We are told only one in five evangelicals votes. Why should we care? After all, many of us still have our retirement accounts and medical benefits, and some think we may be "raptured" before things get too bad.
But we at VOM have a different attitude. We serve Christians who live in nations where they do not have the privilege to choose their national leaders or have a say in moral, economic, or security issues. Under Islamic law, women are treated as second-class citizens.
In Sudan, Christians have fought a 21-year civil war for the right to choose their own form of law. Two million people have died. Imagine how their lives may have been spared and their suffering minimized if their fight against Islamic Law could have been waged at the ballot box rather than the battlefield.
Here in the United States, God has granted us the privilege to choose our leaders. What better way to honor that gift than by exercising the right our brothers and sisters in Muslim and communist nations are denied? When we visit persecuted believers around the world, they often tell us they appreciate the United States of America - a nation that stands for freedom, one that brings them hope and encouragement. They thank God for our example. What example are you willing to be for them?
Many of us are concerned about abortion, gay marriage and the destruction of Christian values. But what are we willing to do about it? If Christians in the nations we serve (who have no vote) can go on motorbikes down muddy trails, hide in caves and work in brick slave labor camps for introducing the righteousness of a holy Christ into their society, surely we can get in our car and drive 10 minutes to mark a sheet of paper.
Last spring, the world was surprised when Indian voters chose Sonya Gandhi's Congress Party over the ruling BJP. The so-called "untouchables", the lower caste Dalits - many of them Christians, made the difference. The Congress Party immediately took steps to reverse legislation that institutionalized discrimination and encouraged persecution against non-Hindu minorities. Christian voters affected change in India. We can do the same right here in the U.S.
Perhaps Christian radio personality Michael Del Giorno says it best. He writes, "'We, the People' are the only true enemy of an America that is a clear and present danger to our way of life."
We at VOM urge you to go and vote!
