Is My Faith Relevant to My Voting?

column, which addressed the number one criteria for me to vote for someone. It is a question I will ask or seek to find out from a candidate. The question is, "What do you believe about a baby's rights in a mother's womb?" The answer to that tells me a lot about the candidate and particularly their view of God. This brings up a question that some might ask. "Is it right to base my vote on just my spiritual beliefs?" Shouldn't there be more to it than just this aspect of life? I want to address that question from my perspective, which I believe I can show you, is a biblical perspective.

Let me start with an illustration. Life is kind of like a house. Your life has many different aspects to it. You enter this house, and before you is a hallway that leads to several other rooms. Let just say that the first room you come to is your bedroom. It is a personal and, ultimately, a place of rest, which is extremely important. You come out and go to a second room, your office. It represents your work, your occupation. It's much different than your bedroom. You also have a living room that you enter, and maybe that's where you spend time with your family and friends. It may be a place that represents entertainment, music, TV, movies. It also may represent the social aspect, which, in our current pandemic, is suffering in some people's lives. You may have someplace that you get alone with God. Jesus talked about going into a closet and you spending time with Him. Sadly, I believe that this is the way most people view life. We can call it "compartmentalization." We keep all the aspects of our lives separate from each other, particularly God. We keep God in a closet and spend time with Him once a day, or once a week, or, however, often we choose. We don't let Him into the other rooms of our lives. Does that really make sense? God is the designer and creator. He should be the one involved in every room of our life, including why and how you vote.

I want to leave a verse that has relevance. Psalm 127:1, "Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman keeps awake in vain." These are two aspects of life, a home that involves a building and the family dynamics inside it. The watchmen or guards represent security and protection. Both are futile if God isn't completely involved. In other words, you may have the nicest house around and a good family, but if God isn't at the center of it, something is missing. We may have the greatest military and arsenal of weapons in the world, but if God isn't at the core of what this country is about, then something is missing.

So, "yes." I want my vote to be consistent with my faith, which is based on The Word of God.

Pastor Lynn Rettig

Musselshell Community bible Church