Do Our National Policies Make Us a Pagan Nation?

Author: Andy Woods
Date Written: October 16, 2013
From the archive of thewordonpolitics.com

How do I know if the person I am voting for, as he or she pursues public office, properly represents a biblical worldview? How do I determine who, among the various competing political candidates, better reflects biblical values? If you are looking for answers to these questions, this series of articles will be of great benefit to you. For purposes of organization, these issues can be categorized under the following headings: economic issues, social issues, and foreign affairs matters. In my first article I wrote about the importance of a candidate’s philosophy of governance. Articles 2, 3, & 4 surveyed important economic issues. Now that we have completed our discussion of economic matters, we move into a consideration of social issues. With each issue I have included some parenthetical Bible verse references in order to demonstrate to the reader that these preferences are not uniquely mine, but rather are derived from the pages of God’s Word. While these issues are often irrelevant to the thinking of modern man, they are extremely important to God.

Since Scripture makes no distinction between the born and the unborn (Gen. 25:23; Ps. 127:3; 139:13; Jer. 1:5; Luke 1:41; 19:44), does the candidate favor legal protection for the unborn? Will he, on the other hand, continue the war on the unborn through government financed abortion on demand? A related question involves euthanasia. Pagan nations are characterized by a lack of respect for the most vulnerable in society, both the young and the old (Deut. 28:49-50). God's priorities are the opposite in that He values both children (Matt. 19:14) as well as the elderly (Lev. 19:32). Will the candidate violate these priorities by declaring war on innocent children within their mother's wombs through abortion on demand, and will the candidate declare war on the elderly though euthanasia? Are mandatory early exit strategies, death panels, and end of life counseling part of the candidate's thinking? In other words, his policies on both abortion and euthanasia help the voter ascertain if the candidate's values will contradict the sixth commandment's prohibition of murder (Exod. 20:13).

Also, God has established heterosexual monogamy (Gen. 1:26-28; 2:18-25; Matt. 19:3-6) rather than homosexuality (Gen. 19:1-19; Lev. 18:22; 20:13; 1 Cor. 6:9-11; Rom. 1:26-27; Jude 7) as the pattern for marriage. Thus, will the candidate promote this divine standard as the societal norm, or will he instead reduce this time-honored standard to simply one among many lifestyle-choice alternatives? Moreover, God has given to the state the power to execute criminals in instances of murder (Gen. 9:6; Rom. 13:4). Thus, the regular imposition of the death penalty upon convicted murderers not only creates a climate of justice but it also deters the threat of future crime by placing fear of punishment into the heart of any would-be murderer (Deut 13:11-12; Eccl. 8:11). Therefore, will the candidate seek to abolish or promote capital punishment? In addition, because the Scripture routinely warns of the dangers of abusing alcohol (Lev. 10:9; Prov. 31:4-5; 1 Tim. 3:3), pornography (Matt. 5:27-28), and gambling (Prov. 13:11), will the candidate support the legal right of communities to restrict such deleterious influences and establishments from their neighborhoods, schools, children, homes, and churches? (To Be Continued...)