At 11:55 PM 12/25/00 +0000, Brian of Wiggin wrote:
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Soaring Golden Eagle <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Sent: Monday, December 25, 2000 5:56 AM
>Subject: [RR] In defense of the Gists' pastor
>
>More than one person seemed to be offended by the idea, quoted by Kelly Gist
>from her pastor, that people who voted for Al Gore should repent of their
>sin of supporting someone who supports abortion on demand. Some people
>called that assertion "false doctrine." I tell you that I have searched the
>Scripture, and I see nothing to contradict this pastor. Indeed, I warn you
>not to attack God's anointed pastors with your words so lightly.
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>------------
>Mike
>
>In my experience most pastors are elected and we do ourselves and them no
>favours by elevating them to the status of "God's Anointed". It is not a
>huge step from that to infallibility.
It is God who calls and anoints pastors. Pastors are selected by various means with
different churches, but usually by voting. Such voting is really supposed to be a
recognition of the call of God.
I wish it were such a short step from recognizing the anointing of God on a person to
infallibility. :-)
> Also, in my experience, voting for
>politicians is deciding on the lesser of two evils.
This is certainly true. However, in the current case under discussion, I don't think
it was too hard to figure out where the more morally correct decision was.
There have been times that I couldn't bring myself to vote for either major party's
candidate for a given office, even though I am actively involved in one of the major
parties. In those cases, I voted for a third party person who had a more morally
correct position in spite of the fact that I knew they had little chance of winning.
>In cases such as Kelly
>relates I do believe that the pastor is off beam unless he is insisting his
>congregation does not vote at all.
I strongly disagree. To encourage Christians not to vote at all is to say that we want
the government run by unbelievers. I think that would be grossly irresponsible.
Kelly's pastor was addressing moral issues well within the scope of what he should
have been doing. Indeed, I heard similar sentiments from my own pastor's mouth in
Longmont, Colorado.
The point here is not a political one, nor one of political parties or candidates, but
defense of the helpless unborn babies in the name of Jesus Christ. It is a matter of
love and morality. Have we become so callously desensitized to the violence of
abortion that we can either not consider it in choosing candidates or relegate it to a
position of lesser importance behind party loyalties, economics, or other
considerations?
In the race of G. W. Bush vs. Albert Gore, neither one was perfect. Both professed to
be Christians, and there is reason to believe that both of them are sincere in their
statements to that effect. President-elect Bush is strongly pro-life, and has a
history to prove it. Vice President Gore promised publicly to promote the "freedom of
choice" to abort babies for any reason, and promised to actively choose U. S. Supreme
Court justices who would do likewise, in apparent blatant contradiction of Biblical
values. As for the rest of their policies and promises, there was little moral
difference between them, although they would obviously appeal to different degrees to
different political and economic groups.
If there were two or three people running for office who had essentially the same
moral qualifications (all good, all bad, or all lukewarm), then I would say that there
is little or no moral implication to voting one way or the other. In this case,
however, I see a difference that is black and white, night and day, life and death.
In other elections and other situations, the choices may not be so clear, but in every
case, voting should be taken as a serious responsibility to be undertaken with prayer
and in reliance not just on human wisdom but on God's wisdom.
___
Michael Paul Johnson AKA Soaring Golden Eagle <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Evangel Bible Translators missionary
http://eBible.org/mpj/ Jesus Christ is Lord!
_______
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