In an off-line discussion about the political posting I have been doing on this weblog over the past several months, a reader of Worldview commented, in essence, that I have not made the connection between my faith and my political views clear. I hope to rectify that now.
I believe what I believe about politics and everything else I write about on this weblog because of my faith in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. That faith, given to me by my gracious God as a gift without anything of my doing, is central to my worldview and, as a result, to Worldview.
How then, you might ask, can my central issue in this election be national security? This is my issue because I believe that the first and greatest calling of our republic is to provide a haven where all its citizens–weak and strong–can pursue life, liberty, and happiness to the fullest of the abilities inalienably endowed upon them by my God. As a faithful Christian, I believe that, inside the wall of this haven, I have the freedom from constraint to fulfill my first calling as a Christian to help spread the the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all nations.
We live, however, in a time where the sanctity of this haven is threatened. Certainly, I can fulfill my calling to the Gospel without the protections this haven provides–generations of Christians before me have done that very thing–, but I believe that being born in the land of that haven is one of the greatest blessings God has given me short of salvation itself, so I believe protecting and defending that haven against all enemies is one of the highest and most noble objectives I can have.
Further, I believe that my God has called all Christians to use the blessings they have given in accordance with those blessings. Not everyone has been called to be a pastor or a teacher or, yes, even an evangelist. Some have been called, I believe, to be farmers or soldiers or, yes, even writers. From each calling, we do the best that we can do each day to use our abilities to love our God and our neighbor as ourselves.
I, therefore, believe that it is within my calling, the abilities I have been blessed with, and my vocation to work as hard as I can to preserve the blessing of the haven of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that is my nation especially at this critical moment of the election of the next President of the United States. For me, to do anything else would be to spurn the blessing of being born in this land.
