If you’ve followed our work over the years, you’ll know Alaska Family Council exists in large part because we firmly believe the Body of Christ should influence all areas of life … including the arena of civics, politics and yes, elections.
And yet we keep hearing the same mantra – the Church is no better, if not worse, than the general public in getting to the polls. Can we change this reality?
I’m grateful to join the Leadership Institute next Tuesday, August 11th, at 5 p.m. at Kings Alaska in Wasilla for a seminar on the Significance of the Church Vote and how we can have an expanded, more influential role in who is elected this November.
I’ll be presenting on the Church’s historic and current role in Alaska’s public square and am honored to be joined by Alaska State Senator Cathy Tilton from Wasilla and Lani Kaaa, Hawaii Director of the Leadership Institute.
Senator Tilton will address current legislation impacting churches, families, and communities, while Lani will provide practical, legal, and ethical ways to encourage informed voter participation and strengthen civic engagement within the Body of Christ.
This workshop is FREE to attend and includes dinner, refreshments, and all training materials. CLICK HERE to register and share this with family and friends.
As an interesting and relevant aside, as Dr Wayne Grudem points out in his seminal book Politics According to the Bible, Christians have influenced governments positively throughout history. To be specific, but by no means exhaustive, the spread of Christianity and Christian influence on government was primarily responsible for:
— Outlawing infanticide, child abandonment, and abortion in the Roman Empire (in AD 374)
— Outlawing the gladiatorial contests (in 404)
— Outlawing the branding of criminals’ faces (in 315)
— Instituting prison reforms (in 361)
— Stopping human sacrifice among the Irish, Prussians, Lithuanians, and Aztec and Mayan Indians
— Outlawing pedophilia
— Granting property rights and other protections to women
— Banning polygamy
— Prohibiting the burning alive of widows in India (in 1829)
— Outlawing the binding of young women’s feet in China (in 1912)
— Opposing and often abolishing slavery in the Roman Empire, Ireland, most of Europe, and the US (more than 2/3 of the abolitionists in the US in the mid-1830’s were Christian clergymen)
— The formulation of the Magna Carta (1215)
— The formulation of The Declaration of Independence (1776) and the Constitution of the United States (1787)
— The American civil rights movement that resulted in the outlawing of racial segregation and discrimination was led by Martin Luther King Jr., a Baptist pastor, and supported by many Christian churches and groups.
— Christians throughout history have formed the backbone of the pro-life movement, which ultimately led to the overturning of Roe v Wade in the Dobbs decision. (2022)
The views expressed here are those of the author.
14 Comments
Might as well just burn our Constitution.
Why? Do you believe your atheism is any more or less important that our Christianity?
There is nothing in our federal or state constitutions that prohibit religious minded people from participating in governance nor in influencing public policy be it through voting or other means. Our nation, including its founding documents, was founded by a profoundly devout Christian people. Christianity is in no way incompatible with our nation’s Constitution nor any of its original provisions.
Have you published a full list of candidates with their positions?
Wikipedia says this: “the Spanish Inquisition prosecuted an estimated 150,000 people for various offenses. Of these, an estimated 3,000–5,000 were turned over to the state for execution, particularly in the initial 50 years, mostly by burning at the stake.” Burning at the stake Jim. Think about that.
And how about the American and Canadian Indian Boarding schools. You didn’t include them in your do-good list.
“The U.S. government partnered with Christian missionaries starting with the Indian Civilization Act Fund of 1819 and President Ulysses S. Grant’s 1869 Peace Policy, giving different denominations control over specific reservation schools.
Denominations Involved: Roman Catholic orders (such as the Jesuits), Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Lutherans, and Quakers operated or staffed a significant portion of the boarding schools.
Stated Goal: Missionaries and government officials shared the goal to “Kill the Indian, Save the Man,” replacing traditional spiritual practices, native languages, and tribal identities with Western education and Christian doctrine.
Minnery, I hope you’ll include these two examples of the Church’s historic and current role in Alaska’s public square in your presentation.
Fair is fair. Will you include Pol Pot, Stalin, Mao, and Hitler in yours?
Mr. Singh could you please tell me how many “American and Canadian Indian Boarding schools” dead children – dead by nefarious means, have been unearthed to date by federal or Native Indian authorities? The answer is…. drum roll please….. ZERO! But don’t despair, being that you and untold millions have fallen for that patently false leftist trope. And since when did Wikipedia become the paragone of objective scholarship, being that they are just as biased against Christianity as you seem to be.
Toby Burke: you got me on how many Indian children have been “unearthed “. You know why there is zero? It’s not because there aren’t archives containing affidavits, reports, newspaper accounts,maps, church receipts, church reports. There are many of those. The absence of child corpses is because indigenous heirs don’t want the government or christians messing with their dead children. Plus, the government and christians don’t want to mess with graves for fear of what will be revealed. A fine application of an archaeological trope is, “absence of evidence is not evidence “.
I wholeheartedly agree with the premise that Christians have the imperative responsibility to influence the government in regards to policy! Character as far as the Christians are concerned is where 100% of the problems arise! Information is not where more emphasis needs to be placed! Funding is not the focal point either! Education has become an end to itself and therefore is a complete waste of time!
Development of biblical convictions that will stand up in the face of persecution is essential! A hardened character is the only way through this period! Here’s the bad news. The church has for too long preached to the felt needs of the congregation and now the pews are filled with softened flesh, slumped over, waiting to be told to stand up and sing, or sit down and give! Fighting for righteousness, will never be words or concepts coming from the pulpit in these times! Everywhere we are, this lazy feminine mentality has saturated who we have become!!
Minnery and tilton are barely scratching the surface of this issue!
Oof churches are going to influence voters then they need to be taxed!
Churches should stick to religion. If you are honoring God, you are participating in attempting to be a good neighbor to others. this means YOUR time. YOUR talents. YOUR cash. It does not mean outsourcing to the gubmint. As long as the preachers are talking about the principles of the religion, I’m all in. When they start telling parishioners whom to vote for, I’m out.
MOST PREACHERS ARE INDOCTRINATED IN SOCIALISM!!!!! At the school level, they are indoctrinated to believe helping your neighbor means socialism. Trust me on this, you DO NOT WANT preachers telling you how to vote.
Character matters! Good policy comes from people with good character! What part of this is hard to understand Arthur?
MOST PREACHERS ARE INDOCTRINATED IN SOCIALISM!!!!! At the school level, they are indoctrinated to believe helping your neighbor means socialism. Arthur, can you expand on this a bit? Is helping a neighbor equal to socialism?
The Left NEVER criticizes minority congregations who fully enter the political fray. They don’t bother to delicately tip-toe around LBJ’s 501(c)3 nonsense, like the Baptist Temple has, with a “candidate appearance”, inviting all candidates to come. No, the minority congregations are blatantly political. But the problem for Christian churches is increasingly NOT about endorsing candidates, but the fear of expounding on the issues, which certainly ARE political: homosexuality, abortion, euthanasia, transgender surgery, laws against counseling children who are gender confused, men in women’s sports, etc. Failure to courageously defy the 501(c)3 B.S. is what has emasculated the Catholic Church, especially. Besides, most of the bishops have become socialist, contributing to the mess. I still hear rubbish “Prayers of the Faithful” at Mass (sent down by church bureaucrats in big cities) asking for us to pray for increased government help for the poor, the homeless, the marginalized. This was once considered unconstitutional on the federal level, and belonged to the domain of the Christian denominations. No one ponders whether calling for more socialist programs, and the churches accepting federal and state $$$ in their charitable work, is somehow mixing the “no church-and-state” mantra. Once again, the selective hypocrisy from the Left stands nakedly exposed.