Why Should Christian College Students Vote?

The following article is something I wrote a couple years ago, and thought would be appropriate in light of this year's election:

It has been no more than a generation since large segments of the population of the U.S. fought and won the right to vote. Blacks overcame remaining elements of segregation keeping them from polls, and 18 to 20-year-olds were given the right to vote. Yet today we regularly hear figures of voter turnout, even for Presidential elections, at lackadaisical 40- or 50-percent figures, at best. How can a democracy function in true form when only half of its citizens bother to participate?

I believe the reason people don't vote is that they feel utterly powerless in the face of a behemoth political system. However, the simple act of voting is the most powerful act of influence on government that an ordinary citizen can make with no more than 20 or 30 minutes of his or her time (or possibly a total of a few hours to cast a well-informed vote.) As a Christian and a college student, there are many issues that compel me to vote, and I'd like to share the ones I find most important. These I write especially with my fellow Christian students in mind, but other readers may also find them very compelling. Thus, I give you:

9. Consider whether or not you want to pay 75% or more of your income in taxes once you've made it into the career of your choice.

8. "Gay rights" as advocated by a small but radically vocal segment of the population.

7. The teaching of evolution as fact in our schools, from graduate school down to elementary schools.

6. Abortion

5. Freedom of religious expression in public schools and communities, such as prayer, holiday displays, etc.

4. Euthanasia

3. Do you receive financial aid to help cover your schooling costs? If so, you should be very concerned with how this big issue is handled.

2. If you don't vote, you have little right to complain about how our nation, states, etc., are being run.

But most importantly...

1. In Psalms 121:1-2, David asks "I will lift up my eyes to the hills--from whence comes my help?" No, he knew where to turn, and continues..."My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth." Regardless of what happens, we must remember (as I often struggle to do), that our true help doesn't come from Capitol Hill or any other human source. We must look to God, who has everything under control, and Whose plan will ultimately prevail.

With such blessed assurance to comfort us, we must do all we can to be "salt and light" (Matt 5:13-16) in the world we live in. The music video to Ray Boltz's inspirational song "Allegiance" provides a haunting reminder for us not to remain silent and inactive. In a scene where a father speaks to his son in a cell of a future prison, he recounts events that we must not allow to come to pass:

"You've gotta remember that it wasn't always this way. My Dad could even pray in school. Of course, they took that away from him, and then it became "incorrect" for us to believe in the Bible, and after that they just stripped our right to worship away from us, and we quietly stood by."

Pray for our country, and that God would raise righteous men and women to lead us. Vote on November 3 and take as many friends with you as you can.