Voting in Line With the Ten Commandments
Editor’s note: This is part two of a two-part article. Find part one at this link.
We are now witnessing something many believe is worse than slavery. We are seeing legal genocide. Thus, when people of color vote for a pro-choice candidate or platform, they are (unconsciously) voting for their systemic extermination.
Regarding post-birth issues such as racism, we have to be fair and cite the terrible racist history of the Democratic Party. It was part of Jim Crow, the Ku Klux Klan and slavery. It was far behind the Republican Party (the party of Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr. ) regarding civil rights until the past three decades. Hence, we should not blindly vote based on party affiliation but according to how the party platform and candidate accord with biblical moral law.
The seventh commandment, “You shall not commit adultery” (Ex. 20:14, NIV), basically teaches that all sexual acts outside of the marriage of one man and one woman are considered adultery. The marriage bed, as defined by God’s Word, is undefiled (Heb. 13:4). Leviticus 18 gets into more detail regarding how the seventh commandment is unpacked and illustrates how heterosexual sex with someone who is not one’s spouse—with another person’s spouse, with in-laws, same-sex relations, as well as sex with animals—is forbidden by God. Paul the apostle restates some of these sexual acts as sin in Romans 1:26-27 and 1 Corinthians 6:9-11.
Hence, same-sex marriage clearly violates two of the first three commandments related to human relations.
The eighth commandment, “You shall not steal” (Ex. 20:15), is related to economics.
This is where it gets sticky. Progressives claim that one of the major political parties favors the rich because, they say, they pay a smaller percentage of taxes than the middle class. (The income tax percentage for the rich is higher than the middle class, but most rich people earn much of their income through capital gains, which are taxed much lower than salaried income. However, all people have a right to buy and sell property and trade on the stock market. Thus, it is not a right reserved only for the rich. However, most poor people need to be financially knowledgeable or have enough money to make a living through capital gains categories like real estate and trading stocks.)
On the other hand, I have heard some conservative people of color say the Democrats are still attempting to keep their people on the plantation through entitlements and welfare programs that merely help in the short term but don’t do enough to break the generational cycles of poverty. Other Black leaders have noted how people of color have more poverty today as related to marriage, intact families and finances than before the Great Society programs of Lyndon Johnson started in the mid-1960s. This proves handouts and welfare have hurt more than helped people of color.
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I believe a halfway approach is best: Government economic aid to the poor should continue, but it should be redefined and restructured so there are far fewer blind handouts. I believe money should be funneled through partnerships with churches, nonprofits and charities that have boots on the ground and know how to do microfinancing, job training, entrepreneurial endeavors and educate at-risk children. They would more likely do a better job than government bureaucrats.
With the current level of family fragmentation, nonprofits and church-based programs need to step up to the plate now more than ever because big government entitlement programs with no practical accountability have proven they cannot parachute in and rescue our communities.
For books on this subject, read “Toxic Charity: How Churches and Charities Hurt Those They Help (And How to Reverse It)” by Robert Lupton and “When Helping Hurts: Alleviating Poverty Without Hurting the Poor … and Yourself” by Brian Fikkert and Steve Corbett.
Furthermore, by forbidding stealing in the eighth commandment, God espouses the right of individuals to own private property. Thus, this commandment is against any ideology (whether liberation theology or communism) that espouses economic egalitarianism, which is when an overreaching central government tries to force equality and the redistribution of wealth by an extremely progressive tax structure or, in communism, by the abolition of private property altogether.
On the other hand, most conservatives in this nation are against redistribution and believe in empowering individual rights and the free market. I believe this is more in line with Scripture than those espousing communism and economic egalitarianism.
I espouse a kingdom economic approach that not only includes a flat tax for everyone (like the biblical tithe) and a free market view of capitalism that obligates Christian business owners to disciple, finance and reproduce other business owners from among their employees. This would do more than merely create jobs in poor urban areas; it would develop entrepreneurs who can break their generational cycles of poverty.
(Read “Doing Business God’s Way” by Dennis Peacocke for more.)
Furthermore, the tenth commandment, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods” (Ex. 20:17), also seems to advance the theory of private property and is against the motive of egalitarianism, which many believe is driven by the politics of class warfare and envy.
Debating economic theory and what works would take a large position paper.
(I highly recommend Black economist Thomas Sowell’s book “Basic Economics” as a starter for this important subject.)
However, even if progressives are hypothetically correct in their position, the commandment dealing with economics is No. 8 on God’s Top 10 list, thus not as important as commandments one through seven. Furthermore, God tells believers that if they put His kingdom and righteousness first, He will provide everything we need anyway (Matt. 6:33).
Elections and voting are always a test for all believers: Are we going to vote on our biblical values as stated in God’s Top 10 list, or will we vote on our race, ethnicity and party affiliation? Suppose there is a situation in which candidates from either party fall short of these moral and ethical standards. In that case, I believe the best person to vote for in a local or national election is the one who most favors biblical faith and a platform closest to upholding the essence of the Law of God.
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Dr. Joseph Mattera is an internationally known author, consultant and theologian whose mission is to influence leaders who influence culture. He is the founding pastor of Resurrection Church and leads several organizations, including the U.S. Coalition of Apostolic Leaders and Christ Covenant Coalition.
