In case you’ve missed it, 2008 is an election year! Yes, that’s right—and you have 4 opportunities this year to have your voice heard through your vote! To help encourage Wisconsin Christians to vote, last week Wisconsin Family Council released its third SALT Ministries Resource Kit. Our SALT Ministry is designed to educate, equip and energize the local church to appropriately impact its community, culture and government. One of the ways we do that is to create resource kits, a compilation of resources, suggestions and action items, for specific areas of involvement for Christians.

The Voter Registration Resource Kit is designed to help any person organize a voter registration drive in their church or community. Done within a church, the purpose of such a drive is to encourage registration and voting in a congregation, not to endorse a candidate or a party. As such, a voter registration drive is a perfectly legal way for a church to encourage its congregation to get involved in choosing their leaders through the power of their vote.

You might ask, why all the fuss? Do voter registration and voting really make a difference? You bet they do! When people are registered to vote before Election Day, they are far more likely to actually go to the polls and cast a ballot. And there is no doubt those ballots really do make a difference!

Consider the following statistics. About one-half of US church-goers are not even registered to vote. That’s a staggering statistic! In 2000, 60% of Wisconsinites, or just over 3 million citizens, said they were full members of a church congregation; regularly attended church services or participated in the congregation. Now, since you can’t vote if you’re not registered, and assuming the national statistics are true for Wisconsin, that means only about 1.5 million regular church-goers in Wisconsin are registered to vote, and we know even fewer will actually cast their ballot on Election Day.

I don’t know about you, but to me these statistics speak volumes. It’s no surprise we’re overwhelmed with immoral policies, corrupt politicians and bad legislation if 50% of church-goers are not even registered to vote. Think of the impact Christians could have if even 80% of all church-goers registered and just two-thirds of that 80% actually voted!

Let me give you an example of just how important even one vote can be in a Wisconsin election. In the 2006 Wisconsin Fall General Election, Kim Hixson won the 43rd Wisconsin State Assembly District by only 10 votes. Ten votes, folks! Every single vote counts, especially in local elections.

The hot topics in politics today, including abortion, pornography and homosexual so-called “marriage,” are fundamentally moral issues that have been politicized in order to remove them from the influence of moral forces, in particular from Christianity. Nothing pleases Satan more than Christians keeping silent about moral Issues that have profound societal implications.

Our first and foremost purpose as Christians is to glorify our Father, but our freedom to worship God, to proclaim the entire Word of God, and to witness to unbelievers is threatened every day by polices and practices that are imposed on us by elected officials.

When Christians don’t vote, we lose much of our influence over how our society and nation are governed. Unless we take a stand as Christians and citizens, our ability to publicly proclaim Christ could disappear entirely in the United States. Casting responsible ballots in line with our Christian beliefs is part of taking that stand. When we don’t vote, we neglect our civic and Christian duties.

A voter registration drive encourages and reminds congregants to vote on Election Day. Because the church is the moral gatekeeper of a society, the votes in your congregation are absolutely vital to the health of your community.

The Voter Registration Kit is available on our website at wifamilycouncil.org under the ‘Resources’ link on the left side of the homepage. Feel free to download the material and contact us if you have any questions. Call us toll-free at 888-378-7395. Let’s get busy getting folks registered to vote and then encouraging them to go to the polls during this important election year. We can’t make a difference if we don’t show up!

For Wisconsin Family Council, I’m Julaine Appling, reminding you the Prophet Hosea said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”

How To: Host a Church Voter Rregistration Drive, Citizen Magazine, April 2004.
http://www.t/hearda.com/, accessed 02/06/08.