Orlando pastor asks, answers: ‘Why would Jesus vote?’

ORLANDO (FBW)-In wrapping up a 4-part sermon series “Why would Jesus vote?” Jim Henry, pastor of First Baptist Church, Orlando, poised another question Oct. 24, “How would Jesus Vote?”

With just nine days left before the 2004 election, Henry insisted Christians and even non-believers should be informed and “hopefully inspired” when they go to the polls Nov. 2.

Click Image for Related Coverage

Oct. 17 Henry told Florida Baptist Witness he believed his sermon series, combined with the church’s voter registration drive and a visit by the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission’s iVoteValues.com tractor-trailer information and resource rig were all imperative in light of the upcoming election.

“We consider this a very important election for the future of our country and for people who are going to be in public office, not only the presidency, but at all levels,” Henry said. “The best way is to have an informed and hopefully inspired congregation that will vote. So we really put every pressure I could to get out the vote. We didn’t endorse anybody, but we did endorse values because we feel like God does.”

The last-minute effort took root only after several months of preparation was tossed after Florida was hit with an unusually busy hurricane season which resulted in four hurricanes sweeping across the state—three which affected Central Florida.

“I think the hurricanes distracted people,” Henry said. “By the time we get started, another hurricane was coming and so they were getting ready for that and getting their water and boarding up and by the time you get started, it was kind of like grabbing Jello.”

But in spite of the delay, Henry said the people have responded positively to a focus on the election and “a blessing through it all is that some people who wouldn’t have voted at all are going to vote,” he said, reporting that “hundreds” registered to vote at the church’s registration site.

Henry’s four-part series, spanned five weeks with a break Oct. 17 to hear a testimony from deceased astronaut Rick Husband’s wife, Evelyn.

Topics covered beginning with an Oct. 3 sermon were the separation of church and state, Christians’ involvement in the political process and character in political leadership.

In answering the question, “Why would Jesus Vote?” Henry said Jesus acknowleged that government was important, but to not forget also to seek the Kingdom of God.

“Jesus would vote in order that this nation would stand by the biblical principles that have made her great,” Henry said. “But Jesus would also say, ‘Church don’t forget your major agenda…that is [to] know me the Lord Jesus Christ.’”

Speaking from Jeremiah, Henry drew a parallel between the culture of that time and today. Talking about America’s foundation of values and ”unequal” heritage brought about by adherence to the principles of the Word of God, Henry said God has “sovereignly blessed” the nation in a uniqie way. A Christian’s greatest contribution to the world is “grace and love,” he said.

Citing a recent column by Chuck Colson, Henry said the former prison inmate makes a good point about how Islamic militants are angry at the west because of moral depravity. Careful to not justify in any way their attacks on innocents, Henry said it is clear that an increase in decadence has brought about this onslaught.

“...[L]et’s acknowledge that America’s increasing decadence is giving aid and comfort to the enemy,” Henry said. “When we tolerate trash on television, permit pornography to invade our homes on the Internet and allow babies to be killed at the point of birth, we are inflaming radical Islam.”

Henry said the failure of the Federal Marriage Amendment was akin to “handing moral weapons of mass destrocution to those who use America’s moral decadence to recruit more snipers and highjackers and suicide bombers.”

Comparing the decline in America to Rome’s fall, Henry said America’s vast oceans no longer proect her from enemies.

“This makes reversing American decadence a urgent priority, not just for Christians, but for all Americans,” warned Henry. “If our cultural rot continues unabated, a Talabanized west may no longer be a joke, but a grim reality.”

Touting character as germain to the election process, Henry said the church has a specific responsibility in teaching about civic duty.

“Look to His character,” Henry said. “When a citizen gives his vote to a man of known immorality, he abuses his civic responsibility. He sacrifices not only his own interest but that of his neighbors. He betrays the interest of his country.”

Henry said there will still be Democrats and Republicans and Independents after the election, but that “not any party” is perfect. “Biblical Christianity demands that the church never allow the Gospel to be held hostage to any political agenda,” said Henry. “As Christians, we should be free to advocate whatever political position best reflects biblical truth.”

Oct. 3 Henry said Christians, despite being the largest voting bloc in American, are often maligned by fabrications and misintrepretations which fall into four categories: Incorrect application of the separation of church and state; association of innocent believers with someone who has “failed morally;” inaccurate labels like bigot, racist, homomophobics; and assumptions of some kind of a “hidden agenda” on the part of believers.

Even in this climate, Christians still have an obligation to not be on the “fringe” of cultural happenings.

“If you don’t engage this culture ... then we have no one to blame but ourselves,” Henry said. And the idea complments, not detracts from the Great Commission. “[Political involvement] is not an either/or,” Henry continued. “It is a both/and. We are also called to fulfill our cultural commission. We are instruments of God’s grace, salt and light. But also agents of his common grace. Sustaining and renewing his creation, defending the created institutions of family and society and critiquing false world views. So that’s our call.”