{"id":5907,"date":"2024-11-04T06:53:19","date_gmt":"2024-11-04T12:53:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/?p=5907"},"modified":"2024-11-04T06:53:19","modified_gmt":"2024-11-04T12:53:19","slug":"thoughts-on-the-2024-usa-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/2024\/11\/04\/thoughts-on-the-2024-usa-elections\/","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts on the 2024 USA Elections"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the United States of America millions of Americans have voted early and millions more will vote on Tuesday, November 5th<\/span>.<\/p>\n

For Christians, it is important that we participate as good citizens in our national life. We do this knowing that regardless our levels of national pride and love, we are citizens of a transcendent kingdom that comes from above, the kingdom of God. While we honor those who hold public office, we only worship One Lord whose name is Jesus, the Messiah of Israel, and the Savior of the world.<\/p>\n

It is God\u2019s kingdom that unites us with the millions of Christ followers who have lived before us and the millions more who will live after us. God\u2019s kingdom unites us with those who live in different national borders with different languages and cultures. Regardless of our differences, we are united in the worship of \u201cthe One who is and who was and who is to come\u201d (Revelation 1:4, 8).<\/p>\n

Like the first followers of Jesus as they spread across the Roman Empire, we too have the responsibility to publicly acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord. That means that Jesus\u2019 claims upon us are greater than the claims of any political party, politician, social position, educational achievement, economic stability, or anything else that seeks to impose its will upon us.<\/p>\n

As we approach next week, I ask you to consider the following:<\/p>\n

1. Encourage your family and friends to vote. Every vote is important and we have a responsibility to be engaged in the process.<\/div>\n
2. Be respectful of those who have different political choices and views, particularly in the church. It\u2019s not a political party or candidate what unites us. It is our shared faith in Jesus and obedience to Him.<\/div>\n
3. The second phrase in the Constitution of the United States reminds us that part of our national history and future is to be engaged in forming \u201ca more perfect union.\u201d Debate, discernment of truthful information, respect for our fellow citizens, is part of that historic process to which we belong.<\/div>\n
4. Read the platforms of the Democratic and Republican parties and weigh them consideringthe Word of God. Read the stated programs and policies of the various state and national candidates and pray for discernment of what best serves the purposes of God.<\/div>\n
5. I strongly encourage you to read the IPHC Covenant of Commitment found on page 73 of the IPHC Constitution (https:\/\/iphc.org\/manual\/<\/span><\/a>). On certain pertinent issues, the stance of the IPHC is clearly stated. Human dignity, the value of human life, sexual morality, strengthening marriage and the family, and care for others, is clearly expressed. We believe those stated Biblical positions should inform our vote.<\/div>\n
6. I ask that each IPHC around the world, and especially in the USA, take time this Sunday \u00a0to pray for the elections.<\/div>\n
7. When candidates are declared winners, let us commit to obey the Word of God and pray for those who have governmental responsibility over us. We can agree or disagree with them and their policies, but we must remember we are called to be light and salt in this present darkness.<\/div>\n
8. Let us commit to live with hope in the power of the Holy Spirit and the message of the Gospel!<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"excerpt","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":5833,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5907","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bishops-blog","8":"entry"},"title_es":"","content_es":"","author_name":"Bishop Doug Beacham","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2024\/10\/Bishop-Doug-Beacham-A-Greeting-to-Ukraine.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pb62Bx-1xh","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}