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For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery (Galatians 5:1, ESV).
I’m voting today; I vote in all elections.
How do I vote? I follow what I call “the freedom” principle. Christ came to set us free. Which candidate will promote freedom, and which one will exert more control over my life?
When I vote, my mind reflects on an encounter in Cuba 15 years ago. I was teaching a discipling conference in a house. The house had an upper room and a large porch off the room overlooking the street.
There were two of us from America teaching, and while the other pastor taught, I went out on the balcony and noticed a man pull up in his car across the street. He opened his trunk, which contained homegrown vegetables, and began selling them.
Many people came out of their houses and began crowding his car.
After a few minutes of brisk business, a black ominous car pulled up. Two even more ominous men got out of the car, grabbed the man and his vegetables, then threw him with his vegetables in the back of their car and drove off.
During a break in the teaching, I described the scene to the Cuban pastor hosting our conference.
He said, “We are not allowed to have what you Americans call “free enterprise” in Cuba. But to live, we all must do it in various ways, and sometimes, we get hauled off to jail. In this case, I bet the police just wanted the vegetables.”
Freedom — what candidates or party platforms engender more freedom?
I make a distinction about promoting our freedom at another’s expense, which is why I vote for freedom for the innocents and am pro-life. It’s also why I desire a government that allows me to spend my own money. I’m for rational immigration policies and have a concern for the poor.
That’s me. I don’t judge others who vote differently, but I do ask God to forgive them!!
Our elections now lack civility. We can’t discuss or compromise with sane conversation eschewed for bombastic rhetoric. I do believe that there are forces of good vs. evil, and the Bible teaches that our battle isn’t against flesh and blood but against demonic principalities and powers (Ephesians 6:12).
So, I pray, believing my prayers have more effect than my vote.
Going to the polls (though many now vote absentee) is my tradition. Sort of like my reading a leather-bound Bible for devotions rather than Scripture from an electronic device. Driving to the local school to cast my vote in a cubicle seems distinctly American to me.
I’ve researched candidates and reviewed other ballot issues, and know how I will vote. On the Clark County, Ohio ballot, I’ve noticed that there isn’t a name for our county’s coroner position. It just says (write-in) _________________.
Why don’t we all write in my name: Pastor Grant Edwards. I’ve been to plenty of funerals in 52 years as a pastor. Perhaps I qualify!
Another of my prayers is that believers vote according to righteousness.