More On Romney and Muddled Thinking

My last post has been the impetus for much discussion, which prompts me to voice additional observations.

1.  Many will vote for Romney as the lesser of evils because Obama, they believe, will run our country into the ground in the next four years. As far as the outcome of the election is concerned, I have it on good authority, the testimony of redemptive history, that the legitimizing of blasphemy has precedence for economic consequences and social turmoil, more than anything that might result from Obama-care and all the rest. That is something that should be considered by those who would make this election a matter of economics and social concern.  Pragmatism would seem to side with not voting for Romney, especially given his moderate tendencies that in principle are no different, just less consistent, than Obama's.

1a. It hasn’t occurred to many that the spiritual decay of this land has paved the way for the social decay we now find normal. Fixing our economic thinking and all the rest is a mere band aid at best. At the heart of the problem is the question, How might we provide a climate in which God is honored given the current state of affairs? Do we seek God's good pleasure by voting for Romney? Do we say no to a heretical, blaspheming candidate, or do we elect him as the savior of this land? Enough is enough, but unfortunately the conservative media and the GOP leadership have evangelicals so scared of Obama that the masses would sooner support a cult leader with the hope of him getting us out of the jam that spiritual infidelity got us into in the first place. The irony is killing me.

2. People are quick to claim the sovereignty of God and divine election as reason not to be terribly concerned with an attack on the gospel, but not so willing to take such a fatalistic, hyper-Calvinistic approach when dealing with socialistic / economic concerns. In other words, many think as though God will take care of protecting the elect but we humans must fight against the evils of social agendas that are un-American. What is obviously skewed in such thinking is the fact that God no less decrees salvation than he does societal decay. So any appeal to divine sovereignty begs the question of where one’s efforts and priorities should be.

3. There is a common sentiment regarding voting against one’s favorite candidate that when voiced is more manipulative than valid. That being, “A non-vote is a vote for Obama.”  During the last presidential election, if a person who was intending to vote for Obama was prevented from doing so by traffic on the freeway, he would not have voted. Would that non-vote have been a vote for Obama? Obviously not, for nothing would have been gained by Obama. In fact, something would have been lost - the vote of the hindered voter. Now if it is said that the non-vote would have been a vote for McCain, then in a sense that would be right, but such an observation would be based upon a premise pertaining to the intention of the voter. Indeed, McCain would have gained something by such a traffic-providence, for the hindrance of an Obama voter to vote would have closed the gap of the race by one vote in favor of McCain. The point should be apparent. For a non-vote in this election to be regarded as vote for Obama presupposes that the person not voting would have voted for Romney if he could, but that’s obviously false because the person in view would not be voting because he had no intention of voting for Romney (or anyone else). When the voter’s will and not some external providence prevents him from voting, it is mathematically absurd and philosophically fallacious to claim that the non-vote would have been cast in any direction.

4. We live in a pluralistic, non-Christian nation. Accordingly, voting for the lesser of perceived evils is permissible. My concern, as I wrote earlier, is what one will consider as data and how he evaluates that which he finds relevant.

Voting For Romney Without Hesitation, Christian?

President Obama is a left wing radical and un-American.  And although Romney is of the same hypocrisy of his opponent, he is by no means as consistent with his convictions and agenda as Obama is with his. Mr. Obama is a capable man of superior conviction, which is why the prospect of the President having four more years to implement his ideology is a dreadful thought for many Americans, including myself. That is precisely why most evangelicals will vote for Romney this November. Their vote will be against Obama; not for Romney per se.

It is remarkable to me that the preponderance of evangelicals believe in toto that voting for Obama is unconscionable and that to vote other than for Romney is foolish.  Such sentiment is often predicated upon the opinion that President Obama is more opposed to the principles of liberty upon which this country was founded. Accordingly, a vote for Romney is a vote against more extreme socialism, or even worse. Voting is thought to be a matter that pertains to policy considerations only. One’s religious convictions, for instance, have little importance in the matter. But didn’t the evangelical community, just fourteen years ago, find President Clinton’s personal life politically relevant, if not on par with policy? In fact, didn’t some posit causality between personal life and political practice? After all, weren’t evangelicals asking how a man who could not remain faithful to his wife possibly govern our nation? Well, where are these sorts of questions today where presidential candidate Mitt Romney is concerned?

Mitt Romney is a heretic and until he renounces the Mormon cult he remains one and consequently under the unambiguous anathema of Scripture. If only Mr. Romney were irreligious, but he’s not. He is a poster child for Mormonism. Should that come into one's thinking with respect to how one casts his vote? Or does the pluralism of American religious liberty somehow constrain evangelical Christians not to consider the theological ideologies of a candidate?  

In many ways evangelicals are more American than they are Christian. Decisions are predicated upon a perceived American quality of life and temporal things (even blessings) that will pass away, rather than the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. My point is not that Scripture demands a vote for this or that candidate, but rather that the principles of Scripture are to inform our thinking. My convictions prohibit me from voting for one who unashamedly believes the Lord to be a created being and spiritual brother to Satan.

Don’t get me wrong. In this election I am not terribly concerned whether evangelicals vote right, left or not at all. I am more concerned about the rationale behind one’s decision. More specifically, my concern is that among most evangelicals I find little or no consideration given to any other option other than voting for Mitt Romney. The very notion of voting for Obama so that the damnable heresies of a cult do not become more normative in the United States is not on the average evangelical’s radar screen; it's not a minor consideration. And although I will not vote for Obama, I would actually delight in knowing that some Republican-evangelicals voted for Obama because the thought of having a Mormon president along with the possible ramifications of such an outcome is too repulsive to imagine. That I could support more than a mindless vote for Romney - a vote without any consideration of his spiritual condition and what that might entail.

Those who will hold their nose while pulling the lever for Mitt Romney in November, I hope do so in an effort to suppress the stench of his heretical convictions more than the odor of his moderate polices. The latter pales in comparison to the former.

I believe there is Christian liberty to vote for either candidate, or just sit it out. My position should be apparent.