The following article is an expanded version of an article in the November issue of the AFA Journal.
Selecting Leaders with Christian Worldviews
American citizens represent a number of worldviews, but the two major views are Judeo-Christian and Secular Humanism. Strangely in recent years, the dominant culture-shaping forces have been from the minority views of Secular Humanism held by the leadership in fields such as entertainment, education, and often in politics. Humanistic tend to have atheistic or agnostic religious beliefs and considers human reasoning and human solutions superior to Biblical teachings and traditional laws of God. This has resulted in a number of secular laws and regulations legalizing such things as abortion, homosexual marriage, transgender “rights,” and required teaching in public schools that all life arose naturalistically.
When Christians failed to vote
Christians are often surprised when their traditional beliefs are supplanted by ideas with which they strongly disagree. In 2015, the conservative community of Charlotte, N.C. held city-wide elections. According to Franklin Graham, 90% of the registered Christian voters in Charlotte failed to vote. When the ballots were counted, the city had elected a mayor and a majority of the board of aldermen who were homosexual activists. One of their first orders of business was to pass a city ordinance requiring all businesses to allow men who believed their true gender was female to use all bathrooms, locker rooms, and dressing rooms of their choice. Women who believed their true gender was male were likewise permitted to use these spaces according to their perceived gender. Many local citizens were indignant! But, they realized too late that everyone in the city had been given equal opportunities a few months earlier to qualify for these offices.
Foundation of Christian/Biblical worldviews weakening
Over the past few years Christians have seen thousands of years-old foundations of Biblical worldviews weakening as secular humanist worldviews have become stronger. Christians need first of all to recognize the conflicts between these worldviews.
Chapters 1-3 of Genesis establishes some of the essentials of the Judeo-Christian worldview. God is proclaimed as the Creator of everything that exists, but policies and laws have removed the terms God, Design, and Creator not only from science books, but from school in general. God’s design for the family–husband and wife; father and mother; parents and children; and male and female–are being redesigned by today’s social engineers. The beginning of God’s redemption of humans from sin is also found in these first three chapters, so that the very foundation of the Gospel is being uprooted in the midst of these social changes.
Children in public schools are immersed in a secular worldview as Christian symbols and practices are being systemically eliminated: prayer before sporting events; Christian songs, Christmas and Easter celebrations, the choice to write personal essays that refer to belief in God. Schools are not allowed to use intelligent design materials and other scientific challenges to the teaching that all life arose from random natural processes.
Christian individuals, businesses and churches are required to accept situations that violate their religious beliefs, such as attempts to force Christian religious organizations to pay for insurance that supplies abortion-causing drugs or to force private religious schools to allow transgender students to live in the dorm of their choice.
Being salt and light in the world
Jesus told His disciples to deal with rebellion in the world by being salt and light. This can still be done as churches show the love, power, and truth of Christ to their local communities and abroad and pray earnestly for a God-breathed sweeping revival that would change hearts.
While national elections are very important, another way to bring salt and light into our local communities is to be sure that Christians are a part of local government and other policy-making bodies. Christians can affect the governing of their communities as they:
(1) Register to vote and exercise this right in every election.
(2) Consider joining or seeking an appointment to groups, such as the Library Board; Park
Commission; parents/teacher groups; city, county, and school committees; political committees;
and other decision-making groups.
(3) Write, call, or talk with elected officials about issues that you consider important. As a
Christian, you should always make your views known in a Christian manner.
(4) Consider running or persuading someone qualified to run for Mayor, Board of Aldermen, Board of Supervisors, School Boards; and other local places of leadership. Make sure
capable, honest, dependable people with Christian values qualify as candidates well before
election day Consider this a way to serve the community and to honor God.
(5) Be involved in the selection of state and national officials, such as candidates for U.S.
President, U.S. Senators, U.S. Representatives, Governor and other state offices, State
Senators, and State Representatives who first came out of a pool of experienced, proven local
Christian leaders.
My husband served for several years on our local board of aldermen. He had a job that
required long hours and had not even considered the possibility of taking on the additional
responsibilities of being a political candidate. He began to think about qualifying for the
position after a local citizen came to him, saying he thought my husband would be a good
person for this position. After being strongly encouraged to become a candidate, my husband and I prayed about the possibility. He counted the cost, discussed this with like-minded citizens, and finally decided to qualify. He was eventually elected for two terms with no regrets, but this would never have happened without the encouragement of his friend.