Response to "A Biblical Strategy for Voting"
Bill Fortenberry
I am used to receiving a multitude of responses to my articles, but today I received a response that is unlike any that I have ever received before. This letter was such an encouragement to me that I asked for permission to share it on my website where I hope that it will be an encouragement to many others as well. That permission has been granted, so without further ado, here is the letter in its entirety:
Dear Mr. Fortenberry,
I don't even know where to begin . . . I have seen your name on some of the Santorum pages I'm a member of, but I don't remember us ever interacting. I read Steven Reagan Myers posting yesterday morning in reference to believers respecting the choices other believers may make in the upcoming election. At the time I read his posting, there were only a two comments, yours being the second one. I went to the link of your article, read it and was stunned. It is without a doubt the very best, most cogent, lucid presentation of how a Christian should vote that I have ever read, and most specifically pertaining to the election we are facing on November 6.
I was a county and district coordinator for Rick Santorum in Missouri. My forefathers have been Republicans since the Civil War time and I have proudly volunteered in politics ever since I was in college at age 18 (Nixon), but this was the heaviest I have ever been involved. I don't know if it has always been this way--I suspect it has--but I witnessed the most manipulative railroading of a candidate I ever thought possible. I have heard the GOP in our state (Missouri) declare over and over again this year that they treat all Republican candidates equally and fairly. That is simply not the case. In fact, I would call that an outright lie. Santorum was blocked at every turn by local, state and national GOP strategizing. It was so hidious that I have been practically immobilzed with anger and indignation ever since our district caucus. Then they have done it again with out senate candidate, Todd Akin. To say that I am furious is putting it mildly.
Because of the treatment Santorum received by the GOP I have pulled back from any participation in politics, even commenting on the numerous closed FB pages I am a member of. I have serious convictions about voting for Romney and have been lambasted by "friends" for even considering not voting (which I would never do) or even writing someone in. "A vote for anyone other than Romney is a vote for Obama!" I even was at odds with my husband for the first time in our entire married life (39 years) about how to vote. Every time we began to discuss it the conversation would become heated. I voted for Romney in the primaries in 2008, against my better judgement, because my husband felt that by me voting for someone other than who he was voting for I would be neutralizing his vote. I just don't think I can do that this time. I have told him that he didn't stand eyeball to eyeball with the local GOP leaders, them shaking my hand and stabbing me in the gut with their other hand. I feel deep mistrust of their judgement. Why hadn't they permitted the process to operate without interference? Why had they brought in the big guns (John Ashcroft, Roy Blunt, etc.) to put pressure on us to vote the way they told us to? I honestly believe that we were even infiltrated by progressives (perhaps Rep. progressives, perhaps actual Dems/socialists/Marxists progressives). I can't tell you how ugly it was in Missouri this election year.
I also felt it was wrong to vote for a Mormon. To vote a Mormon into the highest office in our land elevates that "religion" to a level of respectablilty, even acceptability that ought not to be.
Of course, I was horrified at the prospect of Obama in office for another four years, and a few points were made here and there that almost had me persuaded to vote for Romney.
Thank God for your article!
I waited for a good time when nothing else could distract us, and this morning I got my husband and adult son (who lives with us--he has Duchenne's Muscular Dystrophy) comfortably seated and I read them your article. We went through it point by point, verse by verse. And my husband got it. He was blown away.
He said, "It's as clear to me as when I was saved. It just makes perfect sense. I can see clear as day how we should vote. We want to please God above everything else. There is no other choice."
My son gets it, too.
Thank you so much for laying out so logically--and from God's Word--the foundation for voting that has laid the issue to rest--peaceful rest!-- for our family. My husband is sending your article to our other three adult children and asking them to sit with their spouses and go over it together, as we did, point by point and verse by verse.
Our pastor was one of the 1100 or so pastors nationwide that yesterday preached from the pulpit a sermon that lucidly went over the issues and is sending a copy of the sermon to the IRS to try to entice them to charge a church with violating the 501.C3 "Johnson ammendment". We are so proud of him. His sermon almost sounded like he gets it, too. But just to be sure, my husband is sending your article to him, too.
I am asking your permission to post your article and/or the link to it on my FB page, and on many of the state closed Santorum pages I am a member of. Would you permit me to do that? How about in a letter to the editor of newspapers?
So many Christians are heeding the call to "vote" and they are even broadcasting the verse, "If my people which are called by my name . . . ". But it's like they still don't get it. They are still not truly broken before God and want to do what's pleasing to Him. They still are willing to vote for an ungodly man to avoid tanother ungodly man.
May God richly bless you and your family. I will keep you in my prayers. We are very grateful for God using you as He has in our family's life.
In His firm grip,
Laurice Cox
Dear Mr. Fortenberry,
I don't even know where to begin . . . I have seen your name on some of the Santorum pages I'm a member of, but I don't remember us ever interacting. I read Steven Reagan Myers posting yesterday morning in reference to believers respecting the choices other believers may make in the upcoming election. At the time I read his posting, there were only a two comments, yours being the second one. I went to the link of your article, read it and was stunned. It is without a doubt the very best, most cogent, lucid presentation of how a Christian should vote that I have ever read, and most specifically pertaining to the election we are facing on November 6.
I was a county and district coordinator for Rick Santorum in Missouri. My forefathers have been Republicans since the Civil War time and I have proudly volunteered in politics ever since I was in college at age 18 (Nixon), but this was the heaviest I have ever been involved. I don't know if it has always been this way--I suspect it has--but I witnessed the most manipulative railroading of a candidate I ever thought possible. I have heard the GOP in our state (Missouri) declare over and over again this year that they treat all Republican candidates equally and fairly. That is simply not the case. In fact, I would call that an outright lie. Santorum was blocked at every turn by local, state and national GOP strategizing. It was so hidious that I have been practically immobilzed with anger and indignation ever since our district caucus. Then they have done it again with out senate candidate, Todd Akin. To say that I am furious is putting it mildly.
Because of the treatment Santorum received by the GOP I have pulled back from any participation in politics, even commenting on the numerous closed FB pages I am a member of. I have serious convictions about voting for Romney and have been lambasted by "friends" for even considering not voting (which I would never do) or even writing someone in. "A vote for anyone other than Romney is a vote for Obama!" I even was at odds with my husband for the first time in our entire married life (39 years) about how to vote. Every time we began to discuss it the conversation would become heated. I voted for Romney in the primaries in 2008, against my better judgement, because my husband felt that by me voting for someone other than who he was voting for I would be neutralizing his vote. I just don't think I can do that this time. I have told him that he didn't stand eyeball to eyeball with the local GOP leaders, them shaking my hand and stabbing me in the gut with their other hand. I feel deep mistrust of their judgement. Why hadn't they permitted the process to operate without interference? Why had they brought in the big guns (John Ashcroft, Roy Blunt, etc.) to put pressure on us to vote the way they told us to? I honestly believe that we were even infiltrated by progressives (perhaps Rep. progressives, perhaps actual Dems/socialists/Marxists progressives). I can't tell you how ugly it was in Missouri this election year.
I also felt it was wrong to vote for a Mormon. To vote a Mormon into the highest office in our land elevates that "religion" to a level of respectablilty, even acceptability that ought not to be.
Of course, I was horrified at the prospect of Obama in office for another four years, and a few points were made here and there that almost had me persuaded to vote for Romney.
Thank God for your article!
I waited for a good time when nothing else could distract us, and this morning I got my husband and adult son (who lives with us--he has Duchenne's Muscular Dystrophy) comfortably seated and I read them your article. We went through it point by point, verse by verse. And my husband got it. He was blown away.
He said, "It's as clear to me as when I was saved. It just makes perfect sense. I can see clear as day how we should vote. We want to please God above everything else. There is no other choice."
My son gets it, too.
Thank you so much for laying out so logically--and from God's Word--the foundation for voting that has laid the issue to rest--peaceful rest!-- for our family. My husband is sending your article to our other three adult children and asking them to sit with their spouses and go over it together, as we did, point by point and verse by verse.
Our pastor was one of the 1100 or so pastors nationwide that yesterday preached from the pulpit a sermon that lucidly went over the issues and is sending a copy of the sermon to the IRS to try to entice them to charge a church with violating the 501.C3 "Johnson ammendment". We are so proud of him. His sermon almost sounded like he gets it, too. But just to be sure, my husband is sending your article to him, too.
I am asking your permission to post your article and/or the link to it on my FB page, and on many of the state closed Santorum pages I am a member of. Would you permit me to do that? How about in a letter to the editor of newspapers?
So many Christians are heeding the call to "vote" and they are even broadcasting the verse, "If my people which are called by my name . . . ". But it's like they still don't get it. They are still not truly broken before God and want to do what's pleasing to Him. They still are willing to vote for an ungodly man to avoid tanother ungodly man.
May God richly bless you and your family. I will keep you in my prayers. We are very grateful for God using you as He has in our family's life.
In His firm grip,
Laurice Cox