The Presidential Election: An Attempt at an Eternal Perspective

I mentioned on Facebook last week that while I cannot vote for Barack Obama to be re-elected, I was very uneasy with the prospect of Mitt Romney becoming President as well.  It was a feeling that had been growing since the second debate, when a better performance by the President did not stop Romney's momentum in the polls.  More than that, the uneasiness was prompted by a statement by Romney in closing moments of the debate. 

More on that in a minute.

I am also trying in my life to look at things through an eternal lens.  I think that is our task as Christian pilgrims in this temporary world.  The world should be better for our passing through, but this world is not our home, and we have the knowledge that a far greater reality awaits beyond this world, and that reality is more truthful and more real than what we experience right now.

First I suppose that I should explain why I cannot vote for Barack Obama.

There is a document that I have signed called the Manhattan Declaration.  It is a call for Christians, supported by believers across denominations including Mainline and Evangelical Protestants as well as Catholics, to support public policy according to Christian conscience in three important areas: life, marriage and family, and religious liberty.  President Obama represents the opposition in all three of these issues.  His healthcare policy expands abortion access and funding and greatly expands the access to abortion-inducing drugs.  His voting record in his legislative positions reveals a man who is as radically pro-abortion as any prominent politician in the country.  "Obamacare" infringes on the freedom of religious institutions to set policy according to their conscience.  He also supports the legal recognition of homosexual unions as equivalent to marriage and codifying that recognition into law.  Not only are these laws detrimental to the foundational relationship of civilization (marriage), but they will eventually threaten religious liberty as citizens are legally forced to recognize these relationships as marriages in their businesses and other operations.  These legal battles are already taking place in Canada, Europe, and some states where homosexual unions are the legal equivalent to marriage.

Furthermore, President Obama has added nearly as much to the federal debt in four years as his 43 predecessors did in 220 years.  I find that to be incredibly irresponsible and unethical.  President Bush was horrible when it came to the debt.  He doubled it in eight years.  Obama has nearly doubled it again in four.  He doesn't really seem to be all that interested in reducing the deficit going forward, and his own spokesman has admitted that he doesn't have any plan at all to actually balance the budget.  I can't vote for that kind of irresponsibility.

These reasons - primarily his abortion policy, the religious liberty issues related to Obamacare, and the debt - are why I cannot seriously consider voting for Barack Obama's re-election.  In a very real sense, I would be relieved if he were defeated in this election.

So, then, you say, I have to vote for Mitt Romney.  He has come out in support of the principles of the most of the Manhattan Declaration (if not the Declaration itself), and he has promised to reduce the deficit.  He even has famed "deficit hawk" Paul Ryan as his running mate.  What's the problem?

I am trying to take an eternal perspective. 

I first started thinking about this seriously when Mitt Romney said in his debate, "I believe that we are all children of the same God."  It seems like a harmless statement, but it brought to mind something very important.

While many Christians worry about whether Barack Obama is secretly a Muslim, Mitt Romney is a Mormon.  That's no better.

When Mitt Romney says, "I believe we are all the children of the same God," he is not saying it in the generic, feel-good way found in a Celine Dion song or some pseudo-religious schlock like Touched By An Angel.  He means that he literally believes that a god called Elohim fathered billions of spirit-children, including all of us.

Mormonism is not Christianity.  It is a religion that worships a different god and presents a different gospel supposedly brought by an angel (against which the Apostle Paul warned us 1,800 years beforehand in Galatians 1:6-9).  Evangelical Christians dutifully lining up as a Republican voting bloc behind Mitt Romney does nothing but perpetuate the myth that there is no real difference.  Mormons do not preach the biblical Jesus; they preach a fictional Jesus presented by the Book of Mormon and use that book to distort real Scripture and say their "Jesus" is the same as our Jesus.  As someone who loves Jesus, I find that reprehensible.  It is the very definition of blasphemy.

You might object, as I have read others say, that we are electing a President, not a pastor, so only his public policies really matter.  That's probably true in most cases.  And I do not use (nor am I advocating) a personal "religious test" for public office.  But as I try to take an eternal perspective, I am very concerned about the eternal consequences of a Mormon as the President of the United States.

What are we really voting for in voting for either guy?  What will really happen?

If Barack Obama is re-elected, he will be President for four more years.  During that time, millions of children will be killed before they have a chance to live, the nation will continue to pile up debt at record rates, and Obamacare will be fully implemented, resulting in religious organizations and businesses having to go to court to avoid paying massive penalties in order to follow their conscience.  At the end of four years, if the economy has not turned around, the weary country will most likely elect a Republican to replace him, at which time some of the worst parts of Obamacare will be revised.  And unless the economy turns around drastically, the next election will be, at worst, a toss-up.

Voting for Mitt Romney, in contrast, is voting for him to be President for eight years, if you are someone who will not vote Democrat, because he is going to be the nominee in 2016 if he's the incumbant (if he's not, then his administration would have been such a disaster that any Democrat would beat him).  Millions of children will still die in abortions, because that won't be his focus.  Perhaps fewer will die and progress will be made, and that's important.  But will Obamacare really be repealed and replaced?  With the Democrats expected to hold the Senate?  I'm skeptical.  Although Romney gives some support for the Manhattan Declaration issues, that is not his focus and will not be his priority.

What will be his priority is his traditional, pro-business agenda.  I have supported Republican economic ideas for most of my life.  To me they make sense.  But I recognize that I have heard these arguments more because I have supported Republicans for their pro-life stance more than anything else.  I think Romney's ideas are better than Obama's when it comes to the economy.  But a lot of smart people think otherwise.  In history, sometimes these ideas have worked pretty well; sometimes they haven't.  I will generally vote for less government involvement in the economy, but this is not my area of expertise.

My area of expertise is theology and religion, and I know that Mormons are aggressively trying to proselytize the world with a false christ.  The President of the United States is the most famous person in the world.  Eight years of a Mormon in the White House will drastically raise their profile in the world, leading to untold multitudes of people being led astray by their message, an impact that will only multiply into future generations.  In addition, as Christian leaders downplay the differences between Mormons and Christians for political purposes in America, it paves the way for Mormons to have the ear of "cultural Christians" who would otherwise not listen to their message. The further proliferation of this false gospel will have eternal consequences. 

How much of an impact will it make?  I really don't know.  Enough to outweigh the problems with religious liberty, abortion, and marriage that another four years of Obama will bring?  Maybe, maybe not.  Would it be better to endure four more years of Obama and try to get a decent candidate for 2016?  Possibly.

What I do know is that whoever emerges on election night, I will be relieved that the other guy did not win and apprehensive about the consequences of the winner's victory.

But I reject the idea that I must vote for one or the other.  I am accountable to God for my vote.  I cannot vote for either President Obama or Mitt Romney (or for the Libertarian or Green Party candidates) in good conscience, so I won't.

I also reject the idea that by not voting for President, I am sinfully abdicating my civic duty.  I am going to vote for other candidates.  I feel pretty good about our Congressional candidate (who will win with or without my vote), and I am going to vote against the "medical marijuana" act.  I was disenfranchised in the Presidential election long ago, when they scheduled the Arkansas primary six weeks after the nomination was already going to be decided.  Arkansas was and is going to vote for whoever the the Republican candidate happened to be, regardless of my vote.  My vote to nominate an acceptable candidate was taken away when they scheduled the primary.

Whatever the outcome of this election, it should drive God's people to their knees.  No President - much less either of these guys - provides hope for the people of this nation.  The last best hope of the world is not the United States or its President.  The first and last hope of the world is the Alpha and Omega, Jesus Christ.  So as we go to our knees to pray about this election, can must not put our hope in a minister of a false gospel (whether it is business prosperity, government, or the false christ of Mormonism).  If we want real change, we must instead pray for a mighty move of the Spirit, that "turns the hearts of fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord" (Luke 1:17). 

Amen, come Lord Jesus.