A Judgment Call

With the election only weeks away, I’ve been asked to offer advice for undecided Christian voters.  Let me be clear right up front: I am not an undecided Christian voter. Nor am I an Independent. I have known I was going to vote for the Republican in 2012 since president-elect Obama stood astride the Big Silver Bean drinking in the adoration of thousands gathered in Chicago’s Millennium Park. I’m a conservative. It was clear at the time that Obama’s convictions on the most important issues did not line up with my own. It was inevitable that his political naiveté and delusional sense of self-importance would not work. But, for those who are not like me, we have four years of evidence to consider.

We find that President Obama has failed to revive the economy, failed to reduce the deficit, failed to make major entitlement program sustainable, and failed to protect American interests abroad. (Yes, I would trade a live Ambassador for a dead terrorist.) According to Forbes, in August of this year more Americans went on food stamps than found jobs. The most recent jobs report found the rate of unemployment down to 7.8 percent, the lowest in four years. This is an accomplishment?

On issues of permanent importance to Christians for whom the Bible is the touchstone for value judgments, the president has failed. He advanced anti-life and anti-conscience policies like the HHS mandate while publicly endorsing so-called gay marriage.  President Obama is derelict in his duty to enforce the nation’s laws; his Justice Department does not defend the Defense of Marriage Act in court. Supreme Court justices Ginsburg, Scalia, and Kennedy will all reach age 80 by 2016. Ginsburg and Kennedy both voted for abortion in the most important decision on life in the last twenty years. Some believe either Romney or Obama will have the opportunity to name replacements for all three, cementing the ideological slant of the Court one way or the other for a generation.

The Manhattan Declaration is a non-profit organization that does not endorse a particular candidate. Therefore, as Executive Director, I do not endorse a candidate. But as a private citizen; as a Christ follower; as an advocate of life, marriage, and religious freedom; as one who wants to actually help the poor in this country and abroad; as an American exceptionalist who thinks  the world would benefit from more of what we have; as a husband and, someday, a father, I will be voting for Mitt Romney. And I hope you will too.

_____________________

Find me on Twitter @EricTeetsel

Content Director’s Note: This post is a part of our Election Month at Patheos feature. Patheos was designed to present the world’s most compelling conservations on life’s most important questions. Please join the Facebook following for our new News and Politics Channel — and check back throughout the month for more commentary on Election 2012. Please use hashtag #PatheosElection on Twitter.