Monday, November 01, 2004
The Election - A last minute plea!
Dear friends,
I'm not going to tell you how to vote, but I am going to urge you to vote. Ohio has the opportunity to cast the deciding votes in this election. We know from the last presidential election that every vote counts and that the nation's course can be decided by a few votes one way or the other.
The presidential election tomorrow is the most important election in a long, long time and will determine America's future for a long, long time. In the last presidential election, about 4 million Christians didn't even bother to register to vote! This is inexcusable! Scripture clearly tells us that we have a duty as Christians to be good citizens and to do all we can to insure a government that fears God and acts according to His principles. We must exercise the right won for us and maintained for us at such cost by so many who fought for it over the years.
Let me tell you what I believe to be the most important issue in this election: the future of the United States Supreme Court.
As many as four Supreme Court justices will retire and their places will be taken by new justices nominated by whomever wins the election tomorrow. These new justices will be serving long after either George Bush or John Kerry have finished his term as president of the United States. Supreme Court justices may serve for 40 years or more and they, not the next president, will determine where this nation stands on such vital issues as gay marriage, religious liberty, partial birth abortion, stem cell research, "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance and "in God we trust" on our currency, and a lot of other issues that will very much affect our lives, our society, the church, and our efforts to serve God and do his work in these closing days of earth's history. Presidents come and go every four (or, at most, eight) years, but Supreme Court justices serve long, long terms, and affect the course of society profoundly.
Let me offer just one example.
Most of you know that I am a fairly new grandpa. Maybe that's why the "partial birth abortion" issue has so captured my attention. Jakob was born in August 2003. Up until November of 2003 it was legal for a doctor to perform a "partial birth abortion." This is a medical procedure in which the baby is dismembered inside the womb or, alternately, partially delivered outside the womb and then the skull punctured, the brain sucked out, the skull crushed and then the remainder of the now-dead baby delivered. This procedure can be performed on babies that are developed enough to live outside the womb. These babies feel pain! How can a civilized nation allow the most helpless members of its society to be literally torn apart? If this baby had been born the day before, and the mother tossed it into a dumpster instead of having it medically dismembered, she would be charged with murder! I'm not getting into the ethical and social issues surrounding abortion, I'm speaking only of the legal dismemberment of viable infants inside their mother's womb. This practice was banned (except where the life of the mother is endangered) by a law signed by the president on November 5, 2003. In 2000, the US Supreme Court struck down a Nebraska law banning partial birth abortions by a 5-4 majority. It is not unlikely (ie, it is likely) that the court will rule on this issue again. Will they uphold the new law or strike it down? It all depends on the new appointees to the court - appointments that will be made by whomever is elected president tomorrow.
This is only one example of a number of issues that the Supreme Court will decide. There are profound differences between the two candidates for president on most or even all of these issues. They would nominate profoundly different kinds of justices. Our children and our grandchildren will have to live with the results of the decisions made by these justices.
So vote wisely tomorrow! Make your decision - not on emotion or personal likes or dislikes (and certainly not because you believe what the national news media are telling you!) - but on biblical principles. Vote wisely - and be sure to vote!
David VanDenburgh
I'm not going to tell you how to vote, but I am going to urge you to vote. Ohio has the opportunity to cast the deciding votes in this election. We know from the last presidential election that every vote counts and that the nation's course can be decided by a few votes one way or the other.
The presidential election tomorrow is the most important election in a long, long time and will determine America's future for a long, long time. In the last presidential election, about 4 million Christians didn't even bother to register to vote! This is inexcusable! Scripture clearly tells us that we have a duty as Christians to be good citizens and to do all we can to insure a government that fears God and acts according to His principles. We must exercise the right won for us and maintained for us at such cost by so many who fought for it over the years.
Let me tell you what I believe to be the most important issue in this election: the future of the United States Supreme Court.
As many as four Supreme Court justices will retire and their places will be taken by new justices nominated by whomever wins the election tomorrow. These new justices will be serving long after either George Bush or John Kerry have finished his term as president of the United States. Supreme Court justices may serve for 40 years or more and they, not the next president, will determine where this nation stands on such vital issues as gay marriage, religious liberty, partial birth abortion, stem cell research, "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance and "in God we trust" on our currency, and a lot of other issues that will very much affect our lives, our society, the church, and our efforts to serve God and do his work in these closing days of earth's history. Presidents come and go every four (or, at most, eight) years, but Supreme Court justices serve long, long terms, and affect the course of society profoundly.
Let me offer just one example.
Most of you know that I am a fairly new grandpa. Maybe that's why the "partial birth abortion" issue has so captured my attention. Jakob was born in August 2003. Up until November of 2003 it was legal for a doctor to perform a "partial birth abortion." This is a medical procedure in which the baby is dismembered inside the womb or, alternately, partially delivered outside the womb and then the skull punctured, the brain sucked out, the skull crushed and then the remainder of the now-dead baby delivered. This procedure can be performed on babies that are developed enough to live outside the womb. These babies feel pain! How can a civilized nation allow the most helpless members of its society to be literally torn apart? If this baby had been born the day before, and the mother tossed it into a dumpster instead of having it medically dismembered, she would be charged with murder! I'm not getting into the ethical and social issues surrounding abortion, I'm speaking only of the legal dismemberment of viable infants inside their mother's womb. This practice was banned (except where the life of the mother is endangered) by a law signed by the president on November 5, 2003. In 2000, the US Supreme Court struck down a Nebraska law banning partial birth abortions by a 5-4 majority. It is not unlikely (ie, it is likely) that the court will rule on this issue again. Will they uphold the new law or strike it down? It all depends on the new appointees to the court - appointments that will be made by whomever is elected president tomorrow.
This is only one example of a number of issues that the Supreme Court will decide. There are profound differences between the two candidates for president on most or even all of these issues. They would nominate profoundly different kinds of justices. Our children and our grandchildren will have to live with the results of the decisions made by these justices.
So vote wisely tomorrow! Make your decision - not on emotion or personal likes or dislikes (and certainly not because you believe what the national news media are telling you!) - but on biblical principles. Vote wisely - and be sure to vote!
David VanDenburgh
