Free Republic

Thank you for that clarification.

Jim,

Please see my posts @ #22 & #48 this thread.

We are about to enter another Presidential election cycle, and there will be much heated debate over how to best restore the Republic. With this in mind I would like to clarify the official position of Free Republic on a specific question:

Does a United States citizen have a civic and Christian duty to participate in every election?

I for one would like to know where this forum stands.

So I deduce that persons are chosen for these positions based upon a lack of critical thinking skills?

She’ll make a fine dhimmi!

(If they don’t behead her).

I suppose the employer has a ‘right’ to pay for services not rendered?

I believe it is in employers’ best interest to encourage a healthy, balanced family life among their workforce. But in the end, employers pay for work, not need.

A really cool message to send to the youth of America in this regard might be something like:
“Life will be much easier if one gets married before raising a family. A married couple can balance the needs of child rearing much more effectively,” and then go into the benefits of having a parent choose a less demanding career, or staying home to raise children during formative years.

Because I suspect that the 41% national illegitimacy rate (75%among blacks, 51% among ‘conservative’ Hispanics) enters into this “I can’t raise my children” drama.

Thomas Jefferson, The Jeffersonian Cyclopedia, John P. Foley, ed. (New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1900), p. 842.
A share in the sovereignty of the state, which is exercised by the citizens at large, in voting at elections is one of the most important rights of the subject, and in a republic ought to stand foremost in the estimation of the law.

Samuel Adams – 1722-1803, Known as the “Father of the American Revolution”, Signer of The Declaration of Independence, cousin of John Adams, and Governor of Massachusetts
Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote…that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country.

William Penn
Providence has given our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as privilege and interest of a Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.

Samuel Adams, The Writings of Samuel Adams, Harry Alonzo Cushing, editor (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1907), Vol. III, p. 236-237, to James Warren on November 4, 1775.
When you become entitled to exercise the right of voting for public officers, let it be impressed on your mind that God commands you to choose for rulers, “just men who will rule in the fear of God.” The preservation of government depends on the faithful discharge of this duty; if the citizens neglect their duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted; laws will be made, not for the public good so much as for selfish or local purposes; corrupt or incompetent men will be appointed to execute the laws; the public revenues will be squandered on unworthy men; and the rights of the citizens will be violated or disregarded. If a republican government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the divine commands, and elect bad men to make and administer the laws.

Plato
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter.

Thomas Jefferson, The Jeffersonian Cyclopedia, John P. Foley, ed. (New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1900), p. 842.
Impress upon children the truth that the exercise of the elective franchise is a social duty of as solemn a nature as man can be called to perform; that a man may not innocently trifle with his vote; that every elector is a trustee as well for others as himself and that every measure he supports has an important bearing on the interests of others as well as on his own.

Daniel Webster, The Works of Daniel Webster (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1853), Vol. II, p. 108, from remarks made at a public reception by the ladies of Richmond, Virginia, on October 5, 1840.
Our destruction, if it come at all, will be from…the inattention of the people to the concerns of their government, from their carelessness and negligence.

Daniel Webster – 1782-1852, One of the greatest orators of American history, he served as a U.S. Congressman, Senator, and as Secretary of State for three Presidents
Bad politicians are sent to Washington by good people who don’t vote.

Abraham Lincoln– 1809-1865, 16th President of The United States
Elections belong to the people. It is their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.

Abraham Lincoln
Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.

John Quincy Adams – 1767-1848, 6th President of the United States
The church must take right ground in regards to politics…The time has come for Christians to vote for honest men…God cannot sustain this free and blessed country, which we love and pray for, unless the Church will take right ground.

Charles Finney – 1792-1875, Educator, author, evangelist, and President of Oberlin College
There has been a marked increase in the tendency to remain away from the polls on the part of those entitled to vote…Election day in the olden times was generally considered more or less sacred – one to be devoted to the discharge of the obligations of citizenship.

Dr. James Dobson – 1936- Founder and President of Focus on the Family, author, speaker, defender of traditional marriage and family, advisor to high government officials
In a world that might say one vote doesn’t matter…it does matter becaue each person is of infinite worth and value to God… Your vote is a declaration of importance as a person and a citizen.

Billy Graham – 1918- Evangelist, author and statesman
Bad politicians are elected by good people who don’t vote.

Billy Graham
Finally, ye…whose high prerogative it is to…invest with office and authority or to withhold them and in whose power it is to save or destroy your country, consider well the important trust which God…has put into your hands. To God and posterity you are accountable for them.

David Barton – Historian, President of Wallbuilders, counselor to elected officials
I am the only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do. What I can do, I should do, and what I should do, by the grace of God, I will do.

Edward Everett Hale – 1755-1776, American patriot in the War for Independence, hanged by British as a spy
It will be conceded…that a Christian’s first duty is to God. It then follows, as a matter of course, that it is his duty to carry his Christian code of morals to the polls and vote them. Whenever he shall do that, he will not find himself voting for an unclean man, a dishonest man…If Christians should vote their duty to God at the polls, they would carry every election and do it with ease…Their prodigious power would be quickly realized and recognized, and afterward there would be no unclean candidates upon any ticket, and graft would cease…If the Christians of America could be persuaded to vote God and a clean ticket, it would bring about a moral revolution that would be incalculably beneficent. It would save the country.

-Ronald Reagan
The choice before us is plain: Christ or chaos, conviction or compromise, discipline or disintegration. I am rather tired of hearing about our rights and privileges as American citizens. The time is come — it now is – when we ought to hear about the duties and responsibilities of our citizenship. America’s future depends upon her accepting and demonstrating God’s government.

http://restoreamerica.org/pastors/quotes/

Please see # 66.

God calls us to a high standard. My personal dissatisfaction with others does not absolve me of my duty as a steward of the resources God has given me.

The hard part is that we are the one’s who work jobs, so we have little time for ‘activist’ activities.

But SOMEONE has to take the initiative. And I am convinced that God uses ordinary men to achieve great things.

Whatever you achieve, you will be able to hold your head high know that you have done your best.

ABSOLUTELY! Fight that good fight! Persuade your associates, write articles and comments to spread your views, run for office, support those whom you believe are God's choice. But do not disengage because of personal offence taken. The stakes are too high to give up!

There were Christians who took that position during the American Revolution. I’m pretty sure the Methodist Church endorsed a loyalist position.

I personally believe those who rebelled were following God, but I lack the personal scholarship of the period to opine on how they reconciled the cited passages.

But we are not talking about revolution. We are talking about our responsibilities as Christians participating in a system which we intend to retain, and which we resolve to reform and restore. Then every man must do his part and participate for hope of restoration to be realized. Disillusionment and discouragement are natural, but we must cling to our higher calling and not give way to base impulses.

13 Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, 14 or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. 15 For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men. 16 Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God. 17 Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king. - 1 Peter 2:13-17

1 Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2 Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. 3 For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. 4 For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience.

6 This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. 7 Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor. - Romans 13:1-7

Remember, when Peter and Paul authored these these passages Nero was Emperor. Nero, who killed his own mother and stepbrother, who joked about his mother’s assassination of his stepfather, and who eventually declared Christianity an illicit religion under Roman law, punishable by death.

So we have the God given benefit of a say in the selection of our leaders (these early Christians mostly did not). How then can we abdicate our our responsibility and yet complain to God about our leadership?

Discharge your responsibility, however odious the choice, and your conscience will be clear when you approach the throne of grace to offer up petitions regarding the Godless who have usurped power in your land!

So which peaceful Islamic state is financing and training this insurgency?

We are going to have this discussion again, and it will probably get heated, again.

I believe a Christian has a responsibility before Christ to vote. Every election. No matter how disagreeable the choice.

Voting is a leadership function, and God WILL hold Christians accountable for the part they play. No use saying you will ‘pray’ for your country if you refuse to exercise the leadership authority God has already bestowed upon you.

Voting is a matter of conscience. Its not just about what benefits you personally, or sticking it to the other side, or your team winning, or who endorsed whom. Voting is a sacred trust, a function of stewardship with the goal of providing the most Godly leadership the United States can have, with the purpose of invoking God’s blessing upon this great nation, which was founded upon His principles.

Decide whom you serve, and man up, and act accordingly.

In the end, they will surrender, and go to a plush French jail until their ‘friends’ arrange a prisoner exchange of kidnapped innocent victims for depraved Islamic murderers.

Happens all the time in the middle east. Even Israel trades.

Sound like anyone we know?

Ah, diversity!

You Islamaphobes take notice!

Observe the French - how a true multicultural society works!

Four or five times per day, every day, regular as clockwork, an act of murder(s) is carried out by devout adherent(s) of Islam against others in the name of Islam.

Every day.

http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/

Good plan! What could go wrong?

If you repeat stupid stuff enough, stupid people will catch on!