Let me tell you the Scripture that informs and guides my thinking. I suspect if I think about this more we could have almost a series on informing our conscience by the Bible. There are two verses that are particularly persuasive to me and that affect my actions when it comes to voting. Number one is found in Psalm 82 where we read in verse 3 and 4: “Give justice to the weak and the fatherless. Maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy and deliver them from the hand of the wicked.” I think these four verbs, “give justice, maintain the right, rescue and deliver,” all of these action words have a far greater application than who I vote for. In fact, I hope that you’re not trying to live these verses out merely by voting, but it certainly includes voting because policy and law impact the idea of human rights. For a long time I wrestled whether as Christians we even have human rights because we’re giving up all of our rights and we’re becoming servants of the Lord. I think that’s a little bit of a shallow understanding. The Bible actually says that human rights are given to us by Him when we become human. Humans get human rights and God calls us in the Psalms and other places to defend especially those who are having their rights taken away from them. That by definition is called the oppressed. It’s important for us as a community of faith to constantly have our antenna up to defend the weak and those who don’t have the standing in a community to defend themselves. I think this even goes to things such as seeing somebody that is mentally disabled. Sometimes kids can be very cruel to kids, but I taught my own children that whenever they see a mentally disabled child being teased or made fun of or poked at, that they should run in there and defend them, even if they get a black eye out of it. Because that is the spirit of defense that I think the Scripture requires of us to find out who among us can’t defend themselves and needs help. If you’re a policeman and you’re carrying a gun, you don’t really need other people to come and defend you. If you’re powerful, you have lots of money, you can get the best lawyers, you can get this, that, and the other, you don’t need people defending you. But these little ones need someone to defend them. In our time and culture, the battle is raging over whether or not we get to intentionally destroy innocent human beings just because they’re small and in the womb. I’m going to take my stand here and vote for people that will come and defend the weak and the innocent as much as possible. I’ve got my vote in and I’m going to continue to be voting along these guidelines.
At the same time the Bible says: “Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute.” The mute is the person who can’t speak. It’s the ideal person who can’t speak. Someone needs to speak for them. But of course, it goes wider than just people who can’t speak. It’s the idea that you are in an economic or political reality in which you have no defense at that time. Of course, the reason that we’re heading off to Romania, the reason we just got back from Zambia over the summer, the reason we’ll be back in India and Vietnam later into next year is because we want to go and give God’s people a megaphone to stand for life and to arouse the church in the hardest and neediest places, to open up their mouth and defend this biblical view of the sanctity of human life among the weakest among us. It’s not necessarily popular. It can be costly. Especially since the end of Roe v. Wade, there are so many lies that are being told about what the pro-life position is. I get it. Nonetheless, I want us to remember that the calling according to Scripture is to speak up and not be afraid. I am much challenged by a quote that was often ascribed to Martin Luther, but it’s probably doubtful that he actually was the one who said this. But the words are very powerful. He wrote: “If I profess with the loudest voice and the clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ. However boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved. And to be steady in all the battlefields besides is merely flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.” There are places in which friendship with God and friendship with the world are at odds with each other. And this is one of those places that we have to take our stand and take our lumps if need be. But to the degree that we can vote, to the degree that we can speak up, to the degree that we can rescue the innocent, I’m all in.
I invite you to join with me in prayer, in sending us to Romania, in promoting the sanctity of life, a position without being intimidated, without fear, but do it with truth, with love, with courage, and with personal sacrifice. And I think that we will continue to see the actual numbers of babies rescued and lives changed continue to go up even while the laws are going back and forth depending on the political circumstances. I’m encouraged that abortion in the United States has dropped probably 50% over the last 30 years. But we have a long way to go. The United States only accounts for about 3% of the moral crisis of abortion in the world on an annual basis. So I’m leaving for Romania to go after the other 97% over there and to see if we can inspire the church there to stand with us and to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves. Let us pray for God to arise in Romania as well as in the United States. God bless.