you need to blow the bugle to retreat. We need to go. And the bugler told him, he said, Napoleon, he said, you never taught me how to blow the bugle for retreat. And Napoleon said, I didn't. He said, no.
He said, then blow the bugle to charge. And he blew the bugle and they won that battle that day. I tell you what, Rebecca, Jesus Christ taught us a lot of things. One thing that Jesus never taught us, he never taught us to retreat. Yeah, that reminds me of the hymn of the battle hymn of the Republic.
I don't know if you and me and some history fans probably know that song, but I think it's the second verse. It says he is trumping out the trumpet that will never sound retreat. And that's talking about the heavenly kingdom, of course. And so there are many ways that we fight our battles. Ultimately, we have to make sure we're standing on God's side and then he fights for us.
But one of the ways that we can take a stand for righteousness and holiness in our nation, and one of the best ways we can love our neighbors. is by voting biblically. And standing for our biblical values in the public square. That includes our vote and it includes our voice.
Well, it is. And there are some preachers and teachers out there who say, well, you know, we need to keep politics and Politics and the pulpit in two separate places. But there's a lady named Allie Beth Stuckey, and I don't know if you've heard of her or not, but one of the things that she said was this: she said, We can no longer do that. She said, Because the political realm interfered in our realm. And so I think what she was talking about is she's saying, Look, the Bible says that I knew you before I formed you.
So to me, the Bible is a very pro-life book, but one of the two political parties out there does not seem to be pro-life at all. Right.
Well, and it's interesting that, that admonition only applies one way. When we're talking about progressive-leaning religious organizations, they have no problem speaking exactly what they believe in the public square or advocating for votes. I just find that interesting. It only goes one way. But then the moment we try to bring biblical values into the conversation, it's like, oh, well, you know, too bad, separation of church and state.
Let me just say that the separation of church and state, while it does not appear in the Constitution, should never be taken to mean the separation of God and government. Government is instituted by God. And justly, it ought to protect the rights of the governed. It ought to reflect biblical values, which is just reality. It's the way God made this universe to work for good, for human flourishing.
We reward good and we punish evil. That's how government is supposed to work. And when we, as the church, as people who understand a rightly ordered universe, the more that we silence ourselves, the more that we back down, or the more that we agree to the cancellation, so to speak. Own what's left. In the public sphere, only the voices that believe that power is God, only the voices that believe in alternative morality.
And so it's no wonder that the nation looks the way that it does, or that the world looks the way that it does, if the voices that are called to speak prophetically for God in our generation have been complicit with our silencing. I know that the First Amendment is on a lot of people's minds. I'm a big advocate of the First Amendment: freedom of speech, obviously, freedom of worship, freedom of religion, and the government should not intrude there. But when governments feel their The arrogance To presume that they can curtail those freedoms, it's often because of one thing that Christians have silenced themselves. Christians have censored ourselves, have stopped speaking up about the things that matter, whereas If we were to rise up with one voice and say we will not have the evil of abortion in our country anymore, we will not legalize killing of children or mutilation of children or brainwashing of children anymore.
We will stand up for the family. We will stand up for what is good and right and true. If every Christian in America said that and voted that way, I really think that there would be a night and day difference in our society. I do too. And the number is 866-34TRUTH-866-348-7884.
If you want to chime in as well, but Rebecca, there's some people out there who say, well, I'm a Christian and I feel like Christians need to vote straight ticket Democrat. What do you think about that? I would ask them why they think that way, and like chapter and verse. I would love to hear the justification for that. I agree that the word of God transcends political party and time and place.
So that is always true. But God speaks to the issues that matter most. He tells us to love justice. And so we need to know what God's definition of justice is. And neither party gets it right 100% of the time, either.
So there will be, and certain candidates. Don't always get it right. And so there would be certain candidates that no matter what their party affiliation, if they stand for abortion or euthanasia or things like that, then I could not vote for them. My conscience will not allow me to do that, and I don't care what the party affiliation is. We do have the benefit of party platforms in our country.
And if you've never read and compared the different party platforms, that would be a good little homework assignment as you're educating your vote to see what, say, each major party stands for. And if one major party stands for killing of innocent babies on demand and for the mutilation of children in accordance with a gender lie, then we know that they are not standing for biblical values. Yeah, 866-34-TRUTH, 866-348-7884. What is it going to take for Christians to come out and vote? And why should they vote in the first place?
Why is this important? Why is this election important? We'll be right back. 348-7884. We've got Rebecca on the phone, but we've got a Steve.
Out of Burlington on the phone as well. And it looks like we're getting them on there. Are you there, Steve? Yes, sir. Hey, why should Christians come out and vote this fall, Steve?
Well, we have a We have a mess in our country today, and it really gotten away from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Um The Democrats have gone completely crazy. Democrats now stand Ah, four. unsafely for abortions and the party at death. The Democrat Party is now unashamedly protest.
The Democrat Party is for Murdering and slaughtering babies in the womb and now after first. in some areas. Sand it. It's okay. The Democrat Party is not pro-choice, pro-woman or pro-health.
It is pro abortion. which means it is pro-murdering. They also support euthanasia. Physician assisted suicide. And many other things.
They're all for letting illegal immigrants come into this country. Getting free food. getting free housing, getting free license plates. Getting free license, CDLs. that they shouldn't be getting.
and taken away from the American people. as a a Democrat, a a Christian, cannot and should not ever vote for a Democrat just on the first two, and that's abortion and euthanasia. And not only that, They are also. Um, denying parents. If a child there's something wrong with a child, And in school, and they're going on birth control, they don't inform the parents about this.
This is the parents' decision. whether they should do these things. And uh They want to fast the federal government with all liberal Um judges and Supreme Court justice. Didn't And do away with uh Um Overturn Row, eliminating the right to choose. Weakening voting right.
and civil rights. to grant granting immunity for presidential crimes. Um uh undermined the judicial system of our country. They are deliberately trying to destroy our country. And I cannot see a Christian who confesses to be a Christian I don't care if you're Catholic, Protestant.
Jehovah Witness, whatever. you cannot support the Democratic Party for any reason, and that's That's about what I have to say.
Well, you know, and it sounds to me like, Steve, what you're saying is, but other than that, the Democratic Party is a great party. Is that right, Rebecca? I think Steve speaks loud and clear. I hear what he's saying. Yeah, so what do you think about what he just said, Rebecca?
I think, like I said, if you check out the party platforms and you compare what one party stands for versus another, it's really not a mystery.
Now, the only question is how well or how closely certain candidates align with the party values that they espouse on Election Day.
So that's kind of a separate question. There may be people who claim to stand for certain values when you elect them, and then they may vote differently than that. And I always say it's by your fruits you know them.
So you gotta be familiar and do a little homework and figure out which people are staying true to what they claim and which ones are showing and growing differently than what they've said. But it is critical to know these issues for ourselves. I do think we have to be educated as Christians. And it takes a little bit of work because they don't always make it easy to figure out how people are voting and what their motivations are. But if we are grounded in the word, I don't think we should be afraid of speaking truth in the political realm just the same as we would in our own neighborhoods, in our own congregations.
We are required to lead according to what we know of the truth. Yeah, we are. And one of the things that we have to do is, I notice a lot of times when things are really bad, people will come out and vote. But I'll give you an example. There was a local lady named Jennifer Talley, who was the mayor of Graham, North Carolina, which is in our county seat of Alamance County, North Carolina.
And she told me before the election, she said, when people are comfortable, They tend to not go out and vote. But they said when things are really bad, they go out and vote. And we had a red district in Alamance County, but she ended up losing that seat. To a dishonest Democrat who was going around knocking on doors, a young lady saying, I'm the conservative candidate. She didn't say she was a Republican, but she said, I'm the conservative candidate.
So she was a liar. And they said that in that election, and it was last, earlier this year, I think it was last year, it was in an off year, I think something like 13% of people came out to vote. And so I just wonder, Rebecca, if we actually had just the Christians, just the evangelical Christians who came out to vote, I wonder if it would be a landslide. What do you think?
Well, that would be enough to turn the tide of any single election. If you look at the voting margin, just the number of people who are self-confessed evangelicals, that single voting block, we're not the majority in the United States, but it is a plurality. It's enough to turn any margin of any modern election.
So that's the impact we could have. And that's why I like to encourage people: it's not hopefully we're not motivated by anger and hatred for the other side. We do need to be promoting what is righteous. In our nation, if we need a biblical view of citizenship, I just think we have to take it seriously and personally enough to say, this is a way I can honor God with my vote. And I will be accountable to God for my vote.
And if we took those two things seriously, I do believe that this country would look different because Americans would be approaching it simply from the position of obedience. It's also a wonderful opportunity to love our neighbor in practical terms because policy has impact as to how we live our daily lives. If we no longer have freedom to work or to do business or to speak openly in the public square or to educate your children how you see fit according to biblical principles, et cetera, that has a huge impact on your daily life and on mine.
So the only people who are going to be speaking up for those rights loud and clear, for individual rights, typically are Christians. Yeah, and Rebecca, are Rebecca, are you familiar with the family? Are you familiar with 2 Chronicles 7.14? Why, yes, I am. If my people, which are called by my name, will seek humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and I will heal their land.
And I feel like I missed a phrase. Yeah, no, I mean, you pretty much got it. Yeah, that's it. But see, one of the things that we have to do, yes, we must act. We have to get out there and vote.
And I tell you what, if you're voting every time, I'm saying not only do that, we've got to do that. But in addition to that, if you can, go knock on doors, go make phone calls, talk to your neighbor, talk to your family, encourage them to vote the biblical way. But in addition to that, it says in that verse, it says, when we pray, when we humble ourselves and pray. And Rebecca, your good friend T. Russell Hunter, who we had a show on a little while ago with, one of the things that he said recently is he said, we must act.
He said, but we also must pray. And I'm sure that that's something that at least you guys can agree on, right? Absolutely. It's a mandate. We probably agree on like 90% of things.
But it's so important to pray. In fact, it's a command to pray for our leaders. And that would include the leaders who don't agree with us, by the way. And I pray daily that they will see the light, that they will come to a knowledge of understanding of who God is. And that they will start to seek God, and that if they don't, that we will have better alternatives to replace them.
I think that's a biblical prayer as well. Yeah, and and so Mike, I got something to say. if we lose this next election coming up, and the Democrats win. They're going to pack all the courts. They're gonna Uh kill our our federal um judges and everything like this and positions that would seek via the federal court Court system like abortion, gay marriage.
transgender issues, et cetera, children having sex mutilation. Thirdly, LGBTQ1 rights and such were redefining marriage. This is what's going to happen in this country, and if we as Christians, Conservative Christians that love the Lord have got to get out, vote, and move away because we can't allow this. Hey guys, we are back for the second part of the segment. I've got a Rebecca Haney.
Are you back on the line, Rebecca? I am, yes, if you're not tired of me. No, no, no. We lost you for a minute. You know, and I tell you what, Steve seemed pretty angry.
He I don't think he likes the Democratic Party.
So maybe it's going to take that to get us out to vote. What do you think?
Well, we're called to love our enemies as well as our friends.
So I think that's just important to keep in mind, is that as long as we're doing what's right, we're motivated by love and by, I think, a Christian zeal for righteousness, for the good of our neighbors. That means we're going to be in conflict sometimes. We're going to disagree. But we can do that in a way that Jesus did as well. There were a lot of people that disagreed with Jesus, but that doesn't mean that he stopped standing for the truth and for what was true precisely because he loved.
I think that does, for some people that are less inclined to be confrontational, sometimes they stay away from politics altogether. I would just say that it doesn't take conflict to stand up for what is right. I mean, if other people have a problem with it, then it's God's standard, not ours. They have to take it up with the God of the universe. But I just want to make sure that I am doing things in accordance with the God who bought and paid for me, with my Lord and my Redeemer.
I want to follow him. And I can do that with my vote as well as my time, my money, where my love and focus is. It's just another act of obedience and worship for the Christian, and I do think we're commanded to do so. Yeah, the Bible says in the book of James, it says, don't you know that faith without works is dead? And so, yes, we love each other.
We have faith in all of this, but sometimes our faith needs to be turned into action. And one of the ways that I can think about that is this is, you know, this year, coming up pretty soon, we have a local Republican Party where I am in Alamance County, North Carolina. But guess what? I'm sure I'm not the only county out there in this country that has a Republican Party. And we can go there.
And what I do is I say, look, what can I do? And they give you an iPad and you can knock on doors. You can make phone calls. You were talking about giving money. I mean, that's a great way.
But what are you going to be doing to help out for this fall, Rebecca?
Well, we've got caucuses. We've got a really busy year in our state because there's a primary for the governorship. On the Republican side, I think there's technically one on the Democrats too, but there's one sort of heir apparent there. And so there will be a very fraught primary season. And that can be good in the way that hopefully the most principled person will rise to the top.
But then the question is, you know, people want to know how can we have good, solid biblical candidates. Really, you have to be involved before election day, according to the process in our American system. You get to choose who the best candidate is through the process of a caucus or a primary.
So the earlier you get involved, the more say you will have in which candidate is going to be on the ballot to represent you. And just remember that, that we are actually the bosses in the American system. that we elect our leaders and and that's so different than most other places throughout time in history. It really is a blessing. But we are the ones to which they are accountable.
It's like hiring for a job. And so you may not agree 100% with every single candidate, but you're going to look for somebody who is capable according to Exodus. Look at the criteria that Moses and Jethro talked about in terms of righteous leadership. When God instituted the nation of Israel, he said we should look for honest leaders, people who hate bribes or dishonest gain, and people who are righteous, and typically people who are humble, people who are servant leaders, who know what it's like to do an honest day's work, who know you're, you know, that they can tell you the truth. Yes, I'm asking for an honest politician.
I don't know that that's that sometimes that's an oxymoron. But I do think that that's what how God's people are called to function, even in a flawed and fallen society. We have to start demanding righteousness of people, honesty, and to not take bribes. They have to stand out. Yeah, and it's hard to find that sometimes.
And I know you're in Iowa now, but didn't you used to live in Minnesota? Uh yeah. And did you hear?
Well, did you hear about what happened with Nick Shirley where he was uncovering the fraud? You just mentioned fraud. That takes a lot of courage, and I give him a lot of credit for being willing to do the hard thing. Again, a lot of people just kind of want to go along to get along, and it can be a hard thing to confront something that's obviously going wrong. But I'm of the opinion, from my journalistic background, that the truth doesn't need a good defense.
And that if you're doing what's right and everything is above board, then I mean, you have no problem with a little daylight. It's when we start hiding things, when things are going on under the table or under cover of darkness, that you get the feeling that there's deception going on. And we should have no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, Ephesians 5 says, but rather we should expose them. We should use the power of God's word. We should use the power of daylight.
And just tell the truth and ask other people to be held to that same standard. And I think anyone else who is a person of good faith and good character will have no problem with the standard of truth. Yeah, and I think one of the things, Rebecca, that maybe scares some Christians or gets us discouraged is there has been talk in elections past of election fraud. And so I've heard some Christians say, well, the other side is going to cheat anyways. What's the point of even voting?
What would you say to them?
Well, the cool thing is that you can get involved in the election process too. You can actually volunteer or be hired in some counties, and you can be a poll watcher or a poll worker. You can work with the election process. And they actually need people of all parties to be involved in that to make sure that the process is honest and fair. And again, anyone of good character and good intention, even if you differ politically, you should be able to work with them just to make sure that the rules are the same for everybody, that the ballots are getting fairly cast, fairly counted.
So there are a lot of accountability mechanisms that should be in place in a law-abiding society. And you can actually be a part of the solution. You can make sure that those laws are being upheld, that identification is proper when people are coming to vote. You know, only one person, you're only casting. one ballot, things like that, so that those safeguards that are on the books are actually being implemented at your local polling places.
You can be part of the solution. Yeah, and I've heard that the devil hates exposure. Right, he's a liar and a deceiver from the beginning.
So knowing that, we have to resist him and we have to kick him out of these places by saying you don't have a foothold here. Yeah, you know, one of the things that I thought of when I was younger is I said, you know what? I may not be able to change everything. I may not be able to change the world myself, but a lot of times the world has been changed by just one person. And when I look at the abolition of slavery, I look, yeah, there were plenty of people who were interested in doing it, but in England, long before it was done in America, there was a guy by the name of William Wilberforce.
Are you familiar with him? Oh yes, amazing grace. It's a wonderful movie, too. But the ability to stay true to your principles. That's something that while people may not like it, they may fight against it.
Is something that will gain grudging respect if you continue to show that same integrity. And I think the only way, honestly, Michael, that we can do that is to care. for our audience of one. We need to care about what God says, that when it comes to obeying God versus men, we're always going to obey God, no matter what, 100%. And that may make us pretty unpopular in some places and times.
But it will not change our reward in heaven. Eternally, our status will be those who please God. He's our Lord. That's who we're accountable to, and his word never changes. We're just called to apply it in such a time as this.
So if we can speak with that kind of clarity, if we can do so without fear, with humble compassion, even for our enemies, for those who see things differently, who don't know Jesus, ultimately we're there to extend the mission of Christ. In this field, as well as any other, as a citizen, and thank you, God, that we have that blessing. But we should be accountable to Him for what we're doing. And when that happens, I think that we make the most positive change for everyone around us and for all of society. When Christians who are truly committed to making eternal impact to the kingdom of heaven, we make the most impact here on earth.
So, hopefully, that's encouraging to everyone. Yeah, I believe it is. And the Bible actually says that all who wish to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. And Rebecca, several years ago, we had a local Bible study that we had at Lamb's Chapel. And the leader of the Bible study, his name was Brooks.
He said, Look, he said, The Bible says that as a Christian, you will face persecution. He said, What if nobody is coming against you? If everybody agrees with you, nobody has a problem with what you're doing, saying, or the way that you're acting. He said, Is that a problem? problem.
What did that tell you? Exactly. Yeah. And I think they we should be known for who we are like, not for who we are liked by. We should be known to shine as Christ.
That's what Christian means. It means to be like little Christ, like the image of Christ walking around in this world.
So when people look at us, they should see kind of peculiar people. There are some things we say no to. There are some things we won't participate in or will stand up against, no matter what the opinion polls say, because the voice that matters is the voice of our king. Because we have the king of all kings, we serve him and we are his ambassadors in this world. Yet we can be the best citizens of our individual countries, I believe, when we are the best ambassadors for the kingdom of heaven.
But I do think that there will be times we might be called to be uncomfortable because of that. And that would be following in the footsteps of our Lord as well. That if we suffer as he suffered, we will also be rewarded in that same way. We will be counted worthy to be, to to count, to pay the cost. Of discipleship.
But I mean, the reward, the return on investment on that is better than anything else you're going to find on this side of eternity.
So we just have to be true to what we know is true according to Christ. It is. And one of the words, and you mentioned this briefly at the beginning of the podcast, or the radio show, you said that we have to love our enemies. It's good. We should be angry at what's going on in the world.
And sometimes, yes, we should even, I even saw Jesus get angry at people because they were wicked and they were doing the wrong thing. But in the book of Ezekiel, I believe it's verse 23 or 21 through 23, it says, Does the Lord have any pleasure in the death of the wicked? And then there's another verse in the New Testament where it says, God is not willing that any should perish, but that all come to repentance.
So, yes, we stand for truth. We share the truth on social media. You know, I don't know if I told you this, but several years back, I went to a church accidentally one morning because I slept in. And so I went to a local Baptist church, and the Baptist preacher said this: He said, There was a time he said, If I wanted to tell you that Jesus was good and Jesus saves, he said, I would have to walk up to you face to face. Said nowadays, we can immediately, you and I can get on the radio, but a lot of people who aren't, you could take your camera and make a video or post a picture and tell people that Jesus is good, and immediately, dozens, or hundreds, or thousands, or even more people could see that same message.
And so, I think the same thing works when it comes to the political arena as well, Rebecca. Yeah, we can make our voice heard and have a huge impact. I just pray to God that we will be faithful with that impact too, and that we will be unafraid to speak boldly with the truth that He's given us. 866-34-Truth, 866-34TRT. 348-7884.
We'll be right back. Truth. Uh My son Michael Jr., a very happy ninth birthday today. We're having a big party for you tomorrow.
So I love you, little buddy. And the Bible says, I thank God that my children are walking in the truth.
So happy birthday, Michael. And Rebecca, you know, I was just thinking about this over the break, and I said this, you know. This is not more important than the gospel. Politics are not more important than where somebody is going to spend eternity. You know, the politics are not more important than giving somebody a Bible, praying for somebody, sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ.
But on the other hand, it's not unimportant either, and it's still a very important issue.
Well, and I think it's if we're talking about righteousness, this is an opportunity to share in exactly the same way as you would in a normal conversation. If we're talking about issues of justice, of right and wrong, of how should we help the poor, how should we defend life, how should we protect the innocent? Those are moral questions, and every moral question points to the lawgiver in the universe. How do we know what's right and wrong? Who gets to determine that?
And then what are the consequences for those who disagree? What is the source of our freedom and liberty? What are the outward accountability and limits on that? All of those things point to the Word of God for the Christian. And so if we're standing for biblical, we say biblical values, but what that really means is God's definition of right and wrong, God's definition of the universe.
That's what law is. Every single law, I kind of laugh when people say you can't legislate morality because I know what they mean by that. But every single law is a legislation of morality because it says that something is right, something is wrong, something will be rewarded, and something will be punished.
So then the question is: just what kind of society are we going to be? Are we going to be ones in alignment with the God of the universe and the author of reality itself, who says, choose life? Who says, these are the ways toward health and happiness and flourishing, follow me. And if you don't, then you lead towards all the negatives, toward the opposite of all of those things. I know which way I want my society to function.
So it may not be, every vote may not be explicitly evangelistic. But every discussion of these principles is an opportunity to tell the truth about who God is, who we are, the fact that we are accountable to him. And point to the creator of the universe who loves you more than you can imagine, and the ultimate king, the ultimate prince of peace. I mean, I would look at the example of someone like a Charlie Kirk. People knew him as a political firebrand or conservative commentator.
But if you look at everything about his legacy that has come to light after his assassination, It's all scripture. It's all gospel. People aren't taking to the streets in anger, in political rally style. They're going to church. They're picking up a Bible for the very first time.
And I think that is, again, one of those things that you know somebody by their fruit. The discussions Charlie would have were largely around political policy, but it didn't take very long, just a few moments where people would ask him why. Why do you believe these things? And isn't that what 1 Peter tells us? Be ready to give a defense for the hope that lies within you with gentleness and respect.
That's it, right there. You can do it in the political realm the same way you would in any other. And I think we advocate that at our peril. I think that is why the nation looks the way that it does, why we've established alternative values, and why we see the negative consequences as a result. If we don't align ourselves with God and His Word, then we are aligning ourselves with the opposite of that.
And we all know what direction that leads anyone. Yeah, and apathy will lead to destruction in this country. I was talking to somebody earlier, I think it was yesterday, it was a friend of mine. He said, Well, he said, if it wasn't for the pro-life issue, I'd vote Democrat. And I'm sitting there thinking, Do you not know the issues?
I mean, this guy's a Christian, so I guess he's not going to vote at all, but he's voted conservative in the past. And I said, Look, I was talking to a friend of mine, Sarah Rubel, today, and I said, Look, I said, if we don't do anything, I said you may not 100% agree with everything that President Trump is doing. You may not 100% agree with everything that your local Republican politician is doing. I said, but look at what the other side stands for. And yes, we want to vote for the best possible candidate that we can.
But I'm telling you, Rebecca, right now, if there's a choice between a Republican and a Democrat, in my opinion, if it's a general election, the worst Republican is better than the best Democrat.
Well, I always go back to, again, by your fruits, by their fruits, you know them. And the charge of hypocrisy is an important one. We need to be holding people accountable to do what they say they will do and to live by the values they espouse. It's not enough just to give lip service to them or like to say your favorite Bible verse right before Election Day and then go out and vote like every other pagan.
So that's not okay. There needs to be a method of accountability, for sure, and voting and elections. And the primary process are a couple of hints. as to how we can hold them accountable as the the electorate. But I would say in just remembering a little bit of a history lesson, the last major con party conventions that we had, the DNC promoted having on demand abortions in the parking lot right outside their convention.
This is not something that they believe should be rare or is regrettable. This is something they're trumpeting and shouting as a main party platform. It was the talking point for the national campaign for the Democrat side last year. They told people to go to the polls and vote for legal abortion on behalf. That was like the principal motivator.
And I would say there are many other issues about which we should be educated, but because that's my like heartbeat. I care about what happens to women and babies. And I don't think we're allowed to stand by and be silent. I don't think we should be voting for the confusion of children and for the mutilation of their bodies. For a misunderstanding of who, just the basic questions of what does it mean to be male or female?
What does it mean to be created in the image of God? Um, what does it mean to do justice? Right now, we're seeing a breakdown of the basic laws and justice in our society where we have innocent people being victimized. Law-abiding citizens being penalized and bearing the brunt of the cost of our society. Whereas criminals are being allowed to go free with the misplaced, toxic compassion of our disordered society.
And all of those things come about when you call evil good and good evil. It's it requires a binary switch. We have people that are in darkness that are called to make our decisions. the only way that any of this is going to improve is not only through righteous leadership, But that has to begin with a righteous people. They represent us.
And that's both humbling and terrifying. If we look at our leaders and we're disgusted by what we see, then we need to, number one, elect better people, but we need to be a better people for them to represent. We do. And if you're wondering how you can get involved or what you should do, I've heard this before. It says the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
You know, if you've never voted before, go out and vote. But take one step further than you've usually done. And so, you know, what I would say, if you vote every single time, call your local Republican Party. Notice I'm saying Republican Party, not the anyways, but call your local Republican Party and ask them how you can get involved. Ask them, hey, what can I do to help us win this fall?
Whether it's making phone calls, whether it's knocking on doors, whether it's being at the polls and watching to make sure that people are not cheating. And I'm reminded of the story of a young man who was going to be a gymnast and he had worked so hard and worked so hard and he had practiced and all. Of that. And it was finally the day of his first competition. And he told the coach, he said, Coach, he said, I just can't do this.
He said, I'm too scared. And the coach kind of stopped for a minute and listened to him. And he said, This he said, Throw your heart over the bar and your body will follow. Hey, you may not know everything that you can do this fall to help people out. You can pray.
Every single one of us can pray. And by the way, that's more important than anything. The Bible says in 2 Chronicles 7:14, it says, If my people who are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and turn from their wicked way, he said, then I will heal their land. And so the first step that we can do is pray. The next thing that we've got to do is vote.
And then, in addition to that, hey, maybe you can donate some money to the Republican who's running for Senate this fall. Maybe you can donate some money to your local congressman, the Republican congressman, or whoever it is. Maybe you can knock on doors. Maybe you can make phone calls. Tell your friends, get together.
I know at the local Republican Party in Alamance County, we have get-togethers where it's 7 o'clock at night. We'll get together. We'll all talk. We'll encourage each other. And by the way, Rebecca the Bible talks about encouraging each other as well as Christians.
It absolutely does. And I would also advocate even after Election Day, if we're looking long term, I know a lot of us kind of vote and then go about our normal lives. But that's really the beginning of the process.
So once you have that legislator, like I said, they work for you. They work to represent you. But they're people just like all of us. And so they're going to be faced with temptation. They're going to be faced with struggle, the temptation to sell out, or even just hearing, listening to a variety of different voices.
So we should be able to hold them accountable, but also just to encourage them. And we've seen amazing results in our state, in our state legislatures, just by groups of preachers and pastors and concerned Christians going up to the state house regularly and just doing Bible studies. And just praying with the legislators of every party who is interested in prayer and in learning God's word. And it is amazing how we've seen God work just in the ability to stand for righteous legislation. It's been night and day in the last decade.
And I think it's so critical that they know who you are. and that they know that you want the best for them, that you're going to call them out if they take unbiblical stances, that you're going to hold them accountable, but also that you're just going to encourage them because you love them as well. Yeah, and we want to, and we want everybody to get involved as much as they can. I think we've probably said just about as much as we can say. And Rebecca Haney, I want to thank you.
We fixed it. There you go. Rebecca Haney, I want to thank you for coming on today. My show, If Not For God with Mike Zwick, will be on tomorrow. I'll have Pastor Dean Odell from Alabama coming out.
And if people want to hear your show, how can they listen to you, Rebecca? Check out Faith Works Live. I believe we show our faith by our works.
So look for Faith Works Live wherever you get your podcast. Yeah. God bless you. And to close out, Romans 8:28, look at Romans 8:28 up in the Bible, and we know that all things work together for good to those who love God and for them who are called according to his purpose.
