Recently there have been many reports on the traditional media outlets and on social media about politics, specifically the Presidency of the United States.

(Now, all my friends know that I am a Christian and my belief colors everything I see, as does yours. So, take it or leave it, but here I go.)

The office of the President deserves all the Respect we can muster. It does not matter whether we voted for the person in that office or not. The Office of the President and the individual who holds that office need be neither white or black, male or female, Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative, the President should however be an American (by law) who supports and defends the Constitution of the United States (as per the Oath) including all the Rights (Bill of Rights) and Amendments to said document. The President should respect the rule of law and the separation of power which is designed to protect us from becoming a dictatorship. And while we cannot expect that every President will be a Christian (because not every American is either) The President is a representative of the people and therefore the President should represent all rights equally. The President is not the representative of industrial unions, lobbyist or special interest, except as far as they represent individuals. The problem with much of media is that we listen to it and believe it. Secondly, on social media as in the main stream media we will often only hear one side. The Liberal, Conservative and Independent will only listen, "like" or share what agrees with a very narrow view of the world and when someone does not agree with their narrow view that person is mocked. It is interesting that we have forgotten how to have honest debate as a means to the truth, instead we only believe what our favorite media outlet reports and we call that truth. We all have friends and relatives who only post one side and are unwilling to even listen to another point of view. Moreover, if you listen to them and still do not agree with their view that somehow makes you less intelligent.

As Christians we are encouraged by the Bible to “sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that ask you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear” (1 Peter 3:15) The debate is not the issue, we should be willing and able to give an answer for the hope that is in us, moreover, we must understand that we cannot change someone’s heart (The is for God to do) but we certainly should be able to convince someone that we believe what we are saying and demonstrate that belief in our actions. As a Christian we should believe that the Bible is God’s Holy Word and therefore it is our guide as we vote. As we use any guide we must understand that we have an obligation to be an educated Voter and vote for the individual who best represents what we believe to be right, to vote in accordance with what is the best thing for the whole country not just our special interest. As Christians we are obligated to vote this way, to make the focus others, to do what is best for all not just our little corner of the world.

How can we possibly be sure that we are doing this, well let’s look at 1 Peter 3:15 again; “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that ask you, a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.” We first do it by sanctifying the Lord God in our hearts. We are to worship, adore, respect and revere the Lord, not just verbally, but in our hearts. If you worship, adore and revere someone or something, that person or thing will often be a topic of conversation. To worship someone is to know the details about them. It is in these details that we find our defense, many Christians when asked why they do not witness will say, “I am afraid” or “I do not know enough”, why would that be if you worship, adore, revere the topic you are asked to testify of?

Secondly, we are to give this defense with “meekness and fear”. Meekness and fear here are to present our defense mildly, humbly understanding the seriousness of the event with a reverence for God that is due.

These attitudes, attitudes of worship, humility, seriousness are to be used even as we make decisions about who we are to vote for. An attitude of worship will motivate us to be sure of pleasing God, an attitude of humility will keep it from being about “us” and we certainly need to understand the seriousness of our vote.

The United States of America is the greatest country on earth. We must take the responsibility of voting very seriously, but take it seriously not because we are Americans, but because we are Christians. Moreover, let us show the respect due to all our elected officials, using our vote to put people into office who are worthy of that office.