Sorry for another blog everyone, but this one is super important and Please Please PLEASE share it to everyone you know!
Thirty Pieces of Silver on the Desk
Glenn Beck keeps a silver coin on his desk, right next to his microphone. It dates to the time of the crucifixion, one of the same kind of coins as the thirty pieces of silver paid to Judas. He says it has sat there for twenty years to remind him of one thing: don’t sell out, even if it costs you.
I watched a long segment from his show this week, and that coin stuck with me more than anything else. He was talking to Christians about voting, and he didn’t hold back.
He opened with a group most of us don’t think about much. The Council on American Islamic Relations has published a plan to register and turn out three million more Muslim voters this November. They have chapter leaders, registration tables after Friday prayers, and caravans to the polls. What surprised me was where Beck went next. He didn’t say they were doing something wrong. He said registering your neighbor and driving them to the polls isn’t a plot. It’s citizenship. Then he turned it around: “The problem is not CAIR. The problem is that Christians are not organizing.”
Then he shared numbers from George Barna, a well known Christian pollster. Before the last presidential election, Barna found that about 32 million Americans who attend church regularly were not planning to vote. Not the Easter and Christmas crowd. People in the pews every Sunday. Barna’s 2012 numbers showed about 12 million born again Christians who weren’t even registered. As Beck put it, they had a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and no relationship with the county clerk.
The Scripture
“In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” James 2:17 (NIV)
How I Understand This Scripture
James was writing to believers who said all the right things but didn’t live them out. He gave the example of someone who sees a brother or sister without food or clothes and says “Go in peace, keep warm and well fed,” then does nothing to help. James says that kind of faith is useless.
The way I understand it, James isn’t saying we earn salvation by what we do. He’s saying real faith always moves. It shows up. It gets its hands dirty. If what we believe never changes what we do on a Tuesday, we have to ask whether we believe it at all.
My Reflection
One line from Beck hit me hard. When Barna asked Christians why they don’t vote, two out of three said they just aren’t interested in politics. Beck asked a simple follow up. Are you interested in religious freedom? In what your kids are taught at school? In whether a Christian counselor, adoption agency, or baker gets sued out of business? Of course we are. We just aren’t interested in the one tool that decides how all of those things get handled.
He also took on the line so many of us use: “God’s got this.” God does have it. But as Beck said, God had the Red Sea too, and Moses still had to walk into it before it parted. Trusting God has never meant sitting still.
He spoke straight to pastors too. Many believe the Johnson Amendment keeps them from saying anything about elections. What it actually stops is a church endorsing a candidate. It has never stopped a church from registering its own people, hosting a candidate forum, teaching what Scripture says about family and liberty, handing out a nonpartisan voter guide, or renting a van. Beck pointed out that the Black church figured this out long ago. “Souls to the Polls” didn’t come from a consultant. It came from people who remembered what it cost to earn the right to stand in that line.
He also gave a history lesson I didn’t know. Starting in Boston in 1634, there was an election day tradition: before any other business, the governor and the legislature sat in church while the pastor preached on what God expected of them. It was called the election sermon, and it went on for 250 years. By the 1770s those pulpits preached liberty so boldly that the British blamed the preachers for the revolution and named them after the color of their robes: the Black Robe Regiment. The last election sermon was preached in 1884. No law ended it. The pulpit just went quiet on its own.
Beck closed with a line I can’t shake. The Crown was afraid of the Black Robe Regiment. Today nobody is afraid of us. That should trouble us more than anything anyone else puts on a website.
So here is my challenge, for me as much as for you:
Check your registration today.
In Texas: Go to www.votetexas.gov/register-to-vote to check whether you’re registered and get the application. The deadline is Monday, October 5, and a mailed application must be postmarked by that day. Early voting runs October 19 through October 30, and Election Day is November 3.
Outside Texas: Every state has its own rules and deadlines, so don’t assume yours matches Texas. Go to www.vote.gov, the official federal voting site. Pick your state and it will send you to your state’s official registration page. Many states let you register online in a few minutes, and some even let you register on Election Day. You can also call your county election office or ask at your church. Someone there probably knows. Whatever state you’re in, look it up today, not next week.
Pastors and church leaders, put a table in the lobby. One volunteer, one clipboard, one laptop. You don’t have to tell anyone who to vote for. Just tell them it matters to God that they show up.
Fill your car. Pick up three people: the widow, the college kid, and the quiet guy in the back row. Tell them you’ll be in the driveway at 7 AM.
Pray, study, then vote. Learn what the Bible teaches, learn where the candidates stand, then make your choice and go.
We were handed a seat at the table. Let’s not leave it empty.
Let’s Pray
Father, forgive us for the times we have trusted You with our words but not with our actions. Forgive us for staying silent when You called us to be salt and light. Give our pastors courage to lead and give each of us a willing heart to show up. Help us to love our neighbors enough to bring them along, and to vote with wisdom shaped by Your Word and not by fear or anger. Keep us from selling out for comfort or convenience. Above all, remind us that our hope is in You and not in any election. Let our faith be alive and moving. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
This one matters. Please share it. The Texas registration deadline is tomorrow, and someone you know is not registered or plans to stay home. Send this to your church group, your Sunday school class, your family text thread, and your pastor. Share it with friends in other states too. The vote.gov link above works wherever they live. One share could put one more believer in line on Election Day. Please pass it on to as many people as you can, today.
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