Moral Action Committee Reports

 

Picking the right political
candidate is like picking a Christmas tree

Mitch Chapman, Pastor
First Baptist Church
Ennis, Texas

Picking the right political candidate is very important to the success of our great nation. I learned the other day that if we would try as hard to pick the right candidate as we do to pick out the right Christmas tree we would be a lot better off. When picking out a good tree you put together criteria, then you look for a tree that meets that criteria, and then finally you load it and take it home.

When it came time to pick out a tree I first sat down and decided what I was looking for in a tree. I was looking for a tree under $20 that would fit in a room with an eight-foot ceiling. These were my criteria for that "just right" Christmas tree. My wife on the other hand was not worried about the $20 limit. She just wanted one that looked good and would fit in our living room. Every ones criteria is a little different. That doesn’t make one right and the other wrong it just means they are looking for different things. Forming a before hand criteria was not my idea—it came from Jesus in Luke 14:28-33. The same principles are true when picking out a candidate; you should not wait until you get to the polls to decide.

Once the criteria are decided on it is time to look for a tree. You can go to the woods or a store that sells Christmas trees. Then the searching process begins. As you look you must ask yourself, "Does this tree meet my criteria or do I need to keep looking?" The same is true with politics. Search out a candidate who meets your criteria. But I must warn you, I have never found a perfect tree, and you will never find a perfect candidate. With the tree, you try to find one with the fewest bad spots. The same is true in politics. As you look, you find the candidate who comes closest to meeting your criteria with the fewest bad spots. This is a searching process not a sitting process. You must get out and get the facts.

Can I get the tree I picked out home? Can you imagine putting a 14-foot tree in a Ford Pinto? It would be like putting a hippo in a matchbox. You must make sure you have a vehicle that is able to carry home the tree you picked out. After all, if you can’t get it home it does you no good. This is a good rule in politics: If you can’t take the policies of a candidate home then they are the wrong policies. An example of that is birth control or abortion without notification. If your child were considering those things wouldn’t you want them to have to let you know? But in some cases we would vote for a candidate with this mentality just because they said they would lower taxes. But I just couldn’t take that home. It didn’t fit.

The last thing is getting the tree straight. If you have the best tree but it is not straight then it will not look good. Amos 7:8 "And the Lord said to me, 'Amos, what do you see?' I answered, 'A plumb line.' And the Lord replied, 'I will test my people with this plumb line. I will no longer ignore all their sins.'" We must return our nation to the plumb line of God to make it a beautiful nation for our children. Let’s straighten it up one vote at a time.

Thank you for your time.