By Jackson Elliott, Contributor Follow
To help biblically-minded voters learn more about all the candidates on their ballot, a website has been created as a single source for voter guides and election tools.
Biblical Voter was created by The Salt & Light Council two years ago to help voters of faith learn which candidates best match their moral values so they can be more confident in their votes during elections.
The guides, which include information on local, state and national elections, contrasts the Republican Party and Democratic Party platforms, shows elections videos, candidate questionnaires, congressional scorecards, and provides resources for churches and pastors.
“If pastors aren’t making voting a priority treated equal to other priorities of the church, people are not going to know what to do,” Salt & Light Council President Dran Reese said in an interview with The Christian Post. “I think this is the greatest sin in America. Christians have no idea what their role and responsibility should be.”
The site, which collects voter guides from pro-life, conservative, and independent groups for all 50 states, aims to help last-minute voters who often select candidates based on personal appeal instead of connecting their vote with their faith.
Dreese said the site’s most important resource is its Biblical Voter Registration Kit. “It finally says to the church that voter registration is biblical,” she said. “There should be one in every church.”
The site states that the Bible compels Christians to vote, citing verses to encourage Christians to take political action. The site adds that because Jesus said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth,” Christians can use Christ’s authority to do the same and demand their rights.
Biblical Voter also includes a guide created by Bishop Art Hodges, superintendent of the Southern California District of United Pentecostal Church International, titled, “60+ Contrasts That Tip the Scales of Justice – Historical, Constitutional, and Moral Contrasts of the Two Major Parties.” The guide compares the party platforms and notes that the Republican Party’s platform mentions faith 26 times, whereas the Democratic platform mentions faith 11 times. And the Republican platform, it adds, “believes that sanctity of life is an inalienable right, opposes euthanasia, and assisted suicide, the other [Democratic Party] doesn’t.”
On the site’s list of 61 platform differences, it says that most faith-related words that appear often in the Republican platform never appear in the Democratic platform. No faith-related words appear more often on the Democratic platform than the Republican platform. The Democratic platform also doesn’t mention the Bill of Rights, supports abortion up to birth, and doesn’t focus on religious liberty.
The priorities listed in the platforms aren’t just words; they highlight the issues their candidates’ are urged to support.
“The power of party platforms is that congressional members vote in line with their party platforms 89% (R) and 74% (D),” said Hodges.
While the Biblical Voter site doesn’t outright advise Christians to vote for either Republican or Democratic candidates, saying instead that voters should be “Christ-O-Crats,” much of its advice does lean in favor of the Republican Party.
“What does God say about abortion? What does He say about marriage? What does He say about Israel? If you want to pick those top three, there’s a remarkable difference between the two parties,” Reese told CP.
“If you can’t conscientiously vote for the PERSON, vote for their POSITION, not their personality,” Hodges added.
