The prophet Nathan spoke truth to abusive power and told King David; “You are that man!”. Like Peter on Pentecost we have been tasked to discern where God is moving in our national life and say that “This is that…”
We must vote because we have been called to be advocates for the impoverished, the left out and left behind. We
must stand, in Howard Thurman’s words, with the disinherited .We do this not out of a sense of charity or goodwill but as a visible sign of Jesus’ presence in our midst.
As African-American Christians, we must fully participate in the political process because the opportunity to
do so was secured by the blood of our forefathers and foremothers. To abdicate this duty, through lethargy or
indifference, is an insult to the memory and sacrifices of our ancestors.
Black Christians must vote because our deliverance from slavery to freedom, from the permanent outside to
permanently inside was accomplished by God’s direct intervention. If we are not vigilant we can easily lose what
was gained with great difficulty.
In I Timothy 2:2, the Apostle Paul urges Christians to pray for our governmental leaders” “ so that we may live
peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.”
We must select national leaders who we can pray for with enthusiasm and not simply out of obligation. We need
leaders who will seek God’s support to sustain a just administration and not to uphold any political ideology.
We must choose leaders who are men and women of character. Not just personal qualities of right living but the
kind of public character that leads to justice and fairness. We want elected leaders who are persons of the right
temperament to lead, the talents suited for the times and the trustworthiness that can inspire confidence.
Character is more than one’s personal lifestyle choices. During the Civil Rights Movement many members of the
Ku Klux Klan in the South were active in local Christian churches, faithful in their marriages, kind to their children and yet were able to rape, murder and lynch Black men and women with impunity and legal sanction under
hoods and the cover of darkness.
Elected officials politically and legally perpetuated a system of oppression that was a stench in the nostrils of
God. We must vote to elect men and women who will put justice at the core of public policy because the rule of
law is not always the rule of righteousness.
Much has been made of using the Bible as the basis for the Christian’s participation in the electoral process. The
difficulty is that the Bible is not a unitary document, but rather a library of sixty-six books that are subject to
differing interpretations by equally faithful believers.
The Bible is usually silent on the specifics of the problems we grapple with as a nation. The Bible operates in a
political environment where absolute monarchy is the familiar and accepted form of government. Jesus, Paul and
Peter were subjects of the Roman Empire and part of a conquered and subjugated population. Even if Paul, as
Luke suggests, was a Roman citizen, the institutions of the Roman Republic had long been neutered and supplan