Topic: Election / Voting
(What are "political devotions"? Click here.)
Three cheers to the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission for development of "I Vote Values," a voter awareness and voter registration effort aimed at mobilizing those infamous 4 million conservative Christians who failed to vote in the 2000 presidential election.
The ivotevalues.com site is replete with resources for pastors and churches, and includes legal guidelines on how churches may engage in civic involvement without jeopardizing their tax-exempt status. It's likely most church leaders are unaware of how broad a range of activities and speech is permitted.
From the 2000 election crisis, the Democrat party's strategists learned that they could, in theory, use lawyers and judicial fiat to muscle the electoral system in the same way they have strong-armed the legislative process, wielding judges who create law rather than interpret it. John Kerry has legal teams poised to litigate election results in every state, should they fail to cut his way. Imagine the turmoil should the Democrats choose to do in a dozen states what they did in Florida in 2000. Wide margins of victory for President Bush are the sole prevention for such a debacle. Four million conservative Christian votes would certainly help to provide that cushion.
Update: In today's Wall Street Journal, John Fund has more on the looming election crisis:
Mr. Gore's decision to contest the Florida election in 2000 until the bitter end may have permanently changed the way close elections are decided, in much the same way that judicial nomination battles have changed. If the election is close this November, endless lawsuits and recriminations could poison of [sic]public opinion and create a climate of illegitimacy around any final winner. Voters are used to having the final word in an election. Let's take steps to keep it that way, so we can minimize the use of scorched-earth tactics of trial lawyers to settle elections. The Floridification of our politics isn't something anyone should want.
