It is interesting to me to read how different preachers are approaching the 2004 presidential elections. I can honestly say that I have never seen more acrimony hurled at godly Christian men who believe in principled politics from others who profess Christ than in this election year. Today, however, I received this perspective from one of the Christian communities most esteemed theologians and historians, Dr. Joe Morecraft.
In 1986, I ran for the U.S. Congress in the old Seventh District of Georgia. One of the most conservative daily newspapers in the nation at that time, The Chattanooga Free Press, vigorously endorsed my candidacy. After I lost the election, I drove from Atlanta, Georgia to Chattanooga, Tennessee to thank the aging editor. After expressing my gratitude to him for his paper’s endorsement, he said this to me: “You are welcome, son. But, understand why I did it. I didn’t endorse you because I thought you could win. I knew you could not win. I endorsed you because you were right.” I’ve never forgotten that through the years in supporting candidates for public office. I give political candidates my support, not because they are in a winnable position, nor because they look good on TV, nor because they are the lesser of the two evils, but because they base their political viewpoints upon the written Word of God and because their source of law, liberty and government is the God of Scripture—because they are right!
When most Christians vote, they leave the Bible outside the voting booth, and think like pragmatists. Several of my friends are trying to justify voting for the candidate they think can win, although they confess they must “gulp hard” to do so. Their explanations show that they are voting out of fear rather than out of faith in spite of the teaching of the New Testament that we are to determine our viewpoint and course of action, not by what we see, but by what God has spoken in His Word—by faith not by sight.
The most important political question of the 20th and 21st centuries is: Who is the Source of law? The God of the Bible or man? I am for Michael Peroutka for U.S. President in 2004 because he knows the right answer to that question and is not afraid to say so.